Speakers
Plenary speakers

Hui-Ming Cheng
Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, CAS, China
Prof. Hui-Ming Cheng graduated from Hunan University, China in 1984 and received his Ph. D in 1992 from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR CAS). He is the director of both the Advanced Carbon Research Division of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, IMR CAS since 2001, and the Institute of Technology for Carbon Neutrality, Faculty of Materials Science and Energy Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2021. He is a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and a fellow of TWAS. He used to work at Kyushu Research Center of AIST and Nagasaki University, Japan from 1990 to 1993, and MIT, USA from 1997 to 1998.
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His research activities mainly focus on energy storage materials and devices, photocatalytic materials, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and other 2D materials. He has published over 850 papers with an h-index of 154, and is a Highly Cited Researcher in three fields of chemistry, environment and ecology, and materials science. He has given over 230 plenary/keynote/invited lectures at various conferences, and won three State Natural Science Award of China (2nd class in 2006, 2017 and 2020), Charles E. Pettinos Award from American Carbon Society, Felcht Award from SGL, Germany, and ACS Nano Lecture Award. He has also spun off several high-tech companies. He used to be an Editor of Carbon from 2000 to 2015 and Editor-in-Chief of New Carbon Materials from 1998 to 2015, and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Energy Storage Materials.

Yury Gogotsi
Drexel University, USA
Talk: Non-flammable electrolytes for emerging potassium and zinc ion batteries
Prof. Yury Gogotsi is a global scientist, born and educated in Ukraine, and trained in Western Europe and Japan. He is a chaired Distinguished University Professor and Director of the A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute at Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA.
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His research focuses on nanomaterials, materials chemistry, and electrochemistry. For development of carbide-derived carbons and other nanomaterials with tunable porosity for electrochemical capacitors, visualization of liquids in carbon nanotubes, discovery of new carbon nanostructures and MXenes he received numerous awards, including the Materials Today Innovation Award, S. Somiya Award from IUMRS, and MRS Medal. He was elected a Fellow of eight professional societies, including the National Academy of Inventors, European Academy of Sciences, and World Academy of Ceramics. He also holds honorary degrees from several European Universities.

Krzysztof Matyjaszewski
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Talk: Intelligent skin electronics for healthcare monitoring and touch VR
Kris Matyjaszewski is J.C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences and director of Center for Macromolecular Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He prepares advanced materials for biomedical, environmental and energy-related applications.
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In 1994 he discovered Cu-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization, commercialized in 2004 in US, Japan and Europe. He has co-authored >1,200 publications, (180,000 citations, h-index 204) and 68 US patents. He is a member of National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences and European, Australian, Polish Academies of Sciences. He received 2023 NAS Award in Chemical Sciences, 2017 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, 2015 Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, and eleven honorary degrees.

Rachel Segalman
University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Talk: 2D carbides, nitrides, oxycarbides, and carbonitrides (MXenes) expand the nanomaterials world
Rachel A. Segalman received her B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin and Ph.D from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Université Louis Pasteur before joining the faculty of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories from 2004-2014. During a portion of this time she also served as the Materials Science Division Director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories.
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In 2014, she moved to UC Santa Barbara to be the Kramer Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials and became Department Chair of Chemical Engineering in 2015. In 2018 she also became the Schlinger Distinguished Chair of Chemical Engineering and the Associate Director of the UT/UCSB/LBL EFRC: Center for Materials for Water and Energy Systems. She is the co-editor of the Annual Reviews of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and an associate editor of ACS Macro Letters. Segalman’s group works on controlling the structure and thermodynamics of functional polymers for energy applications including polymeric ionic liquids and semiconducting and bioinspired polymers. Among other awards, Segalman received the Andy Acrivos Professional Progress Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the E.O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society, and is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar. She is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
Keynote speakers

Alessandro Baraldi
University of Trieste, Italy
Talk: Smart nanoparticle-based platforms for regulating tumor microenvironment, cancer immunotherapy and cardiac tissue repair
Prof. Alessandro Baraldi is a full professor at the Department of Physics (Department of Excellence 2023-2027) of the University of Trieste. He is the head of the Nanoscale Materials Laboratory at Elettra, the synchrotron radiation facility placed in Italy.
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He received his PhD at the Physics Department of the Karl-Franzens Unviersität in Graz-Austria under the supervision of prof. Falko P. Nezter. After a period as beamline scientist at Elettra he joined the University of Trieste in 2001. He actually serves ad Deputy-Rector for Scientific Research and Doctorates.
Current interests include the developement of a variety of experimental techniques to study surfaces and interfaces and the synhtesis and characterization of nanostructured materials down to the atomic lenght scales. His research interest if focussed on nanoscience, nanotechnology, nanocatalysis. Baraldi group’s current research is dedicated to nanoclusters, 2D materials, solid surfaces/interfaces which are investigated by combining synchrotron-based photoelectron and absorption spectroscopies with advanced DFT calculations with the aim to reveal the peculiar relationship between the structural and the physical/chemical properties of these materials.

Cristina Barrias
University of Porto, Portugal
Talk: Heterogeneous atomic catalysts overcoming the limitations of single-atom catalysts
Cristina Barrias is Principal Investigator and Group Leader at i3S (Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, University of Porto, www.i3s.up.pt), Vice-coordinator of the “Infection, Immunity and Regeneration” Integrative Program of i3S, Secretary of the Board of Directors of INEB (Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, University of Porto) and member of the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB, www.esbiomaterials.eu).
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She is also invited Associate Professor at Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS, University of Porto) and at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP, Polytechnic of Porto). She is the current Managing Editor of Materials Today Bio. Her research group at i3S (Bioengineered 3D Microenvironments group) focuses on matrix engineering, microtissues and bottom-up tissue engineering, and their applications in regenerative medicine and in vitro disease modelling.

Lias Belharouak
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), USA
Talk: Solid state battery endeavor
Dr. Ilias Belharouak is a Corporate Fellow and Electrification section head at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Tennessee. Dr. Belharouak also serves as a Professor of the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.
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At ORNL, Dr. Belharouak oversees multidisciplinary R&D programs sponsored by the US. Department of Energy on works relating to battery energy storage and advanced manufacturing. Before joining ORNL in 2017, Dr. Belharouak was the Research Director and Founding Chief Scientist of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Center at Qatar Foundation. In the meanwhile, Dr. Belharouak served as a Professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) for two years. Before joining Qatar Foundation in 2013, Dr. Belharouak was a Material Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Illinois, between 2001-13. Dr. Belharouak was recognized with several awards including 6 R&D 100 innovation awards and four U.S. Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards. He published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers, 50 U.S. Patents, and Patent Applications, and 5 books. He is currently the Editor of Elsevier’s Journal of Power Sources, holds an h-index of 69, and was as invited more than 60-times around the globe. He received a Ph.D. degree (1999) and a master’s degree (1996) in Materials Science and Solid-State Chemistry from the Institute for Solid State Chemistry (ICMCB), National Center for Scientific Research, Bordeaux 1 University, France.

Jong-Beom Baek
UNIST, Republic of Korea
Talk: Electron microscopy and spectroscopy of low dimensional hybrid materials
Jong-Beom Baek is a distinguished professor/director at the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering/Center for Dimension-Controllable Organic Frameworks, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea.
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After awarding his Ph.D. degree from Polymer Science, University of Akron (USA, 1998), he joined the Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Then, he returned to his home country to take up an assistant professor at Chungbuk National University in 2003, before moving to UNIST in 2008. His current research interests include the syntheses of materials for sustainable energy applications. He has authored and co-authored over 270 peer-reviewed publications in the areas. He has also registered and filed over 80 international and domestic patents. Some of them have been transferred to an industry and also started his own companies for commercialization.

James Chapman
RMIT University, Australia
Talk: Broad spectrum antibacterial zinc oxide-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite for water depollution
James is an Associate Professor at RMIT University, and a Program Manager for the Environmental Sciences and Environmental Science and Business degree programs, previously holding roles of Head of Science at Central Queensland University.
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He has a BSc (Hons) in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Plymouth and a PhD in Antifouling Materials for Sensor Applications from Dublin City University. His research is motivated by the development of rapid analytical tools to generate new sensors for applications in health, food, and the environment. James has authored >100 articles (h-index 32, 3500 cites). He is the Division Chair for The Royal Australian Chemical Institute for Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and a Chartered Chemist.

Aránzazu del Campo Bécares
Leibniz-Institute for New Materials, Germany
Talk: Phase engineering of nanomaterials
Prof. Dr. Aránzazu del Campo Bécares is Scientific Director & CEO at the INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials and Professor for Materials Synthesis at the Faculty of Chemistry at Saarland University.
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Her group develops instructive materials to encapsulate and interface living cells with the aim to bioengineer tissues and living therapeutic devices for medical applications. Central to her research are photoresponsive molecules and hydrogels with latent functional levels that can be unlocked upon light exposure to trigger cell responses. To integrate the materials with the living components into functional devices, the group uses processing technologies like 3D bioprinting, electrospinning or microfluidics.

Laura Delafresnaye
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Talk: Synchrotron radiation-based study on the interfacial engineering of heterogeneous electrocatalysts
Dr. Laura Delafresnaye is a senior research fellow at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. She received both her engineering degree in chemistry and her MSc in polymer chemistry in 2012 (CPE/University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France).
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She pursued with a PhD at the Chemistry, Catalysis, Polymers and Process laboratory (C2P2, Lyon, France), in collaboration with Solvay, Belgium. In 2017, Dr. Laura Delafresnaye joined the Soft Matter Materials Laboratory at QUT under the supervision of Distinguished Prof. Christopher Barner-Kowollik. Since 2019, she also took the role of Head of the Laboratory Operations and Research Coordinator of Prof. Barner-Kowollik within QUT’s Research Portfolio. In 2021, she obtained an Australian Research Council Linkage grant with the company Rockwool-Lapinus and, in 2022, she obtained an Australian Research Council Discovery grant to work on a sustainable platform for microspheres synthesis. Her research expertise spans from macromolecular design, particle synthesis, light-induced reactions to chemiluminescence. Throughout various industry projects, she has developed materials for various applications such as high-performance packaging blister, stormwater retention materials, silicon-based or enzyme-based cosmetic formulations.

Emmanuelle Deleporte
ENS Paris-Saclay, France
Emmanuelle Deleporte, alumni of Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris (ENS Paris, 1986 – 1990), received her PhD in Physics from Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris in 1992.
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She was assistant professor at the Physics Department of ENS Paris from 1992 to 2002, where she gained strong experience in optical properties of II-VI and III-V inorganic semiconducting heterostructures. In 2002, she moved to Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay (ENS Paris-Saclay) as a full professor, where she founded her research team about the optical properties of hybrid halide perovskites.
E Deleporte’s team studies experimentally the linear and non-linear, continuous and time-resolved optical properties of hybrid halide perovskites, for applications such as light-emitting devices and photovoltaics. The main topics addressed are related to low-dimensional excitonic effects, carriers relaxation mechanisms, energy and charge transfers, light–matter interaction in cavities containing hybrid perovksites.
E. Deleporte was the head of the Physics Department of ENS Paris-Saclay from 2006 to 2016. Since 2017, she is the head of the Think Tank “Halide Perovskites” (Groupement de Recherche HPERO) supported by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).

Kuan Eng Johnson Goh
A*STAR Research, Singapore
Talk: Multi-colour synergistic, antagonistic and orthogonal photochemistry for macromolecular synthesis
K. E. Johnson Goh is Director of the Quantum and Advanced Technologies Division, and Principal Scientist at IMRE A*STAR (Singapore). Trained as a Physicist (VUW, New Zealand), Engineer (Sheffield, UK) and Educator (NIE/NTU, Singapore), he went on to obtain his PhD in 2007 from the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology at the University of New South Wales (Sydney).
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He joined A*STAR in 2006 and contributed to materials science and engineering research ranging from atomic-scale 3D printing with silicon atoms, to highly conductive 3D printable thermoplastics, to 2D semiconductors and to quantum devices. His current endeavour is to meld his multidisciplinary research expertise in quantum information technologies, nanoelectronics, machine learning and additive manufacturing towards disruptive quantum technologies.

Zaiping Guo
The University of Adelaide, Australia
Talk: Electrocatalytic refinery for hydrogen production
Professor Zaiping Guo is an Australian Laureate Fellow at School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide. She is also the Deputy Director of the ARC SafeREnergy Research Hub, and an Associate Editor for Chemical Science, a flagship journal of the RSC.
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Her research focuses on the design and application of electrode materials and electrolyte for energy storage and conversion, including rechargeable batteries, hydrogen storage, and fuel cells. Her research achievements have been recognized through numerous awards, including an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in 2010, an ARC Future Professorial Fellowship in 2015, an ARC Laureate Fellowship (2021), and the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher Award in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. She was also awarded 2020 NSW Premier's Prizes for Science & Engineering for Excellence in Engineering or Information and Communications Technology.

Seonki Hong
DGIST, Republic of Korea
Talk: Site-specific fabrication of melanin-like pigments for biomedical applications
Dr Seonki Hong is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Chemistry at DGIST. She received her PhD in chemistry from KAIST in 2015 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2015 to 2017.
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Her research focuses on the development of novel polymeric biomaterials, hydrogels, and bioinspired surfaces and interfaces for disease diagnosis and treatment. In particular, her main area of interest and expertise is on nature-inspired polycatecholic materials. Catecholic/polyphenolic moieties are involved in a variety of molecular interactions that mediate the adhesion, cohesion, coloration, and others of organic materials in nature. By mimicking these functions, she has been working on designing novel biomaterials with 1) versatile underwater adhesion for surface biofunctionalization/coating and tissue sealing, and 2) broad spectrum UV-Vis-NIR light absorption for biomarker marking (i.e., bioimaging and diagnosis) and photothermal therapy. Dr. Hong is a member of the Early Career Researcher Board of Materials Today Bio (Elsevier) and selected as one of the 2022 emerging investigators in Nanoscale (RSC).

Hyunjoo Lee
KAIST, Republic of Korea
Talk: Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Energy Materials
Prof. Hyunjoo Lee received her B. S. and M. S. degree from Seoul National University, South Korea and Ph.D. degree from California Institute of Technology, USA.
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She is currently a full professor at KAIST. Her research interest is heterogeneous atomic catalysts with structure control and their applications for various gas-phase and electrochemical reactions.

Chun-Sing Lee
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Talk: Recovery and reuse of electrode materials from spent lithium ion batteries
Prof. Chun-Sing Lee obtained his BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Hong Kong in 1987 and 1991 respectively. He embarked on his research career at the University of Birmingham of the UK with the support of the Croucher Foundation Fellowship. Prof. Lee joined City University of Hong Kong in 1994 and is currently a Chair Professor of Materials Chemistry and the Dean of College of Science.
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He also co-founded the Center Of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films (COSDAF) in 1998 and served as the Center’s Director/ Deputy Director till 2022. He established the journal Materials Today Energy with Elsevier in 2016 and served as the Editor-in-Chief till 2021. Prof. Lee’s current research interests span organic electronic devices and nanomaterials for energy, environmental and biomedical applications. He has published about 900 journal papers with over 40,000 citations and a Scopus/WoS h-index of over 110.

Xian Jun Loh
A*STAR Research, Singapore
Talk: Site-specific fabrication of melanin-like pigments for biomedical applications
Prof. Xian Jun Loh completed his basic and postgraduate studies at the National University of Singapore. A polymer chemist by training, he is the Executive Director at both Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2), A*STAR.
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He is also the current President and member of the Executive Committee of the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry. As a pioneer in the area of biodegradable thermogels, he is highly knowledgeable in developing these materials for various applications spanning biomedical, engineering, cosmetics, personal care and food

Jian Luo
University of California, San Diego, USA
Jian Luo graduated from Tsinghua University with dual Bachelor's degrees: one in Materials Science and Engineering and another in Electronics and Computer Technology. After receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from M.I.T., Luo worked in the industry for more than two years with Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories and OFS/Fitel.
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In 2003, he joined the Clemson faculty, where he served as an Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. In 2013, he moved to University of California San Diego as a Professor of Nano Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Luo group’s current research focuses on interfaces in metals and ceramics, high-entropy and compositionally complex ceramics, ultrfast sintering and other novel ceramic processing technologies, high-temperature nanocrystalline alloys, and advanced materials for batteries, hydrogen generation, and other energy-related applications. Luo received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2005 (from the Ceramics program) and an AFOSR Young Investigator award in 2007 (from the Metallic Materials program). He was a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow (2014) and a Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) Brimacombe Medalist (2019). Luo is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2016), a Fellow of the ASM International (2022), and an Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics (2021).

Shizhang Qiao
University of Adelaide, Australia
Talk: Charge-neutral polymer complexes as battery components
Dr Qiao joined the School of Chemical Engineering of the University of Adelaide (UoA) in March 2012 as the inaugural Chair professor of Nanotechnology. He is the founding Director of Centre for Materials in Energy and Catalysis (CMEC) and Deputy Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation. His research expertise is in nanostructured materials for new energy technologies (electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, batteries, fuel cell). He has co-authored more than 496 papers in refereed journals, which have attracted over 90,520/104,878 citations with h-index: 154/164 (Web of Sci./Google Scholar).
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In recognition of his achievements in research, he was honoured with the South Australian Scientist of the Year (2021), inaugural UoA Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research (2019), prestigious ARC Australian Laureate Fellow (2017), ExxonMobil Award (2016), ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (DORA, 2013), Emerging Researcher Award (2013, ENFL Division of the American Chemical Society) and UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award (2008). He has also been awarded an ARC ARF Fellowship, an ARC APD Fellowship and an inaugural UQ Mid-Career Research Fellowship.
Dr Qiao is currently an Editor-in-Chief of EES Catalysis (RSC), Associate Editor of Journal of Materials Chemistry A; a Fellow of Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE), Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI). Dr Qiao is a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (with 123 highly cited papers) in three categories of Chemistry, Materials Science, Environment and Ecology.

José Carlos Rodríguez Cabello
University of Valladolid, Spain
Talk: New macromolecular materials enabled by atom transfer radical polymerization
Prof. J. Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello (1963). Carlos got, first, a degree in chemistry (Biochemistry) and, later a second degree in physics (Condensed Matter), both at the University of Valladolid in Spain, where he also obtained his doctoral degree.
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He is full professor in the Condensed Matter Physics department of the University of Valladolid and the head of the Bioforge Lab, a research group founded in 1996 and devoted to the development of recombinamers in a pioneering effort on the use of genetic engineering and other biotechnologies for the creation of advanced materials. His interests move from studying basic knowledge on self-organization and the interplay between order and disorder in protein-like systems to applications of those materials in fields such as regenerative medicine, nanomedicine and nanotechnology. Complexity and multi(bio)functionality are the characteristics of the systems developed by his group. Carlos has published about 250 papers in indexed journals and is inventor on 15 patent applications, 5 of them transferred and under exploitation. He is also cofounder of two startups; Technical Proteins Nanobiotechnology SL., of which he is the current CEO, and CellDrive 3D S.L. (as Chief Scientific Adviser)

Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez
University of Glasgow, UK
Talk: Growth factor microenvironments in stem cell engineering
Prof Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez is a world leader in engineering biomaterials for in vitro modelling and regenerative medicine. He is currently co-director of the Centre for the Cellular Microenvironment at the University of Glasgow. Manuel was based in Valencia (Spain) until 2013 when he moved to Glasgow.
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Manuel develops basic concepts that are pushed all the way to translation. For example, he develop material-based bone regeneration technologies that are now being used, funded by the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation, to help landmine survivors. Manuel holds an ERC Advanced Grant (the most prestigious funding in Europe) to introduce viscoelasticity in regenerative medicine. Manuel is also a keen science communicator who participates in public engagement events (e.g. Science in the Café in Singapore, Science Summer Exhibition of the Royal Society) and has had his research broadcasted in national and international papers, TV (BBC and internationally) and Radio. Manuel was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh – the national academy of arts and science in Scotland – in 2017. Manuel is Editor in Chief of Biomaterials Advances, part of the Elsevier family of Biomaterials journals.

Hélder Santos
University of Groningen, Netherlands
Talk: Engineering of colloidal nanoreactors for sustainable catalysis
Prof. Santos (D.Sc. Tech., Chem. Eng.) is a Full Professor in Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Groningen. He is also Research Director at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Pharmacy. Prof. Santos is also the co-founder of the startups Capsamedix Oy and Medixmicro Oy, and Coordinator of MSCA-ITN P4 FIT network.
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He holds Visiting Professorships at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and University of Tartu. Prof. Santos research interests include the development of nanoparticles/nanomedicines and biomaterials for biomedical applications, particularly cancer and heart diseases. His lab makes the unique bridge between medical engineering, pharmaceutical nanotechnology and tissue engineering by combining unique techniques to develop novel therapeutic formulations for translation into the clinic. He is co-author of +450 publications (+18700 citations; h-index = 82) and 5 patents. He has +210 invited talks around the world. Prof. Santos has received prestigious awards/grants, for example, the "Talent Prize in Science" in 2010 attributed by the Portuguese Government, ERC Starting Grant in 2013 and ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant in 2018, Young Researcher Award in 2013 attributed by Faculty of Pharmacy, the Academy of Finland Award for Social Impact in 2016, and the CRS Young Investigator Award 2021.

Li Song
University of Science and Technology of China, China
Talk: Structure regulation and electrocatalytic properties of graphene quantum dots
Prof. Song received his Ph.D. in 2006 from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After four years as postdoctoral researcher at University of Munich Germany (Humboldt Research Fellowship) and Rice University USA, he became an associate professor at Shinshu University in Japan.
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In 2012, he was promoted to professor at University of Science and Technology of China, leading a multi-technique application team in National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (Hefei Light Source).
His research focuses on the development and application of synchrotron radiation-based new experimental technology with the aim of solving scientific problems in the fields of advanced functional nanomaterials and clean energy. Recently, he has developed the synchrotron radiation X-ray spectroscopic, diffraction and scattering-combined methods via designing in-situ experimental facilities and on-line test platforms together with the development of data processing method. His developed multi-techniques have been successfully applied to accurately probe the real correlation between structure and performance in functional nanomaterials and nanodevices under operando working conditions as well as to provide better understanding on the mechanism of specific energy conversion and storage.
So far, he has published about 300 scientific papers with over 32000 citations and personal H-index of 92. He has been continually nominated as the global highly cited scientist by Clarivate in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Currently, he is the member of synchrotron radiation committee of Chinese Physical Society, the editorial board member for Nano Research Energy as well as Chinese Optics, the Young Star Editor of Nano Research, the Member of Young Scientist Committee of Chinese Physics Letters, Chinese Physics B, Acta Physica Sinica and Physics.

Kazu Suenaga
Osaka University, Japan
Kazu Suenaga got his Ph.D in Materials Science at the University of Tokyo in 1994. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mine de Paris (1994-1997) and at the Solid State Physics Laboratory in the University Paris-Sud (1997-1998).
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Then he joined the Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST) as a researcher (1998-2001), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) (2001-2021) as a prime senior researcher, and is now a distinguished professor in Osaka University (since 2021). His major research theme involves the single atom spectroscopy and the single molecular imaging by means of advanced TEM/STEM.

Hua Zhang
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Talk: 2D interfacial phases and grain boundary "phase" diagrams
Dr. Hua Zhang obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Nanjing University in China in 1992 and 1995, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. with Prof. Zhongfan Liu at Peking University in China in July 1998. He joined Prof. Frans C. De Schryver’s group at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven) in Belgium as a Research Associate in January 1999. Then he moved to Prof. Chad A. Mirkin’s group at Northwestern University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in July 2001.
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He started to work at NanoInk Inc. (USA) as a Research Scientist/Chemist in August 2003. After that, he worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore from November 2005 to July 2006. Then he joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to a tenured Associate Professor on March 1, 2011, and Full Professor on Sept. 1, 2013. In 2019, he joined the Department of Chemistry in City University of Hong Kong as a Chair Professor, and currently he is the Herman Hu Chair Professor of Nanomaterials.
He has published 6 invited book chapters, 80+ patent applications (including granted 1 China patent, 1 European patent, 3 Singapore patents, and 10 US patents), and over 550 papers. Some of his papers have been published in Science (1), Nat. Mater. (3), Nat. Chem. (5), Nat. Catal. (2), Nat. Rev. Mater. (2), Nat. Rev. Chem. (1), Nat. Commun. (11), Sci. Adv. (2), Nat. Protocols (1), Chem. Rev. (3), Chem. Soc. Rev. (16), Acc. Chem. Res. (3), J. Am. Chem. Soc. (28), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (29), Adv. Mater. (70), Energy Environ. Sci (12), Mater. Today (1), Adv. Energy Mater. (9), Chem (3), Natl. Sci. Rev. (4), ACS Nano (33), Nano Lett. (17), Adv. Funct. Mater. (5), Nano Energy (6), Energy Storage Mater. (1), ACS Catal. (1), Small (70), Small Methods (3), Nano-Micro Lett. (1), Mater. Horizons (2), Biomater. (1), Biosens. Bioelectron.(2), J. Mater. Chem. A (4), Matter (2), NPG Asia Mater. (1), J. Hazard. Mater. (1), Nanoscale Horizons (2), Appl. Mater. Today (1), J. Mater. Chem. (9),etc. As at Jan. 2023, the total cited times are over 109,300 with H-index of 164 (Web of Science), and over 127,800 with H-index of 175 (Google Scholar). He has been invited to give more than 300 Plenary, Keynote or Invited Talks in international conferences, universities and institutes. He has organized several tens of international conferences and served as the Conference (Co-)Chair or Symposium Chair.
He is the co-Editor-in-Chief of SmartMat(2020-) and co-Chairman of the Editorial Board of ChemNanoMat (2015-), and sits on the Advisory Board of Chemical Society Reviews (2012-2019), Aggregate (2020-present), Chemical Journal of Chinese Universities (2019-), Materials Chemistry Frontiers (2016-), Matter (2019-), Nanoscale (2012-), Nanoscale Horizons (2015-) and NPG Asia Materials (2018-), the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano(2014-), Advanced Functional Materials (2018-), Advanced Materials (2019-), Small (2012-), ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces(2014-2019), Chem. Mater.(2014-2019) and Nanofabrication (2012-2020), the Editorial Board of 2D Materials (2022-), ACS Omega (2016-), Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica(2020-), Applied Materials Today (2015-), Carbon (2013-), CHEM (2016-), Chemistry-Methods (2020-), Chinese Science Bulletin (2014-), Electron (2023-), Energy Storage Materials (2015-), EnergyChem (2018-), eScience (2020-), Graphene Technology (2016-), Materials Today Energy (2016-), NANO (2007-2020), National Science Review (2023-), Nano Convergence (2020-), npj 2D Materials and Applications (2016-), Research (2021), The Innovation (2020-), Transactions of Tianjin University (2019), and Science China Materials (2014-), the International Advisory Board of Chemistry – An Asian Journal (2018-), the International Advisory Board of Materials Research Express (2014-2016) and the International Editorial Board of ChemPlusChem (2012-2015), and the Scientific Advisory Board of Small Methods (2017-).
In 2020, he was elected as a Foreign Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc). In 2015, he was elected as an Academician of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM). In Nov. 2014, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). In 2016, he was listed in the top 300 most cited researchers in the field of materials science and engineering (Elsevier Scopus). In 2022, he was listed in the "Highly Cited Researchers" in Chemistry, Environment and Ecology, and Materials Science (Clarivate Analytics). In 2015-2021, he was listed in the "Highly Cited Researchers" in Chemistry and Materials Science (Clarivate Analytics/Thomson Reuters). In 2015, he was listed as one of 19 “Hottest Researchers of Today” in the world in the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2015 (Thomson Reuters, 2015). In 2014, he was listed in the "Highly Cited Researchers 2014" in Materials Science, and also listed as one of 17 “Hottest Researchers of Today” and No. 1 in Materials and More in the world in the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014 (Thomson Reuters, 2014). Moreover, he got the Outstanding Research Award (2022, City University of Hong Kong), President’s Award (2021, City University of Hong Kong), Young Investigator Award (Young Giants of Nanoscience 2016, Hong Kong), Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholar Award (University of Wollongong, Australia, 2016), ACS Nano Lectureship Award (2015), World Cultural Council (WCC) Special Recognition Award (2013), the ONASSIA Foundation Lectureship (Greece, 2013), Asian Rising Stars (15th Asian Chemical Congress, 2013), SMALL Young Innovator Award (Wiley-VCH, 2012) and Nanyang Award for Research Excellence (2011).
Dr. Zhang’s research is highly interdisciplinary. His current research interests focus on phase engineering of nanomaterials (PEN) and controlled epitaxial growth of heterostructures, including the synthesis of ultrathin two-dimensional nanomaterials (e.g., metal nanosheets, graphene, metal dichalcogenides, metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, etc.), novel metallic and semiconducting nanomaterials, novel amorphous nanomaterials, and their hybrid composites for various applications, such as catalysis, clean energy, (opto-)electronic devices, chemical and biosensors, and water remediation.

Qiang Zhang
Tsinghua University, China
Talk: Organic-inorganic halide perovskites: tailor-made excitons for lasers and photovoltaïcs
Prof. Qiang Zhang is a full professor at Tsinghua University. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemical engineering (2009) from Tsinghua University, China, and subsequently held Research Associate/Postdoc Research Fellow positions in the Case Western Reserve University, USA, and Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany.
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He held the Newton Advanced Fellowship from Royal Society, UK and the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. He is selected as highly cited researchers at 2017-2022 by Clarivate Analytics. His current research interests are advanced energy materials, including dendrite-free lithium metal anode, lithium sulfur batteries, and electrocatalysis, especially the structure design and full demonstration of advanced energy materials in working devices. His h-index is 143 now. He is the Advisor Editor of Angew. Chem., Associate Editor of J Energy Chem & Energy Storage Mater. He is sitting on the advisory board of Chem Soc Rev, Matter, Adv Funct Mater, ChemSusChem, J Mater Chem A, Chem Commun, and so on. He is the deputy head of the expert group on energy storage and smart grid of the national key research and development plan. He has won the first prize of Natural Science of the Ministry of Education, the first prize of Fundamental Science of the Chemical Engineering Society.
Invited speaker

Dongliang Chao
Fudan University, China
Talk: When each atom makes the difference: the unique properties of the oxides at the sub-nanoscale.
Prof. Dongliang Chao obtained his PhD from Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore). He joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) in 2016 as a joint-researcher. Dr Chao served as Research Fellow and senior researcher respectively at NTU and University of Adelaide (UoA, Australia).
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Then He joined Fudan University (FDU, China) as a full professor in 2020, working on electrochemical mechanism and practical application of materials for next-generation safe, low-cost and scalable energy storage. Dr Chao is serving as Associate Editor for the international journal of Materials Today Energy. He has published 1 authored book and >100 journal articles with H-index of 62 and citations more than 17,000. He was honored with the prestigious Innovators Under 35 (MIT Technology Review), Rising Star Australia (The Australia), DECRA Fellow Award (Australian Research Council), Global Highly Cited Researcher (2020-2022, Clarivate), etc.

Jian Liu
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, China
Talk: Living therapeutic materials: self-replenishable drug depots
Dr. Jian Liu is currently a Professor in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Head of School, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, China. Dr Liu received his PhD degree in physical chemistry from the DICP, CAS, in 2009, and worked at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), University of Queensland (UQ) as a research fellow.
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After working at Curtin University as a senior lecturer from 2013 to 2017, he then joined DICP as a full professor and group leader of micro–nanoreactor and reaction engineering. He also held an adjunct Reader position in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Surrey, UK. His research focuses on the design of micro– nanoreactors, porous carbon spheres, and industrialization of homogeneous catalysis in heterogeneous systems. He has published more than 270 peer reviewed journal articles including top ranking journals such as Nature Mater., Nature Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater., JACS, Matter, et al., and delivered over 60 presentations/seminars in scientific meetings and congresses. A recent search (February 2023) of ISI Web of Science shows his entire publications have been cited for over 22200 times. His h-index is 68 (Web of Science). He was listed as 2018-2022 Highly Cited Researchers from ClarivateTM in Cross-Field. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Materials Today Sustainability (Elsevier).

Liang Wang
Shanghai University, China
Talk: Organic electronic materials for novel biomedical, energy and environmental applications
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More information coming soon..

Xinge Yu
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Talk: Energetic aqueous batteries: electrochemistry and device
Xinge Yu is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong (CityU), Associate Director of the CAS-CityU Joint Lab on Robotics, and Assistant Director of Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-cardiovascular Health Engineering.
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Dr Yu is the recipient of Innovators under 35 China (MIT Technology Review), NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Grant (Hong Kong & Macao), New Innovator of IEEE NanoMed, MINE Young Scientist Award, Gold Medal in the Inventions Geneva, CityU Outstanding Research Award etc. Dr Yu is also the Associate Editor of Microsystems & Nanoengineering, IEEE Open Journal of Nanotechnology, and Editor/Editoral Board of 12 journals.
Xinge Yu’s research group is focusing on skin-integrated electronics and systems for VR and biomedical applications. He has published 140 papers in Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Communications, Science Advances etc.