Halide perovskites and perovskite-inspired materials have garnered significant attention in recent years for their potential use in a wide range of applications including solar cells, photodetectors, lasers, and photocatalysis. They have revolutionized the field of thin film solar cells due to their intriguing optical and electronic properties such as tunable band gap, high absorption coefficient, long charge carrier diffusion, solution processability, and low-cost fabrication. The high photoluminescence quantum yield and tunable emission color of low- dimensional perovskites (thin film, 2D perovskites, and colloidal nanocrystals) make them very attractive as efficient fluorophores. The design and engineering of novel compositions and hetero-architectures based on related perovskite materials is a very promising approach for enhancing the performance and stability of perovskite-based devices across various applications. Moreover, their use as heterogeneous photocatalysts offers a sustainable and promising strategy, employing renewable solar energy, to produce high-value chemicals and fuels.
This symposium provides a platform for researchers and experts in the field to share their latest findings, exchange ideas, and collaborate on addressing challenges and advancing understanding and light-harvesting applications.
ORAL CONTRIBUTION PRIZE:
🏅 Best Oral Contribution prize valued at 150€ Tango Card from Advance Energy Materials by Wiley.
- Synthesis of thin and nanocrystalline halide perovskites and perovskite-inspired materials
- Photophysical studies (luminescence, transient absorption spectroscopy, etc.)
- Solar cells
- Heterogeneous photocatalysis
- Lead-free metal halide perovskites
- Novel heterostructures
- Light-harvesting applications
Dr. Galian received her Ph.D in Chemistry at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina in 2001. Then, she was a postdoc researcher at the Polythecnic University of Valencia, University of Valencia and University of Ottawa. During those years, she has studied photosensibilization processes by aromatic ketones using laser flash photolysis techniques and was involved in photonic crystal fiber/semiconductor nanocrystal interaction projects. In 2007, Dr. Galian came back to Spain with a Ramon y Cajal contract to study the surface chemistry of quantum dots and since 2017 she has a permanent position as Scientist Researcher at the University of Valencia. Her main interest is the design, synthesis and characterization of photoactive nanoparticles and multifunctional nanosystems for sensing, electroluminescent applications and photocatalysis.
Prof. Mónica Lira-Cantú is Group Leader of the Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Energy Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (www.icn.cat located in Barcelona (Spain). She obtained a Bachelor in Chemistry at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, ITESM Mexico (1992), obtained a Master and PhD in Materials Science at the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB) & Autonoma University of Barcelona (1995/1997) and completed a postdoctoral work under a contract with the company Schneider Electric/ICMAB (1998). From 1999 to 2001 she worked as Senior Staff Chemist at ExxonMobil Research & Engineering (formerly Mobil Technology Co) in New Jersey (USA) initiating a laboratory on energy related applications (fuel cells and membranes). She moved back to ICMAB in Barcelona, Spain in 2002. She received different awards/fellowships as a visiting scientist to the following laboratories: University of Oslo, Norway (2003), Riso National Laboratory, Denmark (2004/2005) and the Center for Advanced Science and Innovation, Japan (2006). In parallel to her duties as Group Leader at ICN2 (Spain), she is currently visiting scientist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, CH). Her research interests are the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials for Next-generation solar cells: Dye sensitized, hybrid, organic, all-oxide and perovskite solar cells. Monica Lira-Cantu has more than 85 published papers, 8 patents and 10 book chapters and 1 edited book (in preparation).
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.
Lorenzo obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2003 and since 2008 is Assistant Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Pavia. In 2021 he was appointed Full Professor in the same department. He was the recipient of the Young Scientist Award for outstanding work in the field of perovskites at the International Conference on Perovskites held in late 2005 in Zürich, of the “Alfredo di Braccio” Prize for Chemistry 2008 of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei awarded to distinguished under 35-year-old chemists and contributed the Journal Materials Chemistry and Chemical Communications“Emerging Investigator” issues in 2010 and 2011. He is working in several areas of solid state chemistry with particular interest in the investigation of structure–properties correlation in different kinds of functional materials, in particular electrolyte materials for clean energy, hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites and catalysis materials. He is author of more than 200 papers on international peer-reviewed journals. Since 2018 he is member of Academic Senate and Vice-Director of the Chemistry Department. He is Director of the INSTM Reference Center “PREMIO” devoted to the synthesis of innovative materials and member of the Directive Board of INSTM. Since 2014 he is member of the Academic Board of the PhD in Chemistry of Pavia University. He is Editor of Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids.
Bio Professional Preparation M.S. in Chemistry, with Honours, University of Bari, Italy, 1996 Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Bari, Italy, 2001 Research interests Prof. L. Manna is an expert of synthesis and assembly of colloidal nanocrystals. His research interests span the advanced synthesis, structural characterization and assembly of inorganic nanostructures for applications in energy-related areas, in photonics, electronics and biology.
Iván Mora-Seró (1974, M. Sc. Physics 1997, Ph. D. Physics 2004) is researcher at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His research during the Ph.D. at Universitat de València (Spain) was centered in the crystal growth of semiconductors II-VI with narrow gap. On February 2002 he joined the University Jaume I. From this date until nowadays his research work has been developed in: electronic transport in nanostructured devices, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, making both experimental and theoretical work. Currently he is associate professor at University Jaume I and he is Principal Researcher (Research Division F4) of the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM). Recent research activity was focused on new concepts for photovoltaic conversion and light emission based on nanoscaled devices and semiconductor materials following two mean lines: quantum dot solar cells with especial attention to sensitized devices and lead halide perovskite solar cells and LEDs, been this last line probably the current hottest topic in the development of new solar cells.
Last update: 31/07/2022
Born on January 7, 1988.
During my undergraduate studies I had the chance to carry out two short-term research projects on nanomaterials at Tohoku University (Japan; 2010) and Université de Sherbrooke (Canada; 2011). I then obtained my Master of Science in Nanoscale Engineering and my PhD on Materials Science from Ecole Centrale de Lyon (France; 2011 and 2014). From 2015 until December 2017 I was a post-doctoral researcher in the Nanochemistry Department of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia of Genova (Italy). In 2017 I was awarded a "Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions" fellowship to develop my project PerovSAMs in the Instituto de Ciencia Molecular (ICMol) at the Universidad de Valencia, where I continued working with a "Juan de la Cierva incorporación" fellowship until 2021. In 2022 I joined Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT) as a "Ramón y Cajal" fellow.
Throughout my career I have worked in the fields of materials' chemistry, colloidal inorganic nanocrystals, surface analysis and halide perovskites' optoelectronic devices among others. My publications and bibliometric indicators can be found elsewhere (e.g. Google Scholar or Scopus).
Aside from research I have also maintained a teaching activity throughout my career with lectures and practical courses in chemistry and chemical engineering at undergraduate level (Ecole Centrale de Lyon, 2011-2014 and 2020-2021; Universidad de Valencia and Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, 2018-2019; Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 2022-present) as well as specific courses in surface analysis techniques for PhD students (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia; 2015-2017). I have supervised one Master of Science thesis, one PhD thesis and I currently supervise two other PhD theses.
Eventually, I am also involved in the "Federación de Jóvenes Investigadores" where we strive for a better spanish scientific and academic system, especially fighting against the precarity of young or junior researchers.
Alexander S. Urban studied Physics at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) obtaining an equivalent to an M.Sc. degree (German: Dipl. Phys.) at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) in 2006. During his studies he spent a year at Heriot Watt University (UK), where he obtained an M.Phys. in Optoelectronics and Lasers in 2005. He then joined the Photonics and Optoelectronics Chair of Jochen Feldmann at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich (Germany) in 2007 where he worked on the optothermal manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles, earning his Ph.D. summa cum laude in 2010. He expanded his expertise in the fields of plasmonics and nanophotonics in the group of Naomi J. Halas at the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University (Houston, TX, USA), beginning in 2011. He returned to the LMU in 2014 to become a junior group leader with Jochen Feldmann, where he led the research thrusts on optical spectroscopy, focusing on hybrid nanomaterials such as halide perovskite nanocrystals and carbon dots. In 2017 he was awarded a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council and shortly after that in 2018 he received a call as a Full Professor of Physics (W2) at the LMU. Here, he now leads his own research group working on nanospectroscopy in novel hybrid nanomaterials.
Anja Wecker studied chemistry at Saarland University in Saarbrücken where she completed her diploma as well as well as her PhD thesis in the field of physical chemistry. She joined Wiley in 2012 and is currently the Editor in Chief of Advanced Optical Materials.
Metal halide perovskites have emerged as outstanding materials for optoelectronics, for example leading to unprecedented gains in the power conversion efficiency of solar cells. This rise has been enabled by the unconventional physics and chemistry of these materials which is still being unravelled. Deep insights into their unusual behaviour are crucial to keep advancing metal halide perovskites towards their potential and ultimately commercial reality. Understanding these materials requires advanced chararacterisation techniques which span optical & photoemission spectroscopies to in-situ structural measurements and computational insights.
This symposium invites contributions related to the advanced characterisation of metal halide perovskites for optoelectronic applications, including solar cell, light emission technologies and beyond. It serves as a valuable gathering of experts and researchers in the field, providing a platform for sharing the latest insights and methods that can advance perovskite-based technologies. The diversity of speakers, including physicists, chemists, engineers, and materials scientists, underscores the interdisciplinary nature of this research. This symposium aims to facilitate discussions on recent progress and challenges that have been highlighted by the latest characterisation techniques. We hope that this gathering of researchers can accelerate the practical use of these materials in sustainable energy and lighting technologies.
- Optical spectroscopy: charge-carrier dynamics (transient absorption, optical-pump terahertz-probe, etc), spatially-resolved techniques, polarons, etc.
- Electronic structure: studied via photoemission spectroscopies and/or computational methods
- In-situ Structural Measurements
- Electrical characterisation of perovskites
- Advanced microscopy techniques
Dr Juliane Borchert is the head of the junior research group “Optoelectronic Thin Film Materials” at the University of Freiburg as well as the head of the research group “Perovskite Materials and Interfaces” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. She studied physics in Berlin, Groningen, and Halle (Saale). Her PhD research was conducted at the University of Oxford where she focused on co-evaporated perovskites for solar cells. She continued this research as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge and AMOLF research institute in Amsterdam. Now she leads a team of researchers and technicians who are on a mission to develop the next generation of solar cells combining novel metal-halide perovskite semiconductors and established silicon technology into highly efficient tandem solar cells.
Dr Alex Ramadan is a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Sheffield. Alex did her PhD research at Imperial College London exploring the structure-property relationships of molecular semiconductor thin films. Following this she moved into perovskite semiconductor research for her postdoctoral work at the University of Oxford. At Sheffield she leads the New and Emerging Semiconductor Group and their research looks to develop and understand new semiconductor materials for next generation optoelectronic and devices.
Petra Cameron is an associate professor in Chemistry at the University of Bath.
Jacky Even was born in Rennes, France, in 1964. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Paris VI, Paris, France, in 1992. He was a Research and Teaching Assistant with the University of Rennes I, Rennes, from 1992 to 1999. He has been a Full Professor of optoelectronics with the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Rennes,since 1999. He was the head of the Materials and Nanotechnology from 2006 to 2009, and Director of Education of Insa Rennes from 2010 to 2012. He created the FOTON Laboratory Simulation Group in 1999. His main field of activity is the theoretical study of the electronic, optical, and nonlinear properties of semiconductor QW and QD structures, hybrid perovskite materials, and the simulation of optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices. He is a senior member of Institut Universitaire de France (IUF).
Eva Herzig’s research interest focuses on the possibilities and limitations in the characterization of nanostructures in functional materials as well as how such nanostructures form and change as functions of external parameters. The examined materials range from organic molecules to nanostructured hybrid and inorganic systems. We examine processing-property relationships and the influence of external fields to investigate how the fundamental self-assembly processes influence the final material performance. To this end we exploit various scattering techniques to observe and control structure and function relationships in the examined materials in-situ. Using grazing incidence x-ray scattering we are particularly sensitive to nanostructures on flat surfaces and within thin films.
Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in London and obtained his Chemistry degree and PhD from University College London. He then worked at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath.
His current research focuses on understanding atomistic and nano-scale processes in perovskite halides for solar cells, and in new materials for lithium batteries. Saiful has received several awards including the 2022 Royal Society Hughes Medal and 2020 American Chemical Society Award in Energy Chemistry. He presented the 2016 BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the theme of energy and is a Patron of Humanists UK.
Dr. Selina Olthof studied Physics at the University Stuttgart (Germany) and wrote her master thesis in the group of Klaus Kern at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Physics. In 2010, Dr. Olthof received her Ph.D. from the University of Dresden (Karl Leo), followed by a two year postdoctoral research stay at Princeton University with Antoine Kahn. Currently, she is head of the Surafe Science Research Group at the University of Cologne in the Department of Chemistry. Her research is centered around enhancing the understanding of the electronic structure of novel semiconducting materials, with a focus on organic semiconductors and hybrid perovskites.
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.
Sandheep Ravishankar is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. He investigates the physics of operation of perovskite solar cells and photoanodes for water splitting. His work involves the development of analysis methods for improved device characterisation and parameter estimation. His areas of expertise include time domain (transient photovoltage and photocurrent measurements (TPV and TPC)) and frequency domain small-perturbation methods (impedance spectroscopy (IS), intensity-modulated photocurrent and photovoltage spectroscopy (IMPS and IMVS), transient photoluminescence (tr-PL) measurements and drift-diffusion simulations.
Philip Schulz holds a position as Research Director for Physical Chemistry and New Concepts for Photovoltaics at CNRS. In this capacity he leads the “Interfaces and Hybrid Materials for Photovoltaics” group at IPVF via the “Make Our Planet Great Again” program, which was initiated by the French President Emmanuel Macron. Before that, Philip Schulz has been a postdoctoral researcher at NREL from 2014 to 2017, and in the Department of Electrical Engineering of Princeton University from 2012 to 2014. He received his Ph.D. in physics from RWTH Aachen University in Germany in 2012.
Fueled by the rapid advancements in the field of chalcogenide and perovskite materials, many promising semiconductors have emerged with high optical absorption and excellent optoelectronic properties. These include novel and earth abundant chalcogenides, oxides, pnictides and defect-tolerant perovskite inspired materials. Development of these material systems is desirable for their applicability in thin film solar cells and tandem solar cells. The experimental progress is closely tied to their fundamental properties and charge carrier transport. Moreover, computation and machine learning augmented material studies play a pivotal role in designing new photovoltaic materials and characterization. The symposium invites contributions involving novel PV concepts and materials development. Example material systems include but not limited to:
kesterite (Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 and derived compounds), sulfides and selenides (CuInGaS2, Sb2Se3, Sb2S3, Se), oxides (BiFeO3, BiTiO3, Cu2O, BiVO4 etc.), nitrides (ZnSnN2, Cu3N), and emerging chalcogenides (BaZrS3, Cu3BiS3, AgBiS2, NaBiS2, CuSbS2, GeS, etc.)
- New insights on materials growth and properties: in-situ insights on growth and crystallization process, advance characterization, and spectroscopic investigations.
- Rational design and synthesis approaches: high-throughput experimentation, combinatorial synthesis, machine learning enabled materials discovery.
- Synthesis and optoelectronic properties of the photovoltaic absorber material.
- Theory and computational studies on electronic structure and defects
- New phenomena: photoferroelectrics, ultrathin nanocrystal absorbers.
- Device application: thin film solar cells, new device architectures for solar cells, tandem devices.
Dr. Verónica Bermúdez is the Senior Research Director of the Energy Center at QEERI (Qatar Environment Research Institute, part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) under Qatar Foundation). She is leading scientific and technological research, development and innovation at QEERI in the field of Renewable Energy focused in solar PV electricity generation and integration with special focus PV technologies and solutions for desert and harsh environments
Prior to joining the organization in 2018, she was Acting General Manager of the Technology Division of the Atsugi Research Center at Solar Frontier KK in Japan. She has also hold a position of Expert at EDF R&D, Senior Scientist at NEXCIS (start-up) and Head of the Optoelectronic Characterization Laboratory at IRDEP (EDF) in France, between others. She is in the Advisory Board of a number of entities and provides consultancy and high level strategic technology commercialization advice to global companies and small companies alike. The impact of her research has been acknowledged by the invitation to give keynote and plenary talks at different international events, as well as with the reception of several prestigious awards, including the 2007 International Schieber Prize, the Research and Development Leader of the Year from the Women in New Energy Leadership Awards 2022, between others. She is an Associate Editor in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy also IEEE Senior Fellow and is actively engaged in promoting science among the youth, with a focus on STEM for women.
Dr. Bermúdez is an internationally recognized expert authoring or co-authoring more than 120 scientific papers in renown journals, including Nature, Nature Energy and Science in clean and sustainable energy and in particular in photovoltaic materials and technologies in the whole value chain. She has extensive experience in laboratory to industry technology transfer in the field photovoltaics in almost the whole value chain and in particular in materials development, devices and processes scale up, power plant operations best practices, reliability, degradation and impact of weather conditions on performance ratio.
Guy Brammertz graduated in 1999 from the University of Liège (Belgium) in Applied Physics. In 2003 he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Twente (The Netherlands) defending a thesis about his work on superconducting Josephson junction photon detectors carried out for the European Space Agency. He then joined imec in 2004, where he first was involved in the LogicDram program aiming at the fabrication of Ge and III-V 35 nm gate length MOS transistors for CMOS applications. His work focused on electrical and optical characterization as well as passivation of electrical defects at Ge and III-V/oxide interfaces. In 2011 he joined the imec photovoltaic program, where he is now working on the fabrication and characterization of thin film solar cells based on Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGS), Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTS) and Cu2ZnGe(S,Se)4 (CZGS) absorbers.
Andrea Crovetto is an associate professor at DTU Nanolab, Technical University of Denmark. He obtained his PhD degree from DTU (advisor: Ole Hansen) with an external stay at UNSW (Australia) in Xiaojing Hao's group. He was then a postdoctoral researcher at DTU Physics with Ib Chorkendorff and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at NREL (USA) with Andriy Zakutayev, and at HZB (Germany) with Thomas Unold. The focus of Andrea's research is the discovery and development of new thin-film materials from unusual nooks of the periodic table. His key application area is optoelectronics, including solar cells, electrochemical cells, and transparent conductors.
Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral is a Full Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and in Physics at EPFL. Since January 2021 she is associate Vicepresident for Centers and Platforms. She is member of the EPFL-WISH foundation and former president, foundation whose goal is to support female students on accomplishing their professional dreams. She is also part of the Swiss National Quantum Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. She has served as Research Councillor of Division IV of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) from 2015 to 2024. From August 2020 to April 2024 she has been the President of the Specialised Committee for International Cooperation at SNSF. From January 2025 she is going to serve as the EPFL President.
Anna studied physics at the University of Barcelona. She then moved to Paris where she obtained a PhD in Materials Science from Ecole Polytehcnique (France). She performed a postdoc at CalTech with Prof. Harry Atwater, with whom she also co-founded the start-up company Aonex Technologies. After a brief period as CNRS researcher at Ecole Polytechnique, she moved to TU Munich as a group leader. She has been professor at EPFL since 2008. Among the awards she has received are the Marie Curie Excellence Grant, ERC Starting Grant, the SNSF-backup schemes Consolidator Grant and the EPS Emy Noether prize.
CCVV. Alejandro P�rez Rodr�guez Alejandro P�rez-Rodr�guez (Phys. Deg. 1984, PhD 1987) is Full Professor in the Department of Electronics of the University of Barcelona. In 2005-2009 he was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Physics of the University, where he coordinated the installation of a new Laboratory of Micro and Nanotechnologies. Since October 2009 he is ascribed to the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) as Head of the Solar Energy Materials & Systems Group in the Department of Advanced Materials for Energy. His research activities and interests are centred on Optical and structural assessment of processes in semiconductor technologies and on the development of new technologies for high efficiency low cost solar cells based on compound chalcogenide semiconductors and third PV device generation. He has coordinated up to 20 research projects in the National Spanish R+D+i programs, as well as 11 International projects funded by different European programmes (four of them as General Coordinator of the Project, from Human Capital and Mobility, FET-IST and, more recently FP7 NMP-Energy 2011, Marie Curie (IAPP 2011, IEF 2013) and SOLARERANET programmes), 5 bilateral cooperative actions between France and Spain and Germany and Spain, and 4 industrial projects. He is co-author of 318 scientific publications (including 160 papers in ISI international journals and 9 invited reviews), with an h factor of 29, and an average of 456 citations per year in the last 4 years and has supervised 8 Master Thesis and 10 Doctoral Thesis.
Thanks to almost 40 years of development, colloidally grown semiconductor nanomaterials have now reached an impressive level of control with atomically precise growth and advanced control of interaction with light through growth of heterostructure and coupling to photonics structures. Thus, this symposium aims to cover all aspects from the development of new synthetic process and discovery of new functional materials to the most advanced applications of the materials including optoelectronics (solar cell, detector, LED....), photonics, quantum and bio applications.
- Chemistry: emerging materials and synthetic procedures including self assembly.
- Spectroscopy: static and time resolved spectroscopy, beyond optical method.
- Modelling: electronic structure, and optical effect.
- Device: light emission and detection, active photonic.
- Emerging direction: complex state of light, quantum optics.
Emmanuel Lhuillier has been undergraduate student at ESPCI in Paris and then followed a master in condensed matter physics from university Pierre and Marie Curie. He was then PhD student under the mentorship of Emmanuel Rosencher at Onera in the optics department, where he work on transport in quantum well heterostructure. As post doc he moved to the group of Philippe Guyot-Sionnest in the university of Chicago, and start working on infrared nanocrystal. Then he moved back to ESPCI for a second post in the group of Benoit Dubertret working on optoelectronic properties of colloidal nanoplatelets. Since 2015 he is a CNRS researcher at Institute for nanoscience of Paris at Sorbinne université. His research activities are focused on optoelectronic properties of confined Nanomaterial with a special interest on infrared system. He receive in 2017 an ERC starting grant to investigate infrared colloidal materials.
Professor Uri Banin is the incumbent of the Larisch Memorial Chair at the Institute of Chemistry and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU). Dr. Banin was the founding director of the Harvey M. Kreuger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2001-2010) and led the program of the Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative at HU (2007-2010). He served on the University’s Executive Committee and on its board of managers and was a member of the board of Yissum. He served on the scientific advisory board of Nanosys. In 2009 Banin was the scientific founder of Qlight Nanotech, a start-up company based on his inventions, developing the use of nanocrystals in display and lighting applications. Since 2013, Banin is an Associate Editor of the journal Nano Letters. His distinctions include the Rothschild and Fulbright postdoctoral fellowships (1994-1995), the Alon fellowship for young faculty (1997-2000), the Yoram Ben-Porat prize (2000), the Israel Chemical Society young scientist award (2001), the Michael Bruno Memorial Award (2007-2010), and the Tenne Family prize for nanoscale science (2012). He received two European Research Council (ERC) advanced investigator grant, project DCENSY (2010-2015), and project CoupledNC (2017-2022). Banin’s research focuses on nanoscience and nanotechnology of nanocrystals and he authored over 180 scientific publications in this field that have been extensively cited.
Alexander Bessonov is the Director of Engineering at Quantum Solutions, where he leads device engineering initiatives and drives advancements in quantum dot semiconductor research. His extensive expertise lies in optoelectronic device architectures and manufacturing process development, with a focus on nanomaterial sensors, flexible displays, and printed electronics systems. Alexander earned his first degree and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Novosibirsk Science Centre in Russia. His professional journey includes significant roles at industry giants Samsung Electronics and Nokia Technologies between 2008 and 2016. From 2016 to 2022, he served as the Chief Engineer at Emberion. Alexander has made notable contributions to the field, co-authoring over 60 patent applications and academic papers.
Maria Ibáñez was born in La Sénia (Spain). She graduated in physics at the University of Barcelona, where she also obtained her PhD in 2013, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Cabot and Prof. Dr. Morante. Her PhD thesis was qualified Excellent Cum Laude and awarded with the Honors Doctorate by the University of Barcelona. Her PhD research was funded by a Spanish competitive grant (FPU) which supported her to conduct short-term research stays in cutting-edge laboratories. In particular she worked at CEA Grenoble (2009), the University of Chicago (2010), the California Institute of Technology (2011), the Cornell University (2012) and the Northwestern University (2013). In 2014, she joined the group of Prof. Dr. Kovalenko at ETH Zürich and EMPA as a research fellow where in 2017 she received the Ružička Prize. In September 2018 she became an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at IST Austria and started the Functional Nanomaterials group.
Prashant K. Jain earned his PhD in physical chemistry working with M. A. El-Sayed at Georgia Tech, following which he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. After a Miller Fellowship at UC Berkeley, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is the G. L. Clark Professor of Physical Chemistry, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, and a Professor in the Materials Research Laboratory. He is also a University Scholar and an Affiliate Faculty Member of Physics and the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology (IQUIST).
Prof Jain’s lab studies nanoscale light–matter interactions and energy conversion. His noteworthy contributions are discoveries of plasmon resonances in quantum dots and plasmonic redox catalysis. His collective work has been published in over 115 papers and cited over 32,000 times. He has been listed among Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Analytics and Elsevier Scopus.
Prashant is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Chemical Physics and has previously been an advisory board member of the Journal of Physical Chemistry and a member of Defense Science Study group (DSSG).
His work has been recognized, among other awards, by a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Leo Hendrik Baekeland award, the ACS Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry award, the ACS Akron Award, the ACS Unilever Award the Beilby medal, a Sloan Fellowship, an NSF CAREER award, and selection as MIT TR35 inventor and a Beckman Young Investigator.
Peter Reiss is researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG), France, and Head of the Laboratory Synthesis, Structure and Properties of Functional Materials (STEP). He graduated from University of Karlsruhe (Germany), and earned his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Dieter Fenske (2000). His research activities focus on the synthesis and properties of colloidal semiconductor quantum dots and metal halide perovskites (nanoparticles and thin films). The studied applications range from biological imaging / detection over LEDs and displays to new strategies for energy conversion (photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, photocatalysis) and storage. Dr. Reiss acts as Associate Editor for Nanoscale Research Letters and Frontiers in Materials - Energy Materials, and is Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports. He co-organizes the biennial conference NaNaX – Nanoscience with Nanocrystals (cf. http://nanax.org).
The Nanotechnology Research Group at the Bernal Institute is led by Professor Kevin M. Ryan who holds a Personal Chair in Chemical Nanotechnology and is Course Director of the Pharmaceutical and Industrial Chemistry Degree at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Sciences (CES), University of Limerick. Previous affiliations included Marie Curie Fellowship positions at the University of California, Berkeley, USA and Merck Chemicals Southampton, UK following BSc and PhD degrees at University College Cork. The group research Interests are in Semiconductor Nanocrystals and Nanowires with emphasis on Synthesis, Assembly and Device Applications in Energy Storage and Energy Conversion Applications. The group also studies nucleation and growth in both hard (metal, semiconductor) and soft (pharmaceutical) nanocrystal materials with emphasis on size, shape and crystal phase control.
James Utterback’s research focuses on ultrafast optical spectroscopy and microscopy of energy relaxation and transport in materials for optoelectronic applications.
CNRS Researcher | Researcher; Institute of Nanosciences of Paris; Sorbonne University | 2023 – present
Postdoctoral Fellow | Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow; University of California, Berkeley | 2019 – 2022
PhD in Chemistry | NSF Graduate Research Fellow; University of Colorado, Boulder | 2013 – 2018
B.S. in Physics | Goldwater Scholar & Undergraduate Research Fellow; University of Oregon | 2007 – 2011
Javier Vela is a University Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State University. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He serves on the editorial advisory boards of ACS Energy Letters, Chemistry of Materials, Chemistry–An Asian Journal, and ChemNanoMat. Along with former and current coworkers, Dr. Vela is the author of over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents on nanostructured materials, inorganic compounds, and their application to energy conversion, chemical catalysis, and fluorescence imaging. He has directed nineteen doctoral and four master’s theses and successfully mentored numerous undergraduate researchers, among them three NSF graduate research fellowship awardees.
Dr. Vela has been a faculty scientist with the Ames National Laboratory since 2010. An active member of the American Chemical Society, he has served as Councilor for the Ames local section, Program Chair for the Midwest Regional Meeting in Ames in 2018, Treasurer of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, and member of the Committee on Committees (ConC). He also worked as Equity Advisor for the ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 2015 to 2021. Dr. Vela holds a BS (Lic.) in Chemistry from UNAM and a PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of Rochester. After postdoctoral stints at the University of Chicago and Los Alamos National Laboratory, he joined Iowa State University in 2009. He was granted tenure in 2015, rose to the rank of full professor in 2019, and was named University Professor in 2020. He also held the rotating John D. Corbett Endowed Professorship from 2020 to 2023.
Javier Vela is a University Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State University. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He serves on the editorial advisory boards of ACS Energy Letters, Chemistry of Materials, Chemistry–An Asian Journal, and ChemNanoMat. Along with former and current coworkers, Dr. Vela is the author of over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents on nanostructured materials, inorganic compounds, and their application to energy conversion, chemical catalysis, and fluorescence imaging. He has directed nineteen doctoral and four master’s theses and successfully mentored numerous undergraduate researchers, among them three NSF graduate research fellowship awardees.
Dr. Vela has been a faculty scientist with the Ames National Laboratory since 2010. An active member of the American Chemical Society, he has served as Councilor for the Ames local section, Program Chair for the Midwest Regional Meeting in Ames in 2018, Treasurer of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, and member of the Committee on Committees (ConC). He also worked as Equity Advisor for the ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 2015 to 2021. Dr. Vela holds a BS (Lic.) in Chemistry from UNAM and a PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of Rochester. After postdoctoral stints at the University of Chicago and Los Alamos National Laboratory, he joined Iowa State University in 2009. He was granted tenure in 2015, rose to the rank of full professor in 2019, and was named University Professor in 2020. He also held the rotating John D. Corbett Endowed Professorship from 2020 to 2023. Dr. Vela grew up in Xalapa (Veracruz), Mexico and became a Naturalized US Citizen in 2013.
Colloidal quantum dots (QD) are promising materials for a range of applications ranging from light emission and display to photocatalysis. Underlying the performance output of these applications lies in their fundamental size, surface and compositions dependent photophysical properties. The aim of this symposium will be to reunite a community of researchers studying the optical properties of nanocrystal on both the single QD and ensemble level. We will bring together leading researchers on single QD spectroscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy with scientist invested in the assembly of optoelectronic devices and energy transfer processes. We aim at a symposium with several renowned keynote speakers, excellent invited speakers followed by a session of contributed talks, with ample time for questions and discussions. We will strongly encourage abstract submission for contributed talks and Posters, which will allow for a wide variety of researchers to share their exciting work. We will ensure the diversity of our speakers.
- Single QD photophysics and QDs for quantum light sources.
- Ultrafast spectroscopy and microscopy.
- Optoelectronic devices, light emitting diodes, photovoltaics, photodetectors and more.
- Energy transfer, photon upconversion, photocatalysis.
Jaco Geuchies uses advanced (nonlinear) spectroscopic techniques to study the flow of energy, electrons and heat through various kinds of materials, ranging from colloidal nanocrystals (also known as quantum dots) to metal-halide perovskites and electrochemical systems. By creating ultrafast snapshots of the fundamental processes that govern the flow of energy, he aims to rationally manipulate materials to enhance their functionality in energy-related applications.
Mark W.B. Wilson (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, where his team strives to understand the synthesis, structure, and photophysics of colloidal quantum dots (and functionalized, hybrid architectures) to advance their use in photonic & optoelectronic applications. A present focus is advancing nanocrystal-sensitized triplet-fusion upconversion. His first degrees were in Engineering Physics and History at Queen’s University (Kingston). He next received a PhD in Physics (2012) from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof. Sir Richard Friend. Then, as a member of the Centre for Excitonics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he pursued postdoctoral studies (2012-2016) with Prof. Moungi Bawendi (Chemistry), before starting his independent career.
Photoelectrochemical water splitting or CO2 reduction present two approaches of using renewable resources and abundant feedstocks (water and CO2) for the processing of fuels and valuable chemicals. This symposium will provide a platform for discussion of research on photoelectrochemical water splitting and CO2 reduction with a focus on degradation, longevity, robustness, stability and reliability of such devices and the materials used. The underlying process presents many challenges, including photoabsorber and co-catalyst design, branching mechanisms leading to degradation, challenges in managing multi-physical transport, and development of reactors for conversion with high stability while maintaining high efficiency. This symposium will feature recent progress in addressing these challenges by approaches spanning catalyst design, operando methods for characterization, and device engineering, covering computational as well as experimental methods.
ORAL CONTRIBUTION PRIZE
🏅 Best Oral Contribution prize valued at 150€
🏅 2nd Best Oral Contribution prize valued at 100€
🏅 3rd Best Oral Contribution prize valued at 50€
POSTER PRESENTATION PRIZE:
🏅 Best Poster Presentation prize valued at 150€
🏅 2nd Best Poster Presentation prize valued at 100€
🏅 3rd Best Poster Presentation prize valued at 50€
- Ab-initio investigation of degradation.
- Degradation mechanisms.
- Degradation characterization.
- Design and implementation of stable devices.
Sophia Haussener is a Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and experimentation. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) between 2011 and 2012. She has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award (2019), and is a recipient of a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014).
Joel W. Ager III is a Staff Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an Adjunct Full Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, UC Berkeley. He is a Principal Investigator in the Electronic Materials Program and in the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at LBNL and in the Berkeley Educational Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS) where he serves as Co-Lead PI of the eCO2EP project with Cambridge University. He graduated from Harvard College in 1982 with an A.B in Chemistry and from the University of Colorado in 1986 with a PhD in Chemical Physics. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Heidelberg, he joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1989. His research interests include the fundamental electronic and transport properties of semiconducting materials, discovery of new photoelectrochemical and electrochemical catalysts for solar to chemical energy conversion, and the development of new types of transparent conductors. Professor Ager is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences and has published over 300 papers in refereed journals. His work is highly cited, with over 30,000 citations and an h-index of 85 (Google Scholar).
Doing my BSc/MSc in Physics and PhD in an interdisciplinary program crossing the disciplines like Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology, and Electrochemistry made me who I am today – a scientist who enjoys the challenge of multifaceted research.
I enjoy doing basic research in order to solve applied tasks. This explains my research interest in fundamental physical chemistry, e.g. oxidation and dissolution of metals and semiconductors, electrocatalysis, and electrochemistry at modified interfaces but also electrochemical engineering, e.g. development and optimization of catalyst layers in fuel cells and water electrolyzes.
Progress in basic research is often a direct outcome of previous achievements in experimental instrumentation. Hence, a significant part of my interest is in the development of new tools, e.g. electrochemical on-line mass spectrometry, gas diffusion electrode approaches, and high-throughput screening methods.
Dr. Deutsch has been studying photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting since interning in Dr. John A. Turner’s lab at NREL in 1999 and 2000. He performed his graduate studies on III-V semiconductor water-splitting systems under the joint guidance of Dr. Turner and Prof. Carl A. Koval in the Chemistry Department at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Todd officially joined NREL as a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Turner’s group in August 2006 and became a staff scientist two years later. He works on identifying and characterizing appropriate materials for generating hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight as the only energy input. Recently, his work has focused on inverted metamorphic multijunction III-V semiconductors and corrosion remediation strategies for high-efficiency water-splitting photoelectrodes. Todd has been honored as an Outstanding Mentor by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science nine times in recognition of his work as an advisor to more than 30 students in the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program at NREL.
Verena Streibel studied Materials Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt (2007-2013). She completed her doctoral studies at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, focusing on in situ X-ray spectroscopy during electrochemical water splitting (2016). For her postdoctoral studies, she joined the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis at Stanford University (2018-2020), specializing in density functional theory-based microkinetic modeling of heterogeneous catalysis. In 2021, she joined the Walter Schottky Institute of the technical University of Munich, where she has been leading a BMBF Junior Research Group on artificial photosynthesis since 2024.
Verena's research focuses on surface and interface investigations to elucidate dynamic material changes during (photo)electrochemical processes for energy conversion. To this end, she combines (X-ray) spectroscopy methods under reaction conditions with theoretical modeling. With her research group, she develops thin-film photoelectrode materials and couples them to catalyst systems for solar fuels synthesis.
Electrocatalysis is a blooming field, and electrochemical devices such as fuel cells and electrolyzers promise to help tackle major energetic and environmental challenges. Computational and theoretical tools are already available (or being developed) to understand and deconvolute complex phenomena at electrochemical interfaces and guide the design of enhanced electrode materials. This symposium aims to gather consolidated and up-and-coming scientists to present and discuss the latest developments in computational modelling of CO electroreduction, O reduction and evolution, hydrogen evolution, and nitrogen cycle electrocatalysis. Contributions with a focus on electrocatalytic materials design, machine learning, adsorbate solvation, applied potential, electrolyte and pH effects, electrochemical reaction kinetics, double-layer effects, and related concepts, are welcome in this symposium.
- CO2 electroreduction
- O2 electrocatalysis
- Nitrogen cycle electrocatalysis
- Hydrogen evolution
- Computational methods
Giancarlo Cicero received a M.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Torino in 1997 and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the Politecnico di Torino in 2003. In 2004, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he studied the properties of water in confined media. Since October 2008, he has been working at the Politecnico di Torino, where he is now a full professor in the Structure of Matter. His research activity is devoted to ab initio simulations of surfaces, interfaces, and nanostructured materials with applications in renewable energy systems and sustainable processes.
Dr. Samira Siahrostami is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Prior to that, she was an associate professor (2022-2023) and assistant professor (2018-2022) in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary. Prior to that, she was a research engineer (2016–2018) and postdoctoral researcher (2014–2016) at Stanford University's Department of Chemical Engineering. She also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Denmark from 2011 to 2013. Her work uses computational techniques such as density functional theory to model reactions at (electro)catalyst surfaces. Her goal is to develop more efficient catalysts for fuel cells, electrolyzers, and batteries by comprehending the kinetics and thermodynamics of reactions occurring at the surface of (electro)catalysts. Dr. Siahrostami has written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles with an h-index of 47 and over 13,000 citations. She has received numerous invitations to give talks at universities, conferences, and workshops around the world on various topics related to catalysis science and technology. Dr. Siahrostami is the recipient of the Environmental, Sustainability, and Energy Division Horizon Prize: John Jeyes Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in 2021. She received the Tom Zeigler Award and the Waterloo Institute in Nanotechnology Rising Star award in 2023. She has been named as an emerging investigator by the RSC in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Dr. Siahrostami's contribution to energy research was recognized in the most recent Virtual Issue of ACS Energy Letters as one of the Women at the forefront of energy research in 2023. She is currently the board member of the Canadian Catalysis Foundation and editor of Chemical Engineering Journal (CEJ) and APL Energy journal (AIP Publishing).
Electrochemistry is crucial for the transition to a sustainable society, opening pathways for green fuels production, eco-friendly energy storage and CO2-neutral synthesis of commodity-chemicals. The accurate modelling of electrocatalytic processes under realistic conditions sheds light on the mechanisms that rule the activity, selectivity, and stability of a catalyst, toward the design of novel materials with improved performances.
Ab initio calculations offer unique insights on reaction mechanisms and material properties, enabling the definition of simple yet complete models for electrochemical cells. Electrolyte effects such as concentration of species and their mass transport can be assessed through dedicated numerical multiphysics methods. Finally, machine-learning algorithms promise to facilitate the exploration of catalysts’ properties over larger time-, length-, and chemical spaces.
This symposium will foster a multi-disciplinary and collaborative environment, bridging the atomistic scale till the industrially relevant ones and encouraging the circulation of novel ideas and recent milestones in the theory and modelling of electrochemical processes.
To this end, established and emerging leaders in the development of methods for the accurate modelling of electrochemical reactions, solid- liquid electrified interfaces and solute-solvent interactions will present their latest research achievements. Young researchers' active participation will be also fostered through dedicated oral and poster contributions spots.
- Ab initio modelling of electrochemical processes
- Theory of electrochemical processes
- Water-metal and water-oxide electrochemical interfaces
- Modelling of electrolyte effects in electrochemical processes
- Multiphysics modelling of gas diffusion electrodes
- Machine learning accelerated screening of electrocatalysts
- Machine learning accelerated analysis of experimental datasets
Federico got his M.Sc. in Physics at the University of Turin in 2017, with a thesis on photoelectrochemical cells carried out at Chalmers University of Technology. In 2020, he got his Marie Skłodowska Curie Ph.D. in Chemical Science and Technology at the Rovira i Virgili University within the project ELCoREL (GA-722614) under the co-supervision of Prof. Núria López and Dr. Rodrigo García-Muelas. After one-year post-doc fellowship at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, from March 2022 he is a postdoctoral researcher in the CREST group at the Polytechnic of Turin under the supervision of Prof. Simelys Hernández. His research focuses on modeling electrochemical CO2 and CO reduction on transition metal catalysts.
assistant professor, materials science engineering department, mechanical engineering faculty, TU Delft, NL
The symposium will be an exciting gathering of leading scientists, researchers, and experts in the field of electrochemistry, sustainability, and carbon management. This event will explore groundbreaking developments and innovations in the (photo)electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable and sustainable products.
Our symposium aims to provide a comprehensive platform for discussing the latest breakthroughs in CO (photo)electroreduction, a critical technology in the fight against climate change. The program will feature a diverse range of topics, including catalyst design, reaction mechanisms, energy efficiency, reactor design and simulation, advanced characterizations, and scaling up electrochemical processes. Prominent speakers from academia, industry, and government agencies will present their research findings and discuss the potential applications of CO reduction technologies.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in stimulating discussions, network with peers, and forge collaborations to drive progress towards a greener, more sustainable future. Join us at this symposium as we collectively explore and shape the future of electrochemical CO reduction, contributing to a world where CO becomes a valuable resource rather than a greenhouse gas.
- (Photo)Electrocatalysts
- Reactors/Electrolyzers
- Simulations
- Reaction Mechanisms
- Advanced (in situ/in operando) characterization
- Life Cycle Assessment
- Techno-Economic Analysis
Dr. Deepak Pant is a Senior Scientist at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Belgium. His research focuses on bioenergy, specifically, the design and optimization of bio-electrochemical systems for energy recovery from wastewater and microbial electrosynthesis for production of value-added chemicals through electrochemically driven bio-processes. He has 3 books (on Springer, Elsevier and CRC Press), 4 Patents, 125 peer-reviewed publications with >9300 citations (h-index 55) and 28 book chapters to his credit. He is a member of scientific communities like ISMET, ISE, BES, BRSI, IFIBiop and AMI. He is an Editorial board member for ‘Bioresource Technology’, ‘Electronic Journal of Biotechnology’, ‘Biofuel Research Journal’, ‘Heliyon’ and ‘Frontiers in Environmental Science’ and Editor for the new Elsevier Journal “Bioresource Technology Reports”.
Guillermo Díaz-Sainz received his Degree in Chemical Engineering (2015) from the University of Cantabria and his MSc. in Chemical Engineering (2017) delivered from the University of Cantabria (UC) and the University of the Basque Country. In 2021, he completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Energy and Processes focused on the development of processes for CO2 electrocatalytic reduction to formate. He is currently integrated into the Research Group DePRO (Development of Chemical Processes and Pollution Control), and at present, he is Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. Currently, the research activity and mid/long term interests of Dr. Diaz-Sainz are mainly focused on the development of an innovative process for the CO2 capture and photo/electrochemical conversion in products of interest, and at the same time, the production of green hydrogen by electrolyzers.
Sophia Haussener is a Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and experimentation. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) between 2011 and 2012. She has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award (2019), and is a recipient of a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014).
Matthew T. Mayer is presently leader of a Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, studying electrochemical and photoelectrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Boston College, and performed postdoctoral studies at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces.
Director of Strategic Projects at APRIA Systems SL & Part time Assistant Professor at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department from the University of Cantabria (UC), Spain. After concluding her doctoral thesis, E. Santos spent a period of two years at the UC as postdoctoral researcher until she joins the private company APRIA Systems SL with a Torres Quevedo Grant in 2016. She has worked as project manager on different projects including the valorization of CO2 streams, obtaining green H2 as an energy vector applied to the sustainable mobility sector or the recovery of fluorinated gases from the refrigeration industry, among others. In 2023 she is promoted to Director of Strategic Projects.
As a result of her scientific activity, E. Santos has reported a total of 22 publications, of which 9 are in high-impact international journals indexed in JCR and 13 contributions to conference books with ISBN. Her work has received a total of 615 citations, with an h index of 9 (Scopus) in a short period of time and taking into account the work dedication to the world of private business where the dissemination of knowledge through the publication of scientific papers is not usual practice. The results have been disseminated in 30 international conferences (2 keynote and 15 oral communications defended by E. Santos). E. Santos has worked on 30 research projects (11 European projects, 12 national and 7 regional. E. Santos has supervised 2 Doctoral thesis (Industrial Doctorate) and 1 Master's thesis in the field of chemical engineering.
Damien VOIRY is a graduate of the École nationale supérieure de chimie et de physique de Bordeaux (ENSCPB) and obtained his PhD at the Centre de recherche Paul Pascal (CRPP) of the University of Bordeaux in 2010. From 2011 to 2016, Damien was a postdoctoral associate in Professor Manish Chhowalla's group at Rutgers University in the USA. His postdoctoral work focused on modifying the crystal structures of metal chalcogenide nanosheets for electrocatalysis and electronics. Since February 2016, he has been a CNRS researcher at the Institut Européen des Membranes in Montpellier. His current research aims to explore the use of low-dimensional materials to fabricate multifunctional membranes for separation and energy applications. After joining the CNRS, he focused his research on 2D materials for energy conversion and nanofluidics. In 2018, he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to study the photo-electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 using 2D materials. He has received several awards including the CNRS Bronze Medal (2020), the Young Researcher Award from the French Chemical Society (2022) and the Innovation Award from the University of Montpellier (2024). He is a member of the Jeune Académie d'Europe since 2020.
In the transition towards Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions, there is significant interest in phasing out fossil fuels in the energy and chemical sectors. With a circular economy mindset, one attractive solution is producing fossil fuel alternatives from the accumulated waste stream, such as biomass from food and agriculture waste, plastic waste and polluted wastewater from industry. (Photo)electrochemical conversion has recently emerged as a promising avenue in this direction due to its sustainable process, eliminating the use of hazardous reagents, and low carbon emission when coupled with renewable energy sources. Currently, the design of efficient and stable catalyst materials, and the scaling up feasibility pose a bottleneck for commercialization. Therefore, this symposium invites contributions in scientific developments with atomistic level theory, fundamental electrochemistry, spectroscopy, materials synthesis, life-cycle and technoeconomic analysis that ultimately bring us a step closer towards establishing a Net-Zero circular economy.
- Biomass-to-chemical (glycerol, furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural, glucose, lignin, etc)
- (Photo)electrochemical biomass reforming for hydrogen production
- Methanol/ethanol fuel cells
- Plastic derived feedstock valorisation
- Combining waste feedstock oxidation with CO2 reduction
- Methane oxidation
- (Photo)electro-synthesis
- Wastewater treatment with (photo)electrocatalysis
Dr Hui Luo is an independent academic fellow in the School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences at the University of Surrey, UK. She is also a Fellow of the Institute for Sustainability, member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (MIMMM).
Dr. Luo obtained her PhD in Queen Mary University of London in 2019, working on carbon materials for solar hydrogen conversion. in Oct 2019 she moved to Imperial College London working as a research associate, developing biomass electrolyser for green hydrogen and bio-chemical co-production. In Sep 2022 she worked as a senior test engineering at Ceres, before taking the Surrey Future Fellowship and join Surrey in May 2023.
Her research interests include developing and up-scaling efficient electrolysis technologies to convert biomass and plastic wastes into green hydrogen and high-value commodity chemicals. Her expertise includes nanomaterials synthesis and characterisation, water electrolysis and fuel cell technologies, in operando Synchrotron X-ray absorption, surface enhanced Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, as well as gas and liquid chromatography.
Corina Andronescu received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University Politehnica of Bucharest (Romania) in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Her Ph.D. title she received from the same university in 2014. In 2016 she joined the group of Prof. W. Schuhmann (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) first as postdoctoral researcher and later as group leader. December 2018, she was appointed Junior Professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she is currently leading the group of Electrochemical Catalysis in the Faculty of Chemistry. Her research interests include development of hybrid electrocatalysts for the CO2 electroreduction reaction, alcohol electrooxidation as well as investigation of electrocatalysts at nanoscale using Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy.
Sixto Giménez (M. Sc. Physics 1996, Ph. D. Physics 2002) is Associate Professor at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His professional career has been focused on the study of micro and nanostructured materials for different applications spanning from structural components to optoelectronic devices. During his PhD thesis at the University of Navarra, he studied the relationship between processing of metallic and ceramic powders, their sintering behavior and mechanical properties. He took a Post-Doc position at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven where he focused on the development of non-destructive and in-situ characterization techniques of the sintering behavior of metallic porous materials. In January 2008, he joined the Group of Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Devices of University Jaume I where he is involved in the development of new concepts for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices based on nanoscaled materials, particularly studying the optoelectronic and electrochemical responses of the devices by electrical impedance spectroscopy. He has co-authored more than 80 scientific papers in international journals and has received more than 5000 citations. His current h-index is 31.
Professor Erwin Reisner received his education and professional training at the University of Vienna (PhD in 2005), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (postdoc from 2005-2007) and the University of Oxford (postdoc from 2008-2009). He joined the University of Cambridge as a University Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry in 2010, became a Fellow of St. John’s College in 2011, was appointed to Reader in 2015 and to his current position of Professor of Energy and Sustainability in 2017. He started his independent research programme on artificial photosynthesis (solar fuels) with the support of an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship (2009-2015), which also received substantial early support by the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Sustainable SynGas Chemistry (2012-2019). In 2016, he received a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant to develop the field of semi-artificial photosynthesis (biohybrid systems for solar fuel synthesis) and has recently been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant (now funded by the UKRI underwrite scheme) on semi-biological domino catalysis for solar chemical production. He is the academic lead (PI) of the Cambridge Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas; since 2019), where his team develops solar-powered valorisation technologies for the conversion of solid waste streams (biomass and plastics) to fuels and chemicals. He has acted as the academic lead of the UK Solar Fuels Network, which coordinates the national activities in artificial photosynthesis (2017-2021) and is currently a co-director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrated Functional Nano (nanoCDT) in Cambridge as well as a member of the European research consortia ‘Sofia’ and ‘solar2chem'.
Pablo S. Fernández received his B.Sc (2006) and Ph.D. (2011) in the Research Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physical Chemistry (INIFTA) at the University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina under the supervision of Profa. Maria E. Martins. During 2012-2014 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the same institution. In 2014 he joined the Electrochemistry Group at the Chemistry Institute of São Carlos, USP, where he worked as a Postdoc with Prof. Germano Tremiliosi-Filho until August of the same year when he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Chemistry Institute of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Between 2010 and 2013 he visited the group of Prof. Giuseppe Câmara (UFMS-MS) where he worked intensively with FTIR in situ. From 07/2015 to 03/2016 he joined the Catalysis and Surface Chemistry Group, at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) working under the supervision of Prof. M.T.M. Koper. He is currently an Associate Professor at Unicamp, head of the Campinas Electrochemistry Group (CampEG) and an active member at the Center for Innovation on New Energies (CINE). He was the Director of the Physical Chemistry Division of SBQ (Brazilian Chemical Society, 2020-2022). Since 2020 is the Brazilian representative of the SIBAE (Ibero-American Society of Electrochemistry). His research focuses on fundamental aspects of electrochemistry and electrocatalysis with an emphasis on the use and development of in situ characterization tools.
Kevin Sivula obtained a PhD in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley in 2007. In 2011, after leading a research group in the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL, he was appointed tenure track assistant professor. He now heads the Laboratory for Molecular Engineering of Optoelectronic Nanomaterials (http://limno.epfl.ch) at EPFL.
Organic and inorganic nanostructured materials that enhance light-matter coupling can open new pathways for controlling charge, spin, light, and photochemical processes.
Generally, functional nanostructured materials are at the heart of technologies needed for a sustainable energy future. Their use covers green energy production in photovoltaics, renewable fuels, and more efficient energy consumption: for example in light-emitting applications and future information processing technologies.
Far less explored, yet extremely promising, are chiral nanomaterials and plasmonic nanostructures.
This symposium aims to facilitate cross-talk between the various research fields concerned with chiral functional nanomaterials. It will focus on the fundamental mechanisms relating the structures to the properties of chiral organic and inorganic materials, plasmonic cavities and metasurfaces for photochemistry, and topological materials.
Together as a community we aim to gain a deeper understanding of how these materials can unleash their full potential for device applications, and to uncover synergies by studying these fascinating materials from different backgrounds and characterization techniques, including optical, electrical, and electrochemical probes, from locally resolved materials studies to device-level measurements.
We will bring together leading nano-scientists interested in chiral optoelectronics, plasmonics, synthesis and advanced characterization, computational modelling, to enhance our understanding of these fascinating and promising materials.
- Chiral inorganic and organic nanomaterials & plasmonic structures
- Ultrafast dynamics of plasmonic and chiral nanomaterials
- Metasurfaces for photochemistry
- Plasmonic nanocavities and strong coupling
- Photophysics of chiral small molecules, supramolecular self-assemblies and polymers
- Photophysics of chiral halide perovskites and related materials
- Nanomaterials for spintronics & quantum technologies
- Topological materials
Sascha is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at EPFL and Head of the Laboratory for Energy Materials, as well as a Research Group Leader & Rowland Felllow at Harvard University's Rowland Institute for Science.
His group studies light-matter interactions to improve the efficiencies of solar cells, displays, and quantum applications for a sustainable energy future.
Prof. Magalí Lingenfelder is a PI with an excellent track record and a passion for atomically controlled interfaces. Her work contributes to the design of new materials by elucidating chemical processes by Scanning Probe Microscopies and Surface Sensitive Spectroscopies, including dynamic (bio) molecular recognition processes at the liquid/solid interface.
She created and led for over 10 years the Max Planck-EPFL laboratory for Molecular Nanoscience at EPFL campus in Switzerland, and is currently leading the Helvetia Institute for Science and Innovation.
She studied physical and biological chemistry at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina. In 2003, she finished her MSc thesis at the Max Planck Institute for the Solid State Research (MPI-FKF in Stuttgart, Germany) with seminal contributions to the field of metal-organic coordination networks on solid surfaces. She continued with her doctoral studies in Physics, and received the Otto Hahn medal of the Max Planck Society in 2008 for the microscopic understanding of the chiral recognition process with submolecular resolution. In her quest to study molecular recognition going from 2D to 3D complex systems, she made postdoctoral stays at the Institute of Materials Sciences in Barcelona, and at the Molecular Foundry of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in the US.
She is a committed mentor who directed 4 MSc theses, 5 PhD theses, and 5 postdocs. She advocates for problem-oriented interdisciplinary research, by pioneering the emerging field of BioNanoarchitectonics. She led 5 international research consortiums, delivered over 50 invited presentations, and organized 9 conferences and 4 doctoral schools. She and her team had received multiple awards and international recognitions for their creative and rigurous work on molecular recognition, chirality and operando studies at catalytic interfaces. In 2018, the Royal Society of Chemistry included her work in the first collection “Celebrating Excellence in Research: 100 Women of Chemistry”.
![](/img/nouser.png)
![](/img/nouser.png)
Emiliano is Professor in Experimental Physics and Energy Conversion at the Faculty of Physics, University of Munich (LMU), Germany and he is the academic lead of the Nanomaterials for Energy group. He is also a visiting researcher at the Materials Departments of both Tianjin University, China and Imperial College London, UK. Since 2024, Emiliano has been also elected as Associate Researcher at the TUM Catalysis Research Center (CRC) in Munich. Emiliano is also co-editor of the first book in Plasmonic Catalysis (Wiley, June 2021). He is also a member of the Editorial Board in several journals, including ACS Nano, ACS Energy Letters, Advanced Photonics Nexus and eScience.
Prashant K. Jain earned his PhD in physical chemistry working with M. A. El-Sayed at Georgia Tech, following which he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. After a Miller Fellowship at UC Berkeley, he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is the G. L. Clark Professor of Physical Chemistry, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, and a Professor in the Materials Research Laboratory. He is also a University Scholar and an Affiliate Faculty Member of Physics and the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology (IQUIST).
Prof Jain’s lab studies nanoscale light–matter interactions and energy conversion. His noteworthy contributions are discoveries of plasmon resonances in quantum dots and plasmonic redox catalysis. His collective work has been published in over 115 papers and cited over 32,000 times. He has been listed among Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Analytics and Elsevier Scopus.
Prashant is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Chemical Physics and has previously been an advisory board member of the Journal of Physical Chemistry and a member of Defense Science Study group (DSSG).
His work has been recognized, among other awards, by a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Leo Hendrik Baekeland award, the ACS Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry award, the ACS Akron Award, the ACS Unilever Award the Beilby medal, a Sloan Fellowship, an NSF CAREER award, and selection as MIT TR35 inventor and a Beckman Young Investigator.
Reiko Oda studied up to her undergraduate degree in Tokyo, then obtained her PhD in Physics from MIT. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Strasbourg University, then moved to Bordeaux University to start her own group and got the CNRS researcher position in 2000. Since 2023, she also works in AIMR, Tohoku University as a University Research Lead.
Her research focuses on multiscale design, synthesis, and application through molecular self-organization, particularly interested in the hierarchical chirality amplification mechanisms between molecular, supramolecular and mesoscopic chiral structures. Oda has been working on rare microstructures controlled by chiral nano-assemblies used as templates to create hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructures. This research involves the development of chiral nanomaterials with controllable morphology, considering their optical, mechanical, and biological applications.
Professor Erwin Reisner received his education and professional training at the University of Vienna (PhD in 2005), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (postdoc from 2005-2007) and the University of Oxford (postdoc from 2008-2009). He joined the University of Cambridge as a University Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry in 2010, became a Fellow of St. John’s College in 2011, was appointed to Reader in 2015 and to his current position of Professor of Energy and Sustainability in 2017. He started his independent research programme on artificial photosynthesis (solar fuels) with the support of an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship (2009-2015), which also received substantial early support by the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Sustainable SynGas Chemistry (2012-2019). In 2016, he received a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant to develop the field of semi-artificial photosynthesis (biohybrid systems for solar fuel synthesis) and has recently been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant (now funded by the UKRI underwrite scheme) on semi-biological domino catalysis for solar chemical production. He is the academic lead (PI) of the Cambridge Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas; since 2019), where his team develops solar-powered valorisation technologies for the conversion of solid waste streams (biomass and plastics) to fuels and chemicals. He has acted as the academic lead of the UK Solar Fuels Network, which coordinates the national activities in artificial photosynthesis (2017-2021) and is currently a co-director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrated Functional Nano (nanoCDT) in Cambridge as well as a member of the European research consortia ‘Sofia’ and ‘solar2chem'.
To deliver the next generation of battery technologies a concerted materials design effort across length scales combining computation, experiment and engineering is required. In this symposium, we invite contributions on topics ranging across atomic scale modelling and experimental synthesis of battery materials; from the isolated bulk materials and interfaces, to device fabrication and modelling. Applications of advanced in situ characterisation, cutting edge synthesis methods, and novel device configurations are welcomed. Finally, contributions containing a firm focus on circularity and sustainability in battery design and how this should be incorporated into the design process are invited.
- Novel materials for lithium and post-lithium ion batteries
- Novel battery technologies and device configurations
- Electrode fabrication
- Novel electrolytes
- Sustainable practice in battery fabrication
- Battery modelling from DFT to continuum scale
- Recycling challenges
- Designing for circularity
- Advanced characterisation
Heather is a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.
She obtained her PhD in 2017 from Imperial College developing covalent modification strategies on carbon nanomaterials. She was a postdoctoral research associate at Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College, where her research interests shifted to investigating charge storage mechanisms in sodium-ion battery anodes, and later a Faraday Institution Research Fellow, working on the development of engineered carbon hosts for sulfur cathodes in lithium-sulfur batteries.
Heather was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2023, allowing her to establish an independent research team exploring sustainable materials for structural energy storage.
Saiful Islam is Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in London and obtained his Chemistry degree and PhD from University College London. He then worked at the Eastman Kodak Labs, New York, and the Universities of Surrey and Bath.
His current research focuses on understanding atomistic and nano-scale processes in perovskite halides for solar cells, and in new materials for lithium batteries. Saiful has received several awards including the 2022 Royal Society Hughes Medal and 2020 American Chemical Society Award in Energy Chemistry. He presented the 2016 BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on the theme of energy and is a Patron of Humanists UK.
Wei Yu received his Ph.D. in material science and engineering from Tsinghua University in 2018 with Prof. Feiyu Kang. He then did his postdoctoral research for two years with Prof. Ce-Wen Nan, also at Tsinghua University. In November 2020, he joined Prof. Hirotomo Nishihara’s group at Tohoku University as a specially appointed assistant professor and was promoted to assistant professor in April 2023. His research interests include the development of high-performance electrodes/electrolytes and the design of in situ battery characterization systems for advanced batteries.
To overcome the computational bottlenecks for artificial intelligence-based applications, the development of brain-inspired neuromorphic computing is vouched as a potential solution. There is growing demand for technology beyond silicon as electronic materials for neuromorphic artificial intelligence devices, to address adherent issues associated with conventional CMOS technology, including volatility and energy inefficiency. In society's mission to reduce energy consumption, there is a rising demand for emerging technology such as electronic materials to reduce silicon reliance for neuromorphic devices. Armed with energy efficiency and exceptional flexibility, halide perovskites can emulate the features of synaptic functions in the human brain. Recent advancements in memristive and memory technologies have spurred interest in the construction of effective and high-performing neuromorphic computing systems. In addition to being energy-efficient and versatile, metal oxides organic semiconductors, halide perovskites, 2D materials, chalcogenides, piezoelectric materials, and magnetics materials, can mimic the properties of synaptic processes in the human brain. The materials and device aspects for low-power switching neuromorphic devices, as well as characterization procedures, will be the main topics of this conference along with the emerging fields of bioinspired ionic-electronic-photonic materials.
POSTER PRESENTATION PRIZE
🏅 Best Poster Presentation prize valued at 250€ from Elsevier
🏅 Best Poster Presentation prize valued at 250€ from Elsevier
- Neuromorphic Devices
- Resistive switching memories
- Memristive devices
- Halide Perovskite for synapses
- Organic semiconductors
- Nanocrystals and low-dimensional halide perovskites
- Characterization protocols
- Low-power neuromorphic devices
- Human brain interface
- Relearning functionality
- Interfacing biological neurons and electronics
- Inoperendo growth
Juan Bisquert (pHD Universitat de València, 1991) is a Professor of applied physics at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain. He is the director of the Institute of Advanced Materials at UJI. He authored 360 peer reviewed papers, and a series of books including . Physics of Solar Cells: Perovskites, Organics, and Photovoltaics Fundamentals (CRC Press). His h-index 95, and is currently a Senior Editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He conducts experimental and theoretical research on materials and devices for production and storage of clean energies. His main topics of interest are materials and processes in perovskite solar cells and solar fuel production. He has developed the application of measurement techniques and physical modeling of nanostructured energy devices, that relate the device operation with the elementary steps that take place at the nanoscale dimension: charge transfer, carrier transport, chemical reaction, etc., especially in the field of impedance spectroscopy, as well as general device models. He has been distinguished in the 2014-2019 list of ISI Highly Cited Researchers.
Bruno Ehrler is leading the Hybrid Solar Cells group at AMOLF in Amsterdam since 2014 and is also a honorary professor at the University of Groningen since 2020. His group focuses on perovskite materials science, both on the fundamental level, and for device applications. He is recipient of an ERC Starting Grant and an NWO Vidi grant, advisory board member of the Dutch Chemistry Council, recipient of the WIN Rising Star award, and senior conference editor for nanoGe.
Before moving to Amsterdam, he was a research fellow in the Optoelectronics Group at Cambridge University following post-doctoral work with Professor Sir Richard Friend. During this period, he worked on quantum dots, doped metal oxides and singlet fission photovoltaics. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Neil Greenham, studying hybrid solar cells from organic semiconductors and inorganic quantum dots. He received his MSci from the University of London (Queen Mary) studying micro-mechanics in the group of Professor David Dunstan.
2022 Science Board member Netherlands Energy Research Alliance (NERA)
2021 Member steering committee National Growth fund application Duurzame MaterialenNL
2021 Member advisory board Dutch Chemistry Council
2020 Honorary professor Universty of Groningen for new hybrid material systems for solar-cell applications
2020 ERC starting Grant for work on aritifical synapses from halide perovskite
2019 Senior conference editor nanoGe
2018 WIN Rising Star award
2017 NWO Vidi Grant for work on metal halide perovskites
since 2014 Group Leader, Hybrid Solar Cell Group, Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam
2013 – 2014 Trevelyan Research Fellow, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge
2012-2013 Postdoctoral Work, University of Cambridge, Professor Sir Richard Friend
2009-2012 PhD in Physics, University of Cambridge, Professor Neil Greenham
2005 – 2009 Study of physics at RWTH Aachen and University of London, Queen Mary College, MSci University of London
Wolfgang Tress is currently working as a scientist at LPI, EPFL in Switzerland, with general interests in developing and studying novel photovoltaic concepts and technologies. His research focuses on the device physics of perovskite solar cells; most recently, investigating recombination and hysteresis phenomena in this emerging material system. Previously, he was analyzing and modeling performance limiting processes in organic solar cells.
Automation, robotics and methods from machine learning and artificial intelligence open new avenues in accelerating the way we discover materials for many sustainable applications, including energy materials (photovoltaics, solar thermal, catalysis, energy storage, carbon capture), light emission, but also medicinal drugs or fertilizers. This symposium focuses on providing a broad overview of recent developments in non-centralized self-driving laboratories and high-throughput experimentation for different applications, the creation of large material databases, and their use in redefining and accelerating the path of discovery.
- Energy Materials
- Drug Discovery
- Synthesis Robots and Automation
- High-Throughput Experimentation
- Databases
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
- Catalysis
Co-founder and CTO of the Swiss-American deep tech company Atinary Technologies that I launched in 2019, following a 2-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard University, and then University of Toronto and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto.
I obtained my PhD in 2016 from Zurich and Tianjin Universities on theoretical and quantum chemistry, and on the design and optimization of high-performance computing centers, after obtaining both my Bachelor and Master at EPFL, Lausanne.
At Atinary Technologies, I started from scratch together with my co-founder. We invented and commercialized a no-code machine learning platform to optimize experiment planning and help our client across industries accelerate their R&D. As an executive and board member, I develop the business and product strategy, and build a multi-disciplinary team that shares a common passion to unleash creativity at its full potential. I lived and conducted research and business in Europe, USA, Canada, and China, which contributes to my global approach and vision.
As an entrepreneur, scientist and nature-lover, I believe in a world where science and technology contribute to accelerating the transition to a sustainable planet and a circular economy.
Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIEs) can transport both ionic and electronic charges and are therefore ideal candidates for electrochemical devices. Those include electrochromic displays, energy-storage systems (batteries, supercapacitors) and organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), enabling exciting new opportunities for energy harvesting/storage, biomedical applications, and neuromorphic computing. This symposium provides a forum for discussing interdisciplinary research in organic ionic, electronic, and mixed ionic-electronic conductors. The emphasis will be on the following:
1. Provide a theoretical framework for the wide range of ionic, electronic, and mixed ionic-electronic transport processes in organic materials.
2. Understand the fundamental mechanisms of electrochemical doping processes in organic electronic devices.
3. Explore the impact of chemical functionality, (macro)molecular structure, and film morphology on ionic, electronic, and mixed ionic-electronic transport.
4. Discuss the challenges and opportunities for in-operando characterization of organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors, including spectroscopy, scattering, microbalance, microprobe, and electron microscopy.
ORAL CONTRIBUTION PRIZE
🏅 Best oral presentation prize valued as a free 1 year RSC membership (valued at £105) and social media promotion on their platforms from RSC journals Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Horizons.
- Electrical/electrochemical doping
- Structure-property relationships
- In-operando characterization
- Charge transport theory
Olivier joined ICPEES as independent young researcher (Chargé de Recherche) in February 2023. His interests are in understanding the chemical and electrochemical doping mechanisms of highly anisotropic and porous organic semiconductors for bioelectronic and thermoelectric applications. A physicist by training, he obtained his MSc in Nanoscience and Engineering Physics at the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Phelma, France) in partnership with Imperial College London (UK). To better understand the molecular design of the materials he was studying, he completed a PhD at Université Grenoble Alpes/CEA Grenoble (France) with Dr. Renaud Demadrille from 2016 to 2019. He focused on the organic synthesis of n-type polymers and their doping for thermoelectric and photovoltaic applications. From 2020 to 2023, he developed his skills in time-resolved spectroscopy and data analysis during a post-doctoral stay in the FemtoMat group of Prof. Natalie Banerji at the University of Bern. Notably, he improved the electronic performance of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) and identified energetical and morphological factors limiting the (de)doping kinetics of the polymer channel during device operation.
Loren G. Kaake is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University located in British Columbia, Canada. He obtained a B.A. in Chemistry from Saint John's University (MN) in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Minnesota in 2009. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Xiaoyang Zhu at the University of Texas in the department of Nanoscience and Engineering for 1.5 years before joining the lab of Alan J. Heeger at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral fellow. He began his independent career in 2014 at Simon Fraser University, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020.
Dr. Nicolas Leclerc received his PhD from the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris, France) in 2003. After completing his post-doctoral research at Laval University in Mario Leclerc's team (Québec, Canada), he joined the Institute of Chemistry and Processes for Energy, Environment and Health (ICPEES) of the University of Strasbourg (France) as a CNRS researcher in 2005. He has been appointed research director in 2020. He is the Head of the organic electronic team at ICPEES. His research interests focus on the development of new molecular and macromolecular organic semiconductor materials and their applications in optoelectronics.
Wouter Maes got his PhD in Chemistry with Professor Wim Dehaen at the Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven (Belgium) in 2005. After post-doctoral stays at the KU Leuven (postdoc of the Research Foundation – Flanders, FWO; with Professor Wim Dehaen), the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (with Professor Eric Rose) and Oxford University (with Professor Harry Anderson), he became Assistant Professor at Hasselt University in 2009, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, Professor (Hoogleraar) in 2018, and Full Professor (Gewoon Hoogleraar) in 2021. His research activities deal with the design and synthesis of organic semiconducting materials (with an emphasis on conjugated polymers) and their application in organic electronic devices (organic solar cells, photodetectors, transistors, light-emitting diodes) and advanced healthcare, pursuing rational structure-property relations (see https://www.uhasselt.be/DSOS). These activities are generally combined with more in-depth materials and device physics studies within the framework of the Institute for Materials Research (imo-imomec) of Hasselt University.
Tom van der Pol is a Marie Curie fellow at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics within the Linköping University in Sweden. His research interests revolve around characterization of novel semiconductors, currently focused on organic mixed ion-electron conductors. He conducted his PhD research at the group of René Janssen studying optical characterization of thin film organic and perovskite semiconductors for solar cell applications.
Electrocatalysis research is key for pushing emerging electrochemical conversion technologies from lab to industrial scale. For many years the focus was to develop better electrocatalyst materials towards improved activities and selectivities. However, more and more the key role of the electrolyte composition has been highlighted, inclusing the effect of solvent, pH, ion identitiy and concentration, among others. With that, several efforts have also emerged towards probing the electrochemical interface to selectively identify the role of each of these individual parameters on the overall electrocatalytic response. Going one step further, several strategies for tailoring the electrocatalytic interface have gained space, as for example surface modifications via anchoring of organic molecules, or immobilization of ionic liquids at the interface. In this symposium, progress and challenges of how electrolyte properties affect electrocatalytic reactions will be discussed, including the use of in-situ and operando methods to probe the interface. We aim to bring together leading researchers on the field, covering insights both from theory and experiments, providing a platform for the exchange of ideas and the exploration of new approaches and collaborations. We will leave ample time for questions and discussions in the program. Diversity will be ensured for keynote, invited and contributed talks, and posters.
- Fundamentals of the electrochemical interface
- Effect of pH, cations and anions on electrocatalytic reactions
- Operando probing of the electrochemical interface
- Beyond aqueous media: electrocatalysis in organic solvents, ionic liquids, etc
- Theoretical insights on electrode-electrolyte interfaces
- Electrolyte effects on CO2 electroreduction
- Electrolyte effects on water electrolyzers and fuel cell reactions
- Electrolyte engineering in applied/large scale electrochemical systems
Academic Career
Since May 2020: W3 Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, TUM.
2014 - 2020: W2 Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, TUM.
2010 - 2014: Group leader ("Adsorption and Electrocatalysis") at the Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES) at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
2008 - 2010: Post-doc, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark.
2006 - 2008: Post-doc, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, the Netherlands.
2002 - 2005: PhD in Physical and Solid State Chemistry, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus.
Awards
• The German National Ernst Haage Award for the research in the field of chemical energy conversion (2016)
• Hans-Jürgen Engell Award of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE Prize for Electrochemical Materials Science) for the research on electrocatalysis and in situ characterisation of the electrode–electrolyte interface (2013)
Prof. Yu Huang is the Traugott and Dorothea Frederking Endowed Chair in Engineering at University of California Los Angeles. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and her Ph.D in physical chemistry from Harvard University. She was a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow and held a joint postdoctoral position with Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research focuses on mechanistic understanding of nanoscale phenomena and on exploiting the unique properties of nanoscale materials for various applications.
Prof. Huang is Highly Cited Researcher, the elected Fellow of Materials Research Society (MRS), Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Recognitions she received include the ENI Award in Energy Transition, International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) Prize for Experimental Electrochemistry, the International Precious Metal Institute (IPMI) Carol Tyler Award, Kavli Fellow, Sloan Fellow, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), the National Institute of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, the World’s Top 100 Young Innovators award, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Young Chemist Award, and the Nano 50 Award etc.
Riding in the coat tails of developments of single junction and multijunction perovskite solar cells, research on perovskite light emitting diodes (LEDs) have also skyrocketed in recent years. This surge is primarily driven by the facile tunability of optical bandgaps in halide perovskite materials, that can exhibit a wide colour gamut in the ultraviolet to near-infrared range with high luminescence yield and colour purity.
This symposium will bring together the community to discuss the fundamental physics of light emission in a range of halide perovskite materials, report on the recent progress of device efficiencies and also brainstorm on the remaining challenges of stability and scalability. In addition, exciting prospects of optically pumped lasing and single photon emission, shown recently by lowering the structural and/or electronic dimensionality of perovskites, will also be presented. Furthermore, latest updates on perovskite-based light emitting transistors, where the electroluminescence of the channel can be controlled by the gate voltage, will also be provided. On the other hand, by exploiting the favourable attributes of high X-ray absorption and efficient down-conversion into visible photons, emerging halide perovskite-based scintillators have shown quite unprecedented performance for medical imaging, which will also constitute an important focus area for this
symposium.
- Physics of light emission in halide perovskites.
- Lower dimensional perovskites (such as nanocrystals, 2D perovskites etc.)
- Lead-free perovskites.
- Efficiency and stability of perovskite LEDs
- Upscaling approaches for perovskite LEDs (such as thermal evaporation, inkjet printing etc.).
- Perovskite lasing.
- Perovskite single photon emission.
- Perovskite light-emitting transistors.
- Perovskite scintillators.
Sascha is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at EPFL and Head of the Laboratory for Energy Materials, as well as a Research Group Leader & Rowland Felllow at Harvard University's Rowland Institute for Science.
His group studies light-matter interactions to improve the efficiencies of solar cells, displays, and quantum applications for a sustainable energy future.
Dr. Xinyu Shen is a Postdoctoral Researcher in School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, specializing in the nano materials and their light-emitting devices. She recieived her Ph.D. from Jilin University, where she focused on highly efficient perovskite nanocrystal light-emitting diodes.
Maksym Kovalenko has been a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich since July 2011 and Associate professor from January 2017. His group is also partially hosted by EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) to support his highly interdisciplinary research program. He completed graduate studies at Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria, 2004-2007, with Prof. Wolfgang Heiss), followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago (USA, 2008-2011, with Prof. Dmitri Talapin). His present scientific focus is on the development of new synthesis methods for inorganic nanomaterials, their surface chemistry engineering, and assembly into macroscopically large solids. His ultimate, practical goal is to provide novel inorganic materials for optoelectronics, rechargeable Li-ion batteries, post-Li-battery materials, and catalysis. He is the recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant 2018, ERC Starting Grant 2012, Ruzicka Preis 2013 and Werner Prize 2016. He is also a Highly Cited Researcher 2018 (by Clarivate Analytics).
Iván Mora-Seró (1974, M. Sc. Physics 1997, Ph. D. Physics 2004) is researcher at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His research during the Ph.D. at Universitat de València (Spain) was centered in the crystal growth of semiconductors II-VI with narrow gap. On February 2002 he joined the University Jaume I. From this date until nowadays his research work has been developed in: electronic transport in nanostructured devices, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, making both experimental and theoretical work. Currently he is associate professor at University Jaume I and he is Principal Researcher (Research Division F4) of the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM). Recent research activity was focused on new concepts for photovoltaic conversion and light emission based on nanoscaled devices and semiconductor materials following two mean lines: quantum dot solar cells with especial attention to sensitized devices and lead halide perovskite solar cells and LEDs, been this last line probably the current hottest topic in the development of new solar cells.
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.
Paulina Plochocka, Directrice de recherché de 2e classe (DR2) in Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses (LNCMI), CNRS in Toulouse.
P. Plochocka obtained her PhD cum-laude in 2004 at the University of Warsaw working on the dynamics of many-body interactions between carriers in doped semi-magnetic quantum wells (QW). During her first post doc at Weizmann Institute of science, she started working on the electronic properties of a high mobility 2D electron gas in the fractional and integer quantum Hall Effect regime. She continued this topic during second post doc in LNCMI Grenoble, where she was holding individual Marie Curie scholarship. At the same time, she enlarged her interest of 2D materials towards graphene and other layered materials as TMDCs or black phosphorus. In 2012 she obtained permanent position in LNCMI Toulouse, where she created the Quantum Electronics group, which investigates the electronic and optical properties of emerging materials under extreme conditions of high magnetic field and low temperatures. Examples include semiconducting layer materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides, GaAs/AlAs core shell nanowires and organic inorganic hybrid perovskites.
Cesare Soci received Laurea and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Pavia, in 2000 and 2005. He was a postdoctoral researcher from 2005 to 2006 at the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and from 2006 to 2009 at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of California, San Diego. He joined the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2009, where he holds a joint appointment between the Schools of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS) and Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE). At NTU he leads the Optical Spectroscopy of Nanomaterials laboratory, co-directs the Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, and currently serves as the Associate Dean (Research Programmes) of the Graduate College. He is a Fellow of the IPS, OPTICA, and the SPIE.
Since 2019, Yana Vaynzof holds the Chair for Emerging Electronic Technologies at the Technical University of Dresden. Prior to that (2014-2019), she was a juniorprofessor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Heidelberg University (Germany). She received a B.Sc degree (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Israel) in 2006, and a M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, (USA) in 2008. She pursued a Ph.D. degree in physics under the supervision of Prof. Sir. Richard Friend at the Optoelectronics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK), and investigated the development of hybrid polymer solar cells and the improvement of their efficiency and stability. Upon completing her PhD in 2011, she joined the Microelectronics group at the University of Cambridge as a Postdoctoral Research Associate focusing on the research of surfaces and interfaces in organic and hybrid optoelectronics. Yana Vaynzof was the recipient of a number of fellowships and awards, including the ERC Starting Grant, Gordon Y. Wu Fellowship, Henry Kressel Fellowship, Fulbright-Cottrell Award and the Walter Kalkhof-Rose Memorial Prize.
During the last few years, enormous efforts have been made in the understanding and development of solar chemical technologies, leading to important achievements in this field. The next step to implement these technologies as sustainable renewable alternatives is their scale-up and industrialization, representing a great challenge. This symposium is open to contributions on different routes towardssolar fuels generation using scaled-up technologies at an industrial level. It will cover topics from photoelectrocatalytic, photovoltaic, photocatalysis and concentrated solar power technologies. Additionally, contributions on the employment of Artificial Intelligence (A.I), Machine Learning and other digital technologies to ease and accelerate the lab-to-industry transition are also welcome.
Supported by:
- Photoelectrocatalysis
- Photovoltaics
- Photocatalysis
- Concentrated Solar Power
- Artificial photosynthesis
- Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) for accelerated scale-up
Dr. Miguel García Tecedor (MSc. Applied Physics, 2013, PhD. Physics 2017, both at the Complutense University of Madrid, UCM) is a Senior Assistant Researcher at the Photoactivated Processes Unit of IMDEA Energy. Miguel developed his PhD, focused on the growth and characterization of nanostructures and their possible applications, in the Physics of Electronic Nanomaterials group at the UCM. In 2015, he joined the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), located in Kjeller, Norway, where he worked on the synthesis and characterization of organic-inorganic compounds for the passivation of silicon solar cells. In July 2017, Miguel began working at the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM) of the Universitat Jaume I, where he worked on the development of novel materials and strategies for different (photo)electrochemical applications. In March 2021, Miguel joined IMDEA to continue his research focused on solar fuels generation. In 2023 he was awarded a Junior Leader La Caixa fellowship and the R3 certificate from the Spanish Research Agency. Recently, he was awarded with the Ramón y Cajal contract in the 2023 call.
Sixto Giménez (M. Sc. Physics 1996, Ph. D. Physics 2002) is Associate Professor at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (Spain). His professional career has been focused on the study of micro and nanostructured materials for different applications spanning from structural components to optoelectronic devices. During his PhD thesis at the University of Navarra, he studied the relationship between processing of metallic and ceramic powders, their sintering behavior and mechanical properties. He took a Post-Doc position at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven where he focused on the development of non-destructive and in-situ characterization techniques of the sintering behavior of metallic porous materials. In January 2008, he joined the Group of Photovoltaic and Optoelectronic Devices of University Jaume I where he is involved in the development of new concepts for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices based on nanoscaled materials, particularly studying the optoelectronic and electrochemical responses of the devices by electrical impedance spectroscopy. He has co-authored more than 80 scientific papers in international journals and has received more than 5000 citations. His current h-index is 31.
Sophia Haussener is a Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and experimentation. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) between 2011 and 2012. She has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award (2019), and is a recipient of a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014).
Professor Adélio Mendes (born 1964) received his PhD degree from the University of Porto in 1993.
Full Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. Coordinates a large research team with research interests mainly in dye sensitized solar cells and perovskite solar cells, photoelectrochemical cells including water splitting and solar redox flow batteries, photocatalysis, redox flow batteries, electrochemical membrane reactors (PEMFC, H-SOFC, chemical synthesis), methanol steam reforming, membrane and adsorbent-based gas separations and carbon molecular sieve membranes synthesis and characterization.
Professor Mendes authored or co-authored more than 300 articles in peer-review international journals, filled 23 families of patents and is the author of a textbook; received an Advanced Research Grant from the ERC on dye-sensitized solar cells for building integrated of ca. 2 MEuros and since 2013 he is partner in 4 more EU projects and leads one EU project. Presently he is the leader of a FET Open project, GOTSolar, on perovskite solar cells. He received the Air Products Faculty Excellence 2011 Award (USA) for developments in gas separation and Solvay & Hovione Innovation Challenge 2011 prize, the Prize of Coimbra University of 2016, and the prize of Technology Innovation - 2017 by the University of Porto. Presently, he is the Coordinator of CEner-FEUP, the Competence Center for Energy of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto.