Richard Friend holds the Cavendish Professorship of Physics at the University of Cambridge. His research encompasses the physics, materials science and engineering of semiconductor devices made with carbon-based semiconductors, particularly polymers. His research advances have shown that carbon-based semiconductors have significant applications in LEDs, solar cells, lasers, and electronics. His current research interests are directed to novel schemes – including ideas inspired by recent insights into Nature’s light harvesting – that seek to improve the performance and cost of solar cells.

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen is a professor in the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids and the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She received her Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2001 under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Schwartz. Her thesis focused on photophysics of conducting polymers. She was a research associate in the Department of Chemistry and the Nanocenter at Columbia University working with Professors Louis Brus and Colin Nuckolls on molecular self-assembly, nanoscale characterization and molecular electronics. She also spent time at IBM Research Center at T. J. Watson (Yorktown Heights, NY) working with Richard Martel and Phaedon Avouris. Her current research interests are structure-function-property relationships in organic semiconductors, sustainable semiconductors, doping in organic semiconductors, interfaces in optoelectronic devices, bioelectronics, and device physics of OPVs, photodetectors, and electrochemical transistors. Recognition for her research includes 2005 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 2006 NSF CAREER Award, 2007 Harold Plous Award, 2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, the 2009 Alfred Sloan Research Fellows, 2010 National Science Foundation American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellows, 2015 Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award, 2016 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015-2019 World’s Most InfluentialScientific Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics, 2019 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2023 Wilhelm Exner Medal from Austria, 2023 Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors, 2023 de Gennes Prize in Materials Chemistry from the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2023 Elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, 2024 Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, and 2025 ACS Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry.

Sang Il Seok is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in Korea. He obtained his Ph.D. in the Department of Inorganic Materials Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea. After completing his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University in the USA, where he investigated defects and transport in the Fe-Ti-O Spinel structure. He also experienced a visiting scholar at the University of Surrey in UK in 2003 and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland in 2006. Prior to joining UNIST in 2015, he served as the principal investigator of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) and as a professor at the Department of Energy Science at Sungkyunkwan University. He is a highly cited researcher, selected by Clarivate Analytics since 2018, and has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, including three Nature and seven Science articles as a corresponding author. He has received several awards for his excellence, such as the "Korean Scientist Award" from the Korean government in 2017, and the Kyung-Ahm Prize in 2019. In 2022, he was awarded the Rank Prize, recognized as one of the seven scientists pioneering in perovskite solar cells. His research focuses on functional inorganic-organic hybrid materials and devices, particularly on perovskite solar cells.

Christoph J. Brabec is holding the chair “materials for electronics and energy technology (i-MEET)” at the materials science of the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Further, he is the scientific director of the Erlangen division of the Bavarian research institute for renewable energy (ZAE Bayern, Erlangen).
He received his PhD (1995) in physical chemistry from Linz university, joined the group of Prof Alan Heeger at UCSB for a sabbatical, and continued to work on all aspects of organic semiconductor spectroscopy as assistant professor at Linz university with Prof. Serdar Sariciftci. He joined the SIEMENS research labs as project leader for organic semiconductor devices in 2001 and joined Konarka in 2004, where he was holding the position of the CTO before joining university.
He is author and co-author of more than 150 papers and 200 patents and patent applications, and finished his habilitation in physical chemistry in 2003.

Professor Kwanghee currently leads research and development program of organic solar cells in Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) as a director of the Research Institute of Solar and Sustainable Energies (RISE). He is also appointed as a “Distinguished Professor” of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of GIST. Dr. Lee started his professorship at Pusan National University in 1997 after finishing his Ph.D. and Post-Doc at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). Then he moved to GIST in 2007 and have organized and acted as a co-director of the Heeger Center for Advanced Materials (HCAM) together with the director, Professor Alan J. Heeger, who is a 2000 year Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. Now Dr. Lee is a leading scientist in the area of “plastic electronics” including organic solar cells, polymer LEDs, and organic FETs. Dr. Lee finished his B.S. in Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University and M.S. in Physics at KAIST. Then he earned his Ph.D. in Physics at UCSB (USA) under the guidance of Prof. Heeger with a subject of metallic and semiconducting polymers.

Maria Antonietta Loi studied physics at the University of Cagliari in Italy where she received the PhD in 2001. In the same year she joined the Linz Institute for Organic Solar cells, of the University of Linz, Austria as a post doctoral fellow. Later she worked as researcher at the Institute for Nanostructured Materials of the Italian National Research Council in Bologna Italy. In 2006 she became assistant professor and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. She is now full professor in the same institution and chair of the Photophysics and OptoElectronics group. She has published more than 130 peer review articles in photophysics and optoelectronics of nanomaterials. In 2012 she has received an ERC starting grant.

Annamaria Petrozza received her PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2008 with a thesis on the study of optoelectronic processes at organic and hybrid semiconductors interfaces under the supervision of Dr. J.S. Kim and Prof Sir R.H. Friend. From July 2008 to December 2009 she worked as research scientist at the Sharp Laboratories of Europe, Ltd on the development of new market competitive solar cell technologies (Dye Sensitized Solar cells/Colloidal Quantum Dots Sensitized Solar cells). Since January 2010 she has a Team Leader position at the Center for Nano Science and Technology -IIT@POLIMI. She is in charge of the development of photovoltaic devices and their characterization by time-resolved and cw Photoinduced Absorption Spectroscopy, Time-resolved Photoluminescence and electrical measurements. Her research work mainly aims to shed light on interfacial optoelectronic mechanisms, which are fundamental for the optimization of operational processes, with the goal of improving device efficiency and stability.

Henry Snaith undertook his PhD at the University of Cambridge, working on organic photovoltaics, then spent two years at the EPFL as a post-doc working on dye-sensitized solar cells. Since 2007 he has held a professorship at the University of Oxford Clarendon Laboratory where his group researches organic, hybrid and perovskite optoelectronic devices. Professor Snaith was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015, he is a 2017 Clarivate Citation Laureate, and among his awards are the 2017 Royal Society James Joule Medal and Prize. In 2010 he founded Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd. which is commercializing the perovskite solar technology transferred from his laboratory.

Prof. Aron Walsh holds the Chair in Materials Design at Imperial College London. He received his PhD in Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin and later worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University College London, and the University of Bath. His research combines technique development and applications at the interface between solid-state chemistry and physics. He was awarded the EU-40 prize from the Materials Research Society for his work on the theory of solar energy materials, and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society. 

Angus Hin-Lap Yip joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and the School of Energy and Environment (SEE) at the City University of Hong Kong as Professor in 2021. He has been the associate director of the Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy (HKICE) since 2022. He was also elected as a member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. From 2013-2020, he was a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices (SKLLMD) at the South China University of Technology (SCUT). He got his BSc (2001) and MPhil (2003) degrees in Materials Science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and completed his PhD degree in MSE in 2008 at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. His research combines materials, interface, and device engineering to improve polymer and perovskite solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. He has published more than 270 scientific papers with citations over 36000 and an H-index of 99. He was also honoured as ESI“Highly Cited Researcher” in Materials Science 9 times from 2014-2022.

Dr Tom Aernouts is R&D leader of the Thin Film Photovoltaics group at imec. Over the last few years this activity has grown steadily with state-of-the-art work in organic solar cells and recently also perovskite-based photovoltaics, next to inorganic materials like Kesterites for future replacement of the currently strongly growing CIGS thin film solar cells. Also the lab environment was drastically improved with setting-up the O-line infrastructure in 2009 at imec, allowing the processing and characterization of thin film solar cells and modules with area up to 15 x 15 cm². A next upgrade in 2018 enabled to extend the device size to 35x35cm². Dr Aernouts earned his Master of Science and PhD degree in Physics (in 2006) at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Firstly, he worked on organic oligomer-based diode structures, afterwards continuing his research on organic photovoltaics at imec. There, his work focused on the processing and characterization of polymer-based organic solar cells and monolithic modules, introducing techniques like screen and inkjet printing. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 journal publications, book chapters and conference contributions. Also, his research group participates on a regular basis in a broad range of local and international projects, with the most recent example the coordination of the European H2020 project ESPResSo.

Aldo Di Carlo is Director of the Institute of Structure of Matter of the National Research Council and Full Professor of Optoelectronics and Nanoelectronics at the Department of Electronics Engineering of the University of ROme "Tor Vergata". His research focuses on the study and fabrication of electronic and optoelectronic devices, their analysis and their optimization. Di Carlo founded the Center for Hybrid and Organic Solar Cells (CHOSE) which nowadays involve more than40 researchers dealing with the development of III generation solar cells (DSC, OPV and Perovskite) and on scaling-up of these technologies for industrial applications. CHOSE has generated 6 spin-off companies and a public/private partnership. Di Carlo is author/coauthor of more than 500 scientific publications in international journals, 13 patents and has been involved in several EU projects (three as EU coordinator)

Ji-Seon Kim is a Professor of Solid State Physics and Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Plastic Electronic Materials (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/plastic-electronics-cdt/) at Imperial College London (UK). She also holds an Invited Professorship at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) and held an Invited Visiting Professorship at KAIST (South Korea). She has previously taken up an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, obtained a PhD in Physics in 2000 at Cambridge.

Her research focuses on the basic science and technology of Soft Electronic Materials and Devices (organic semiconductors, organic/inorganic hybrids and bio-nanomaterials), exploring fundamental scientific issues related to using these materials for new optoelectronic applications (energy, display and healthcare).

He studied electrical engineering in Stuttgart and started working on Si solar cells in 2004 under the guidance of Uwe Rau at the Institute for Physical Electronics (ipe) in Stuttgart. After finishing his undergraduate studies in 2006, he continued working with Uwe Rau first in Stuttgart and later in Juelich on simulations and electroluminescence spectroscopy of solar cells. After finishing his PhD in 2009 and 1.5 years of postdoc work in Juelich, Thomas Kirchartz started a three year fellowship at Imperial College London working on recombination mechanisms in organic solar cells with Jenny Nelson. In 2013, he returned to Germany and accepted a position as head of a new activity on hybrid and organic solar cells in Juelich and simultaneously as Professor for Photovoltaics with Nanostructured Materials in the department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the University Duisburg-Essen. Kirchartz has published >100 isi-listed papers, has co-edited one book on characterization of thin-film solar cells whose second edition was published in 2016 and currently has an h-index of 38.

Bachelor in Chemistry from University of São Paulo (USP) in 1996, Master's Degree in Chemistry from  University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1998 and Doctorate in Chemistry from UNICAMP in 2001 under the guidance of Prof. Marco-Aurelio De Paoli. Performed an internship during the Doctorate at Imperial College in London under the supervision of Prof. James R. Durrant. After completing his doctorate he also held a post-doctorate position at Imperial College in the same research group. In 2003, he held another postdoctoral program at USP under the supervision of Prof. Henrique Toma. He is currently Professor of the Chemistry Institute of UNICAMP. He has experience in the field of Chemistry, with emphasis in the application of nanomaterials in Solar Energy Conversion, working mainly in the following subjects: inorganic nanoparticles of chalcogenides and perovskite (quantum dots) in light emitting diodes (LED); photocatalytic oxide / graphene nanocomposites for the generation of hydrogen and direct conversion of CO2 into solar fuels; emerging solar cells (in particular TiO2 / dye cells and perovskite solar cells). In 2017 he held a sabbatical at SLAC-Stanford in the field of application of Synchrotron light in the characterization of materials for energy conversion. Published more than 115 papers, 3 patents, 1 book and 7 book chapters. She is the leader of the reserach on emerging photovoltaics in Latin America.

Hideo Ohkita is a Professor in the Department of Polymer Chemistry at Kyoto University.  He obtained a Doctoral degree in 1997 at Kyoto University.  He became an Assistant Professor in 1997, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006, and to Professor of Department of Polymer Chemistry at Kyoto University in 2016.  He concurrently worked as an academic visitor with Professor Durrant at Imperial College London from 2005 to 2006, and as a researcher in the Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO) program “Photoenergy Conversion Systems and Materials for the Next Generation Solar Cells”, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), from 2009 to 2015.  His research interests include studying photophysics and photochemistry in polymer systems.  His current research focuses on spectroscopic approach to polymer solar cells.