Dennis G. Drescher

USA

Dennis G. Drescher is Professor and Director of Molecular Research in the Department of Otolaryngology and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, USA. He obtained his Ph.D., M.M. and B.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and pursued postgraduate studies in biochemistry at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has served as Senior Staff Fellow at the NIH, Bethesda, Maryland and Research Associate at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. His interests include interactions of synaptic-complex and mechanotransduction proteins of the inner ear as analyzed by surface plasmon resonance.

Prof. Dr. José L. Ocaña

Spain

Prof. Dr. José L. Ocaña is MSc. (1979) and PhD. (1982) in Industrial Engineering (Energy) at the Polytechnical University of Madrid (Spain).

Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the ETSII-UPM School of Engineering and Founder Director of the UPM Laser Centre at this University.

He has actively promoted and participated in national (Spain) and worldwide R&D initiatives in the field of scientific and industrial applications of high power lasers, especially in high intensity laser-matter interaction, laser surface treatments, laser micromachining and on-line monitoring and control of industrial laser applications. As a result, he is author/coauthor of more than 250 scientific papers and more than 300 communications in the field of laser technology and applications.

He is member of multiple scientific committees and editorial boards in the field of laser technology and applications. Former Chairman of EULASNET II (Eureka Umbrella Network for Laser Technology and Applications) and Vice-President of the Executive Board of the European Laser Institute (ELI).

He has received several prizes related to his research activity.

Yen-Ho Chu

Taiwan

Yen-Ho Chu is a university research distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at National Chung Cheng University (CCU) in Taiwan, ROC. He received his BS in Chemistry from National Tsing Hua University, MS from National Taiwan University, and PhD from Harvard University (Professor G. M. Whitesides). He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School (Professor C. T. Walsh), Staff Scientist at the Barnett Institute (Professor B. L. Karger), and Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University, before he returned to Taiwan and joined CCU in 1999. His research interests include (bio)molecular interaction analysis, combinatorial organic chemistry, ionic liquids, and smart materials.

Thomas J. Webster

USA

Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 129; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012; 2021-present), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies (with some acquired by Medtronic) who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health in over 30,000 patients with no failures.  He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Brown University, Saveetha University, Hebei University of Technology, UFPI, and others.  Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies.  Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society for Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 70,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Prof. Webster also recently formed a fund to support Nigerian student research opportunities in the U.S.

Farzan Gity ( Plenary)

Ireland

Dr. Farzan Gity is a senior staff researcher at the Tyndall Institute, UCC, and a Funded Investigator at the Research Ireland AMBER Centre. With over a decade of experience in emerging materials and devices, his research focuses on advancing nanoelectronics beyond Moore’s Law. His work spans simulation, fabrication, and characterization of novel materials and devices, with an emphasis on integrating 2D materials for innovative applications. Dr. Gity leads several collaborative research projects with academia and industry, including Intel, and supervises three PhD students and five postdoctoral researchers (including three MSCA Fellows) working on innovations in 2D materials and advanced nanoelectronics

Christian Pedersen (Plenary)

Denmark

Christian Pedersen received his MSc from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 1991. In 1995, he received his Industrial PhD from the Department of Physics within the field of nonlinear optics and solid-state lasers. From 1996 to 2004, he worked in two start-up laser companies. From 2005 to 2008, he headed the Optical Sensor Technology programme at Risø National Laboratory. In 2008, Risø National Laboratory became a part of DTU. Since then he has been employed by DTU Electro, Department of Electrical and Photonics Engineering, appointed professor in 2019 within the field of photonics sensors.

Zhifeng Huang

China

Prof. Zhifeng HUANG, Associate Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is Member of The Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. Prof. Huang is devoted to fabricating inorganic nanopillar arrays to study symmetry breaking, chiral nanoplasmonics, surface-enhanced chiroptical spectroscopies, asymmetric catalysis, optoelectronics and cell culture. He published his works in Nat. Chem., Nat. Nanotechnol., Nat. Commun., Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Chem, Adv. Sci., Small, Nano Lett., and so on. Prof. Huang co-founded a spin-off, Mat-A-Cell Ltd., to commercialize a new-generation medical nano-device for cell culture. The invention, patented in US, Europe and China, was awarded 2019 TechConnect Innovation Award and Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury (the 46^th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, 2018).

Lia Krusin-Elbaum

USA

Lia Krusin-Elbaum is a Professor of Physics at The City College of New York since 2010. Her Ph.D. degree is in Condensed Matter Physics (NYU, 1979) and she was a scientist at the IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, NY (1979-2010). Dr. Krusin-Elbaum is a recipient of ten IBM Invention Achievement Awards and holds over 27 US patents. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1993-) and was elected (2022) to serve on the USDOE Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee. She is a co-lead of the Columbia U. NSF-MRSEC PAQM (2020-) and of the NSF-CREST IDEALS Centers (2015-).

Wen Zhong

Canada

Dr. Wen Zhong is a Professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba. She earned her Ph.D. from Donghua University in China and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on functional biomaterials and high-performance hydrogels for applications in biomedical engineering, wound healing, biosensing, and sustainable environmental technologies. Dr. Wen Zhong has published her work in journals like Advanced Science, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Nano, and Biomaterials.

Bong-Joong Kim (Plenary)

South Korea

Dr. Bong-Joong Kim has been a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at GIST, Korea, since 2012. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University. Previously, Dr. Kim held postdoctoral and visiting scientist roles at Brookhaven National Laboratory and IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. His research centers on developing and modifying organic/inorganic nanostructures for use in catalysis, electronics, and sensors. He excels in in situ analysis techniques such as TEM, SEM, and optical systems, which he uses to study nanomaterials under various environmental conditions.

Malcolm Xing

Canada

Dr. Xing is a Professor at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. He specializes in hydrogels and nanomaterials for tissue engineering, bioadhesives, hemostasis, biofabrication, and implantable flexible biosensors. With over 200 publications in journals such as Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, his work on superelastic hydrogels for myocardial infarction, burns, and tissue regeneration has received notable recognition, including features in Nature Reviews Cardiology, ACS headline news and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He developed a hydrophobic polymer entanglement system for bio-glues and hemostasis, highlighted by Matter, and proposed a bioglue combining adhesion and hemostatic functions, featured in Science and Nature Review Materials. His research on sustainable materials has been covered by Time, Fortune, CBC and CTV. Dr. Xing is an elected fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Ricardo Rodríguez (Plenary)

Spain

Ricardo Rodríguez obtained his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry in 2009 from the University of Zaragoza, Spain. After completing his doctorate, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Fundamental and Applied Heterochemistry Laboratory (LHFA) in Toulouse, France. In 2013, he joined the Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis Institute (ISQCH) in Zaragoza as a Tenure Track researcher in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry. Since 2021, Rodríguez has been a Staff Scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). His research focuses on designing stereogenic metal complexes and exploring their potential applications in enantioselective catalysis. His Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) is 0000-0002-8845-0174.

Gaspare Varvaro

Italy

Gaspare Varvaro (PhD, Materials Science, 2007) is a researcher at CNR-ISM (Rome, Italy), specializing in nanostructured magnetic materials and hybrid composites for fundamental studies and applications (energy, environment, biomedicine, and data storage) with a recent focus on sustainability. He has authored 95+ publications, 1 book, 5 chapters, 1 patent, and delivered 200+ talks, including 20+ invited lectures. He has led or contributed to 20+ research projects, managing over €1M, and supervised six PhD students. Actively involved in public outreach and professional events in magnetism and materials science, he currently serves as Vice-President of the Italian Association on Magnetism.