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).

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.

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).