Lukasz Wolski

Poland

Lukasz Wolski received his Ph.D. in 2018 from the Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna? (Poland). Since 2023 he is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at Adam Mickiewicz University. His main research interest includes the synthesis and characterization of novel nanomaterials for the elimination of organic pollutants from water and wastewater through adsorption and advanced oxidation processes.

Mihaela C. Stefan

United States

Mihaela C. Stefan received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Politehnica University Bucharest, Romania. She worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Matyjaszewski’s group at Carnegie Mellon University from 2002 to 2003. She also worked as a research scientist in Richard D. McCullough's group at Carnegie Mellon University, synthesizing block copolymers containing semiconducting polythiophenes.

She joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007 and is currently a Eugene McDermott Professor and Department Head. She received the NSF Career Award in 2010, the NS&M Outstanding Teacher Award in 2009 and 2017, the Inclusive Teaching Diversity Award in 2012, the President’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2014, Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring in 2015, and Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring in 2021. She also received the Wilfred T. Doherty Award from the Dallas Forth Worth Local Section of the American Chemical Society in 2021. Her research group is developing novel organic semiconductors for organic electronics, biodegradable and biocompatible polymers for drug delivery applications, and rare novel catalysts for polymerization of dienes and cyclic esters. At the University of Texas at Dallas, she supervised 44 graduate students, and 27 Ph.D. students graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemistry under her supervision. She also mentored ~150 undergraduate students who worked on her research lab on various projects.

Salvador Ventura

Spain

Salvador Ventura is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Scientific Director of the Institut d’Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT-CERCA). His research explores the molecular basis of protein misfolding and aggregation, and their links to disease, aiming to develop innovative therapeutic and nanobiotechnological strategies. He obtained his PhD in Biology at UAB and carried out postdoctoral research at EMBL Heidelberg, Harvard Medical School, and the Karolinska Institutet. Author of more than 300 papers and 19 patents, he has supervised 23 PhD theses and has received multiple distinctions, including the Narcís Monturiol Medal, the Bruker “Manuel Rico” Award, and four ICREA Academia Awards. Elected Member of Academia Europaea and Co-Founder of Eureka Nanobioengineering.

Chryssostomos Chatgilialoglu

Poland

Chryssostomos Chatgilialoglu was born in 1952 in Nikea (Greece) where he grew up and went to school until the age of 18. He went to Italy for University studies and received a doctorate degree in chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1976. In 1977, he moved to England for two years postdoctoral appointment at York University (1977-1979, Professor R.O.C. Norman) and in the end of 1979 he moved to Canada for three years as research associate at the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa (1980-1982, Professor K.U. Ingold). In 1983, he joined the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Bologna (Italy) where he has been Research Director since 1991. In March 2014 he was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the NCSR “Demokritos” in Athens (Greece) and from May 2015 he served as the vice-President of the NCSR “Demokritos”. In June 2016 he moved back to Bologna, to his Research Director position at ISOF-CNR. In the end of 2019, he retired from CNR at the age of 67 years old and from February 2020 he is Senior Research Associate at ISOF-CNR. He is co-Founder and past-President (until 30 May 2023) of the company Lipinutragen, founded in 2005 as a spin-off company of CNR. From February 2019, he is also Visiting Professor at the Center for Advanced Technologies, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland).