Dr. Liangliang Lin is an associate professor in the School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, China. He received his bachelor degree from Hefei University of Technology (China) in 2010, followed by the master degree from Zhejiang University (China) in 2013, and the Ph.D. degree from Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) in 2018. His research focuses on process intensification using plasma technology and microreactors and their applications (e.g., sustainable process development, nanomaterials synthesis and processing).
Currently, his ongoing work deals with the integration of microfluidics with plasma to form «microfluidic plasma» as a novel process intensification strategy for chemistry and chemical engineering. He has published more than 40 publications in internationally renowned chemical engineering journals (e.g., AIChE J., CES, IECR, and CEJ). He was also awarded Innovative and Entrepreneurial Scholar of Jiangsu Province in 2019, «333» Young Scholar Project of Jiangsu Province in 2022.
Prof. Krasimir Vasilev is currently a Matthew Flinders Professor and a Professor of Biomedical Nanotechnology in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University. Prior to taking a position at Flinders University, Professor Vasilev had built and led at The University of South Australia (UniSA) a large and highly productive team, which grew to more than 20 postdocs and PhD students. His team is well connected having deep collaborative networks within Australia and internationally, and is strongly engaged with industry, end users, government agencies and community.
Professor Vasilev has attracted in excess of 20M dollars in research funding from Government competitive grants and Industry, published more than 270 papers and has been awarded several prestigious Research Fellowships from ARC, NHMRC and the Humboldt Foundation, and other awards such as the John A. Brodie Medal for achievements in Chemical Engineering in 2016, and the election of a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2017 and a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials in 2022. His contribution to UniSA has been recognised by several awards including the UniSA Research Excellence Award in the Mid-Career category (2018), and the Division of ITEE Excellence Award for Leadership in Research (2018), and the UniSA Interdisciplinary Award (2019) for his work across disciplines.
Professor Vasilev has established international reputation and leadership in his field evident (in addition to the awards mentioned above) by regular invitations to deliver plenary and keynote lectures at international conferences, and prestigious universities, institutes and companies around the world. The foundation of his research program was his revolutionary approach to the nanoengineering of plasma polymer films, which vastly expanded the opportunities for this technology. His publications have been cited more than 9600 times and his H-index = 54 (M-index ~ 3.
Professor Vasilev’s research has a very strong translational focus. He works extensively with industry to translate research findings to tangible commercial products. Key examples for this are 1) recently translated technology (via a $5,000,000 from the CRC-P program, $2.5M industry cash) for bladder cancer diagnostics to the manufacturing facility of Motherson Innovations in South Australia. The device is currently undergoing clinical trials; 2) A $6,000,000 ($3M industry cash) project with Corin Group focussed on translation an antibacterial surface modification to the company’s hip and knee implants. His translational work involving the entire spectrum of activities from research discoveries to commercial products was a key strength allowing him to win in 2020 the prestigious and highly competitive NHMRC Investigator Award ($2,738,000 over 5 year).
Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) is a prolific cross-disciplinary researcher, collaborative research catalyst, enthusiastic community leader, specializing in the plasma and nanotechnology fields. His achievements over 24 active career years include an H-index of 84, with near 33,000 (near 20,000 since 2017) citations (Google Scholar); multiple high-profile honours, fellowships and awards, e.g., the recent Humboldt Prize/Award (2021-26), election as a Foreign Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea. Professor Ostrikov is renowned for the studies of plasma effects in the formation and modification of matter with nanoscale features. He engaged, led, mentored and supervised or co-supervised >70 postdoctoral and higher-level researchers, and >100 students.
David Neil Ruzic is the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and has been in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1984 after receiving his PhD in Physics from Princeton University and post-doctoral work at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. His research centers on the interaction of plasmas with materials. He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). In 2000 he won the International Gaede-Langmuir award from the AVS and the Fusion Technology Prize from IEEE.
He has published over 220 referred journal papers, 2 books, and 6 book chapters and has been awarded 11 patents. He has produced 36 PhD students and 59 thesis MS students. His current group consists of 1 research scientist, 2 post-docs, 15 graduate and 25 undergraduate research assistants In 2017, he headed the effort to bring a mid-sized hybrid stellarator / tokamak to Illinois, now called HIDRA, capable of 1 Tesla fields with a minor radius of 19 cm and a major radius of 72 cm. In 2020, he founded the Illinois Plasma Institute located on the UIUC Research Park, which is funded by industry to do translational research.
Ana Gómez-Ramírez is an Associate Professor at the Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics Department of the University of Seville. She obtained her PhD degree in 2011 at the University of Granada. In 2012 she did a postdoctoral study at the University of Bayreuth (Germany). Later on she joined the Nanotechnology on Surfaces and Plasma research group directed by Prof. González-Elipe and Prof. Cotrino at the University of Sevilla, Spain. There, she started a new research line focused on atmospheric-pressure plasmas. She got a “Juan de la Cierva” grant and was involved in several R&D contracts that allowed her to work as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Sevilla until 2022, when she obtained a position as associate professor. Her current research field deals with atmospheric-pressure plasmas and their characterization to generate valuable chemicals or to induce the decomposition of wastes and contaminants and at the compression and description of physical mechanisms involved in such processes.
Ahmad Hamdan received the B.Sc. degree in physics from Université Libanaise, Tripoli, Lebanon, in 2008, and the M.Sc. degree in physics and the Ph.D. degree in plasma physics and applications from the Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France, in 2010 and 2013, respectively.
He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada, from 2013 to 2014, and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, from 2015 to 2017. From 2017 to 2021, he was an Assistant Professor, where he has been an Associate Professor with the Université de Montréal since 2022. His current research interests include electrical discharges in and in contact with liquid media for fundamental investigations and environmental applications, namely, water treatment, fuel reforming, and nanomaterial synthesis.
Mohamed Chaker has been a professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Varennes, Quebec, Canada since 1989. Holding a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plasmas applied to micro and nanomanufacturing technologies since 2003, he has published over 300 articles in peer-review journals (14000 citations, H-index=66 according to Google Scholar) in various domains, including advanced plasma sources characterization (high-density plasmas and laser-induced plasmas) for applications to thin film synthesis, nanometer pattern transfer, nanoparticles production and device fabrication.
From 1999 to 2002, he has been the director of the Center Energie et Matériaux of INRS, then from 2002 to 2005, the director of the Center Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications. He played a leadership role in the development of Quebec consortia (Prompt-Québec, NanoQuébec). From 2005, he is the director of the Laboratory of Micro and Nanofabrication (LMN) of INRS.
Dr. Francisco J. Aparicio graduated in Physics at the University of Seville and received his PhD in Materials Science and Technology from the same university in 2011. He developed two post-doctoral contracts at the University of Trento (Italy) and the University of Mons (Belgium); the latter about the development of advanced organic thin films by plasma techniques. In 2014, he moved to the Nanotechnology on Surfaces and Plasma laboratory of the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (University of Seville – CSIC) where he won a “Juan de la Cierva Incorporation” national research contract. In 2018, he joined the technological company ALTER TECHNOLOGY TÜV NORD to develop and lead the Scanning Acoustic Microscopy Laboratory.
Since 2021, he holds a distinguished researcher contract at the University of Seville. His researches deal with the device-oriented development of new vacuum and plasma deposition procedures and nanomaterials for multifunctional applications such as photonics, flexible electronics, energy, and biomaterials.
Pascal Brault, Research Director at the GREMI Laboratory (UMR7344, CNRS – University of Orléans) in Orléans, France. He has a PhD in Atomic and Molecular Physics (1987) and an accreditation to supervise research (since 1992) from the University of Orléans. His ongoing work deals with molecular dynamics simulations, and technology transfer of plasma-designed materials for energy and plasma treatment of polluted water. He is author of more than 150 publications in internationally renowned journals, and author and co-author of more than 300 communications in national and international conferences including 50 on invitation. Pascal BRAULT has supervised more than 20 doctoral theses and accreditations to supervise research (HDR). Moreover, he is a Referee for several internationally renowned journals (about 25). He was granted Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in 1992–1993 by the Max Planck Institute für Strömungsforschung, Göttingen, Germany headed by Professor Jan-Peter Toennies.
Eva Kovacevic (F) is a full professor and researcher at GREMI Institute, CNRS&University of Orléans , France. She obtained her Diploma and Magisterium in Zagreb, Croatia 1996 and 1999 (pre-Bologna system), followed by PhD at Ruhr University Bochum 2006, and Habilitation at University of Orleans. Her activities concern low-temperature plasmas, their applications and diagnostics, as well as material analysis. She has extensive experience in processes and diagnostics for surface functionalisation and growth of conductive carbons. She is a review editor at European Journal of Applied Physics D, editor at European Physical Letters, Contributions to Plasma Physics, and Journal of Physics Communications (IoP).
Obtained Rectors Award in Zagreb 1996, DAAD award 2006 in Bochum, Heinrich Hertz Fellowship 2008. She is currently involved in numerous projects: PI of ARD, ANR and APR projects (France), experience in working on SBF and BMBF projects (Germany), or FET OPEN project. She is executive member of European Physical Society, Electrochemical Society, organizes several international and national conferences, was in several bodies of her university and is nominated member of French National Research Council.
Dr. Ramón Escobar Galindo (10-01-1973) is a Full Professor at the University of Seville (US) in the Department of Applied Physics I (2019-). Graduated in Physical Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1997 (Spain) received his doctorate in 2003 from the Technical University of Delft (Netherlands). He initially developed his scientific career at the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) and at the Autonomous University of Madrid (2004-2014). Subsequently, he worked for 3 years (2014-2017) as director of the Materials program in the solar thermal energy department at Abengoa Research. Between 2017-2019 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Materials Sciences and Metallurgical Engineering and Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Cádiz (UCA). In 2015, he completed his training with a Master in Technology Management awarded by Loyola University (Spain) and Georgetown University (USA).
He has been a professor (2008-2009) at the Department of Applied Physics at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and associate professor (2012-2014) at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). Internationally, he has taught at the MsC course «Functional Coatings and Thin Films» at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom (2015-2017) and at the Summer School at Shantou University in China (2017). In 2021, he co-founded the technology-based company Matersia Proyectos y Materials SL with the participation of the US and the UCA
Dr. Escobar has participated in more than 25 R&D projects (being the principal investigator in 13 of them) including national (Cenit, CDTI, Consolider, Retos) and European (FP6, FP7, H2020) programs as well as contracts with companies. His main lines of research have focused on the development of advanced multifunctional materials in thin films for energy applications (in particular concentrated solar thermal energy), optical and biomedical applications. Co-author of 119 published scientific articles (H index = 25) and more than 170 contributions to international conferences (including more than 25 invited or plenary conferences).
He has co-directed 4 doctoral theses and is a co-inventor of 4 patents. Between 2013 and 2016 he was the representative of Spain in the International Union of Science and Technology Del Vacío, (IUVSTA) in the Thin Films division. Since 2019 he is a member of the scientific committee of the Spanish Association of Vacuum and its Applications (ASEVA) and of the Commission for the synchrotron beamline time allocation of the Spanish CRG SPLINE in BM25 at ESRF. He belongs to the Spanish Society of Materials (SOCIEMAT) and the Royal Spanish Physical Society (RSEF) as well as to the AENOR GET15 / GT 5 committee «Physicochemical characterization of surfaces».
Prof. Volker Hessel studied chemistry at Mainz University/D. 1994: Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz/Germany (Director R&D); 2005: Professor Eindhoven University of Technology/NL; 2018:
Deputy Dean (Research), Professor University of Adelaide, Australia; 2019: part-time professor University of Warwick/UK.
He is author of 559 peer-reviewed publications (h-index: 79). He received the AIChE Excellence in Process Development Research Award, IUPAC ThalesNano Prize in Flow Chemistry, and all EU’s research excellence grants (ERC Advanced/Proof of Concept/Synergy, FET OPEN). He was authority in a 35-teamed Parliament Enquete Commission «Future Chemical Industry” and is Research Director of the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources.
Dr. Dirk Hegemann is leading the group Plasma & Coating at the research institute Empa in St.Gallen, CH. He mainly deals with plasma etching and deposition processes on polymer materials including roll-to-roll processing and transfer to industry. He joins the board of directors of the International Plasma Chemistry Society, the Swiss Physical Society, and the Swiss Vacuum Society and acts as editor-in-chief for Plasma Processes and Polymers.
