I have B. Sc. and M. Sc. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Lahore Pakistan. I received my doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Science and Technology Beijing, China in 2007 under supervision of Professor Guo Shiju. I carried out postdoctoral research in Professor Lennart Bergström’s group at Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University in 2007. Later, I worked as researcher at Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry. I have joined Luleå University of Technology in March 2014.

Dr. Emad Alhseinat acquired his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 2013 from the University of Edinburgh-UK. Dr. Alhseinat is currently an associate professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. Since his appointment as an assistant professor at KU in 2016, he has managed to attract internal and external research grants that total to more than AED 9 Million as principal investigator (PI) and more than AED 15 Million in total (PI+ Co-PI). Currently, Dr. Alhseinat has established his lab in novel separation processes for water treatment and desalination. Dr. Alhseinat is a co-founding member of the Center for Membrane and Advanced Water Technology at Khalifa University. Dr. Alhseinat has filed five patents and 73 scientific journal papers in high-impact Journals. He is currently an active member of the Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT) and Research and Innovation Center in Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC-2D) at KU. His research efforts are focused on contributing to solving the problem of freshwater shortage in the arid region by improving the efficiency of water desalination and treatment processes and creating innovative and sustainable solutions

Francesco Bonaccorso is the Scientific Director of BeDimensional S.p.A. He gained the PhD from the University of Messina. In 2009 he was awarded a Royal Society Newton Interna-tional Fellowship at Cambridge University, and elected to a Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall, Cambridge, where he also obtained a MA. He was responsible in defining the ten years scientific and technological roadmap for the European Graphene Flagship, covering the role of Deputy of the Innovation for 6 years. He is member of the executive board of the Innova-tive Advanced Materials Initiative (IAM-I). He is/was involved in tens of European/National projects as coordinator or principal investigator. He is author of 17 patent families and more than 230 publications that have been cited more than 44100 times, with an H-index of 73. He delivered more than 250 invited presentations worldwide. He was featured as 2016 Emerging Investigator by J. Mater. Chem. A and in 2019 by ChemPlusChem. In 2018 he was recog-nized as Highly cited Scientist by Clarivate Analytics. In 2019 he received the Magister Pe-loritanus by Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti and ExAllievi Eccellenti by the University of Messina. He co-founded Cambridge Graphene Ltd and BeDimensional S.p.A.

Dr. Adelina Braun completed her doctorate in Materials Science at Saarland University, Germany with a thesis entitled, “Nanomaterials for Optoelectronic Applications”. She then gained professional experience at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre working on nanomaterials research projects. Adelina joined our Technology Management team 11 years ago and handles the Materials Science portfolio for all of EMEA. Her presentation, “Powering a Sustainable Future with Advanced Materials for Energy Storage" is a discussion of the recent achievements of our Research & Development in this area

Prof Casiraghi holds a Chair in Nanoscience at the Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester (UK). She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cambridge (UK). In 2007, she was awarded with the prestigious Kovalevskaja Award (1.5M Euro). In 2010 she joined the department of chemistry at the University of Manchester. She is recipient of several awards, including the ERC Consolidator (2015), ERC Proof of Concept (2020), ERC Advanced grants (2022), as well as the Leverhulme Award in Engineering (2016, 100K GBP), and the RSC 2020 Gibson-Fawcett Award. Her current research work focuses on the development of biocompatible 2D inks and their use in printed electronics and biomedical applications.

Prof. Sonia Conesa-Boj obtained her Ph.D. in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Barcelona (Spain) in 2011. Afterwards she moved to a postdoctoral research position at EPFL Lausanne, funded by a Marie-Heim Vogtlin personal fellowship awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. After a second postdoc in The Netherlands, in 2016 Dr. Conesa-Boj became Assistant Professor at the Department of Quantum Nanoscience and the Kavli Instiuture of Nanoscience at TU Delft, and since 2020 she's tenured Associate Professor there. The focus of her research is developing novel approaches for the growth and characterisation of low-dimensional nanoscale materials, from nanowires to van der Waals layered materials. She has demonstrated how the exploitation of state-of-the-art Transmission Electron Microscopy techniques provide a unique window to unravel the physical properties of novel nanomaterials. Dr. Sonia Conesa-Boj is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and her research has been supported, among others, by the award of an ERC Starting Grant and a Dutch "Top Kennis en Innovatie" Consortium grant.

Lucia Gemma Delogu is head of the Immune-Nano Lab at the University of Padua, Italy, and an Associate Professor at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE. She acquired her experience in Material Science, Immunology, and Nanobiotechnology at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA) and the Sanford-Burnham Institute (San Diego, USA) as a postdoctoral fellow. She served the University of Sassari, Italy, as an Assistant Professor and was recruited in 2019 and promoted to Associate Professor at the University of Padua, Italy. Moreover, she has been a visiting Professor at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD; Dresden, Germany) and New York University Abu Dhabi (UAE). Prof. Delogu has been the Scientific Coordinator of several interdisciplinary European projects funded by the European Commission involving over 20 partners in Europe, the USA, and the Middle East in Academia and Industry. Prof. Delogu obtained over 6M euros in sponsored research activities; she has received several awards, including the “Marie S. Curie Individual Fellow,” the “200 Young Best Talents of Italy 2011” from the Italian Ministry of Youth, and the “Bedside to Bench & Back Award” from the National Institutes of Health, USA. She introduced the “NanoImmunity-by-design” concept and pioneered the use of high-dimensional single-cell approaches, including the use of single-cell mass cytometry in the context of 2D materials and air pollutants. Her works appeared in major journals, including Nature Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Nano Today, and ACS Nano. Cumulatively, her studies contribute to immunology, biomedicine, and material science

Costas Galiotis is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the ERC Advanced – Tailoring Graphene project. He is a Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering (Univ. of Patras) and former Director of the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT) which is one of the 7 academic research institutions of the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH). In its over 26 years of operation FORTH/ ICE-HT has developed into a world-leading centre for the advancement of high quality scientific knowledge in the fields of material science and in the computer aided design and simulation of new materials and processes. It comprises of approximately 150 personnel and has a running yearly budget of 5 M€. Prof. Galiotis is also a member of the Board of Directors of FORTH (since July 2007). FORTH has been ranked as the first Research Centre in the field domain in Greece in 3 successive evaluations. Prof. Galiotis had an auspicious term of office as Director of the Institute in the years 2009-2014. Being also the coordinator of the Hellenic participation and national representative of “Graphene” he contributed in establishing the Graphene Center by joining the research forces of three FORTH institutes, ICE-HT, IESL and ICAM. Despite the Country's intense economic situation he expanded the Institute by literally setting the foundations to the Institute's new modern building that will house research laboratories.

Prof. Vincenzo Giannini’s scientific interests rely on theoretical light-matter interactions theoretical linear and nonlinear Plasmonics, Nanophotonics, and Metamaterials. He graduated in Physics from the University of Pisa. Subsequently moved to Spain for a Ph.D. program in Madrid at the Spanish research council (CSIC). The story followed with a postdoc in Amsterdam and a Marie Curie fellowship at the Imperial College London. In June 2014, He started his group at the Imperial College London in the Condensed Matter Theory section, followed by an offer in Spain at the CSIC and finally here at TII.

Dr. Yury Gogotsi is Distinguished University Professor and Charles T. and Ruth M. Bach Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University. He also serves as Director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute. He received his MS (1984) and PhD (1986) from Kiev Polytechnic and a DSc degree from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1995. His research group works on 2D carbides and nitrides (MXenes), nanostructured carbons, and other nanomaterials for energy, water and biomedical applications. He published more than 800 papers, which have been cited more than 170,000 times. He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in Chemistry and Materials Science, and a Citations Laureate in Physics by Clarivate Analytics. He has received numerous awards for his research including a Chemistry of Materials Award from ACS, MRS Medal, S. Somiya Award from IUMRS, European Carbon Association Award, Materials Innovation Award from Materials Today, International Nanotechnology Prize (RUSNANOPrize), R&D 100 Awards from R&D Magazine and many other distinctions. He has been elected a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, World Academy of Ceramics, AAAS, MRS, ACerS, ECS, RSC and ISE. He holds honorary doctorates from several European universities

Dr. Shadi W. Hasan holds the position of Director at the Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT) and serves as an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University. His extensive research portfolio encompasses both fundamental and applied research with a primary focus on disseminating knowledge and advancing innovative, sustainable, and advanced technologies in water purification, particularly in desalination and wastewater treatment. These efforts involve forming proficient research teams, conceptualizing novel research ideas, crafting diverse research proposals, fostering national and international research collaborations, and publishing and disseminating research findings. Dr. Hasan boasts an impressive academic record, with over 200 journal publications, conference proceedings, 7 filed patents, 1 edited book, and 17 book chapters. His research endeavors have had a significant impact and have garnered substantial internal and external funding, amounting to USD 13.5 million. Furthermore, he holds editorial roles in various esteemed scientific journals and associations, emphasizing his commitment to the advancement of water quality and treatment. Dr. Hasan's role as an educator extends to supervising over 60 MSc and PhD students and research fellows. He has also earned recognition as one of the Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University since 2020.

Kari has 20 years experience in building up corporate research and venture activities. He has been the founder and CEO of several start-up companies, as well as worked as director at Nokia Ventures Organization and at Nokia Research Centre. Dr. Kari Hjelt holds a PhD in Engineering Physics from Helsinki University of Technology, as well as an Executive MBA from the London Business School. Currently Kari works as Head of Innovation at the Graphene Flagship, where he also is a member of the Management Panel and the Executive Board

Ian holds the Royal Academy of Engineering/Morgan Advanced Materials Chair in Carbon Materials at the University of Manchester. His group sits across the Department of Materials, National Graphene Institute and Henry Royce Institute. His research covers the production, processing and use of nanomaterials with a focus on the energy transition (power materials and energy storage) and composite applications. He has previously held R.A.Eng/EPSRC Research and EPSRC Challenging Engineering Fellowships

Prof. Kostas Kostarelos read Chemistry at the University of Leeds and obtained his Diploma in Chemical Engineering and his PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, studying the steric stabilization of liposomes using block copolymer molecules. Currently, Kostarelos is Professor and Chair of Nanomedicine at the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, leads the Nanomedicine Lab and is a member of the National Graphene Institute and the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, all at the University of Manchester. He has been invited to Fellowships with the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society of Medicine and Royal Society of Arts, all in the UK. He was awarded the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Professorial Fellowship in 2010. In 2019 he joined the ICN2 as Severo Ochoa Distinguished Professor and Group Leader, while retaining his appointments and research team at the University of Manchester.

Prof. Kin Liao was trained in engineering science and mechanics and earned his Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech (USA). He had spent two years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Northwestern University as a visiting scientist before joining Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and served there for 13 years. He was one of the founding faculty of NTU’s Bioengineering Division and had served as Director for NTU’s BioInformatics Research Center from 2004-2006. Since 2011, he joined Khalifa University’s Department of Aerospace Engineering/Mechanical engineering. During his tenure at KU, he had served as Interim Chair for both the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Aerospace Engineering Department. Prof. Liao’s research include advanced materials for aerospace, senor, and energy applications; nano-materials and nano-mechanics; cell mechanics, as well as durability of composite materials. Prof. Liao's current research interests are in 2D heterogeneous materials and novel multi-phased composites for aerospace applications. Prof. Liao has authored and coauthored more than 170 technical papers in leading international journals

Zhongfan Liu completed his PhD from University of Tokyo in 1990 and postdoctoral study from the same university and Institute for Molecular Science (IMS), Japan. His current research interests include the CVD growth, mass production and equipment manufacturing, and unique applications of graphene. He is the founding Director of Beijing Graphene Institute (BGI) and a BOYA chair professor of Peking University. He is the member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the fellow of TWAS.

Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Manchester and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. His research is focused on proton and ion transport in 2D materials, with recent breakthroughs including electric-field-driven acceleration of electrochemical processes (Nature 2024, named a Top 10 Physics Breakthrough by Physics World), and ultrafast ion exchange in 2D crystals (Nature Nano 2019, Nature Materials 2021). His high-profile publications include 2 Nature publications as corresponding author in the last 2 years and over a dozen in the Science/Nature series in the past 10. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant (2022), and prestigious fellowships from the Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, and the University of Manchester.

Kazuo Muramatsu is the CEO of Incubation Alliance, Inc. (InALA) based in Kobe, Japan. He completed his studies in materials sciences at Toyohashi University of Technology in 1985. At university, he was engaged in research on graphite intercalation compounds, and also collaborated with Dr. Ralph Setton(CNRS), one of the pioneers of graphene. He joined Kobe Steel, Ltd. and was engaged in the development of “new carbon” using Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) equipment, and worked on the development and commercialization of graphene electrodes for hydrogen generators, carbon substrates for HDD and substrates for semiconductor processes. He founded InALA in 2007 and is promoting the development mass synthesis methods for graphene and commercialization of Graphene Flower® products.

Rahul R. Nair is a Carlsberg/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair and Professor of Materials Physics at the National Graphene Institute (NGI), and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester. His current research focuses on molecular transport through sub-nanometer two-dimensional (2D) capillaries and developing 2D materials-based membranes for sustainable separation technologies. He has published over 60 highly cited peer-reviewed research articles, including several in Science, Nature, and more than a dozen in the Nature series publications during the last twelve years. He has also received several prestigious awards, such as the Moseley Medal and Prize, ERC grant, the Philip Leverhulme Prize, Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, etc., for his innovative and groundbreaking research. He also has research partnerships with leading industries such as Carlsberg, the US Army, AstraZeneca, ICON Life Saver, etc.

Professor Ammar Nayfeh was born in Urbana IL in 1979. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2001 in electrical engineering and his master's degree in 2003 from Stanford University. Dr. Nayfeh earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2006 under advisor Professor Krishna Saraswat. His research focused on heteroepitaxy of germanium on silicon for electronic and photonic devices. After his PhD, he joined Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as a researcher working in collaboration with IBM. After that he joined a Silicon Valley startup company, Innovative Silicon (ISi) in 2008. In addition, he was a part time professor at San Jose State University. In June 2010, he joined MIT as a visiting scholar and became a faculty member at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dr Nayfeh also spent time as visiting professor at Stanford University. His research interest focuses on nanotechnology for future more efficient low power electronic and photonic devices. Professor Nayfeh is currently an associate professor in the Department Electrical Engineering at Khalifa University. Dr Nayfeh is also the electronics lead of the Research & Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC2D) at Khalifa University. Professor Ammar Nayfeh has authored or co-authored over 150 publications, holds three patents, and published three books. He is a member of MRS, Stanford Alumni Association, Mohammed Bin Rashid Academy of Science (MBRAS) and a senior member of the IEEE. In 2020 Dr Nayfeh was awarded the 10-year golden visa for top scientists in the UAE.

Professor Sir Konstantin ‘Kostya’ Novoselov FRS was born in Russia in August 1974. He has both British and Russian citizenship. He is best known for isolating graphene at The University of Manchester in 2004, and is an expert in condensed matter physics, mesoscopic physics and nanotechnology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for his achievements with graphene. Kostya is Langworthy Professor of Physics and Royal Society Research Professor at The University of Manchester.He graduated from The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and undertook his PhD studies at The University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands before moving to The University of Manchester in 2001. Professor Novoselov has published more than 250 peer-reviewed research papers

Prof. Pablo Ordejón earned his degree in physics (1987) and his PhD in science (1992) at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) from 1992 to 1995 and as assistant professor at the Universidad de Oviedo from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, he obtained a research staff position at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). In 2007 he moved to the former CIN2 (now ICN2) as the leader of the Theory and Simulation Group, where he is currently a CSIC Research Professor. Since July 2012 he has served as Director of the ICN2.

Vincenzo Palermo is the director of the CNR Institute for Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity (ISOF) in Bologna, Italy, and associated professor of Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). He uses nanotechnology and supramolecular chemistry to create new materials for electronics, aerospace and biomedical applications. He published >200 scientific articles on international journals in chemistry, nanotechnology and materials science (>11 000 citations, h-index 53), collaborating with key industrial partners in Europe (Airbus, FCA, Leonardo, BASF, Nokia, STMicroelectronics etc.). He has been awarded the Lecturer Award for Excellence of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS), the Research Award of the Italian Society of Chemistry (SCI) and the Science dissemination awards of the Italian Book Association.

Prasad Potluri is a Professor of Robotics and Textile Composites, Director of Northwest Composites Centre, and Academic Theme Lead for the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre at the University of Manchester. He has been a High Value Manufacturing CATAPULT Fellow at the National Composites Centre (Bristol) and AMRC (Sheffield). Following a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, he worked as a Design Engineer at Suzuki Motor (1984-90). He then pursued a PhD in Applied Robotics at UMIST. Professor Potluri has extensive industrial collaborations and has received funding of over £18 million and part of consortium grants worth £50million. He has been Manchester PI for the EPSRC Future Composites Manufacturing HUB and the EPSRC Textiles Circularity Centre. In addition, he was Manchester PI for a number of Innovate UK ATI, InnovateUK KTP and EPSRC IAA grants. His research focus has been 3D fibre architectures for advanced composites, Graphene enhanced composites, sustainable fibrous materials. He is a Senior Life-time member of AIAA and its Materials Technical Committee.

Rodney S. Ruoff, UNIST Distinguished Professor (The Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science, and The School of Energy Science and Chemical Engineering), directs the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), an Institute for Basic Science Center (IBS Center) located at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) campus. Prior to joining UNIST in 2014, he was the Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair Professor at the University of Texas at Austin from September, 2007. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1988, and was a Fulbright Fellow in 1988-89 at the Max Planck Institute für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen, Germany. He was at Northwestern University from January 2000 to August 2007, where he was the John Evans Professor of Nanoengineering and director of NU's Biologically Inspired Materials Institute, and did research at the Molecular Physical Laboratory, SRI International for 6 years after being a postdoctoral fellow at IBM TJ Watson Research Center. Further information about Rod is at http://cmcm.ibs.re.kr/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_S._Ruoff

Professor Burcu Saner Okan received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Middle East Technical University in 2005 and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Sabancı University in 2007 and 2011, respectively. She is a research- and application-oriented faculty member in the Departments of Materials Science and Nanoengineering and Manufacturing Technologies at Sabancı University. From 2022 to 2024, she served as the Academic Director of the Sabancı University Composite Research Center.
Professor Saner Okan is also the co-founder of Nanografen and Euronova, companies focused on next-generation sustainable additives and plastic materials. Her research centers on sustainable advanced materials, particularly the development of compound solutions derived from recycled and natural sources for thermoplastic processing. She integrates recycling technologies to advance high-performance thermoplastic systems.
Her expertise spans graphene, polymer nanocomposites, compounding, surface chemistry, electrospinning, recycling, upcycling, and circular economy practices. She has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, contributed to 8 book chapters, holds 2 issued and 1 licensed patent, and has presented her work at over 100 national and international conferences and meetings.

Charanjit S. Bhatia received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. He was a Senior Technical Staff Member with the Advanced Magnetic Storage Laboratory, IBM's Storage Technology Division, San Jose, CA, USA. He was with IBM/Hitachi GST for approximately 30 years, and many ideas developed in the lab were commercialized under his leadership. He headed the National Storage Industry Consortium’s (NSIC) and later Information Storage Industry Consortium (INSIC) Tribology team for about 15 years. Prof Bhatia served on the faculty of UC Berkeley thru the IBM faculty loan program and Visiting Industrial Fellow to CML, ME Dept UC Berkeley, Berkeley California, USA (1987-2007). He worked on the Frontiers of Magnetic Recording for 10 Terabits per square inch. Professor Bhatia was appointed as a Temasek Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore in year 2001-2004 where he helped build Information Storage Materials Lab (ISML). In 2007 he was invited to join as tenured Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of NUS where he built and headed the Spin and Energy Lab (SEL). Funding of SGD 10 million was received through the competitive research proposal process of National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore. Prof Bhatia expanded his research to solar energy. He has an extensive experience in solar cells and has successfully delivered on various solar projects. He garnered multi-million dollar grants for solar research as well.
He has given many invited talks at the international symposia, conferences, and authored/co-authored more than 225 publications in refereed journals. He has several patents to his name in magnetic data storage and solar energy. Professor Bhatia received the Outstanding Innovation, Outstanding Achievement and Blue chip awards from IBM Corporation for his work on IBM data storage products. He also received the IBM Faculty Award in 2008. He was also a recipient of INSIC’s Leadership & Distinguished Contribution Awards. He is the Fellow of ASME & IEEE societies. He is also an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

Dr. Anirudha Sumant is a Group Leader, Nanofabrication and Devices Group and Materials Scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory and leading the research on tribological and electronic properties of nanocarbon materials. His recent work on demonstrating superlubricity (near zero friction) at engineering scale utilizing 2D materials opened a new era in solid lubrication technology. He is the author and co-author of more than 170 peer-reviewed journal/proceedings publications, 2 book chapters, and has 40 granted patents. He is a chief specialty editor of the journal Frontiers in Carbon and advisory board member of Applied Physics Letters.

Prof. Rehan Umer is a full professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KUST), Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Center for Advanced Composite Materials (CACM), The University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2008. He then worked as Research Engineer at the newly established Airbus helicopter site in Brisbane, Australia. He then moved to the USA and worked as a Post Doc. Research Fellow at the Composite Vehicle Research Center (CVRC), Michigan State University, USA on polymer composites processing for vehicle applications. In 2012, he started his academic career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, KUST, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is the co-founder of the Aerospace Engineering department and the Advanced Research and Innovation Center (ARIC) at KUST. Prof. Umer has also been the acting chair of the department in 2021. Prof. Umer’s research has been focused on advanced composites manufacturing covering both experimental and modelling studies. Dr. Umer has worked very closely with several academic institutes, research centers and industries around the globe. Prof. Umer has four US patents, authored and co-authored books, book chapters, research papers in refereed journals, and presented at a number of international conferences. Prof. Umer’s research interest is in composites manufacturing including, thermoset and thermoplastic composites, smart manufacturing, graphene and 2D materials, liquid composites molding, automated fiber placement, pultrusion, process modelling and simulations, multifunctional nano-composites, 3D printing and additive manufacturing, lightweight lattice and sandwich structures.

Dr. Lourdes F. Vega is a Full Professor in Chemical Engineering, Director and Founder of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and Hydrogen (RICH Center) and Theme Lead on Energy and Hydrogen at the Research and Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D materials (RIC2D) at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She has developed her career between academia and industry, with positions in the USA, Spain, and the UAE. An expert on computational modeling and energy, she is internationally recognized for moving fundamental science to the applied world in the areas of clean energy and sustainable products, focused on Hydrogen and its derivatives, CO2 capture and utilization, sustainable fuels, and sustainable cooling systems. The impact of her work has been recognized through several prestigious awards, including, among others, the V60 recognition as one of the 60 impactful Women in the Middle East driving sustainability, and one of the TOP100 Women Leaders in Spain (TOP 10 exterior), both in 2024, the 2020 Mohammed Bin Rashid Medal of Scientific Distinguishment for her contributions in clean energy and sustainable products, and the 2013 Award in Physics, Innovation and Technology by the BBVA Foundation and Spanish Royal Society of Physics. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), an Academician of the Royal Academy of Science of Spain, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academy of Scientists in the UAE, and the Academy of Sciences of Granada. Prof. Vega is a member of the Emirates Scientist Council, the Mission Innovation on Clean Hydrogen (representing the UAE), she also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of several other international institutions and the Board of Directors (non-executive Director) of two companies.

Valentyn S. Volkov, PhD, is an internationally renowned expert in the field of nanophotonics and advanced materials, with two decades of experience at leading universities and research centers. His contributions to the field have been substantial, with over 300 published papers and an impressive citation count exceeding 10000.
Valentyn’s research spans a wide range of topics in nanotechnology and materials science, including linear and nonlinear nano-optics, near-field optical microscopy and spectroscopy, plasmon-based nanophotonics, and integrated optics. He is particularly renowned for his pioneering work in nano-optics and the development of nanophotonic waveguide structures, including photonics integrated circuits based on low-dimensional and van der Waals materials. These results form the backbone for the development of XPANCEO smart lenses. His current research interests primarily focus on the field of graphene nanophotonics, 2D materials, sensing, biosensors, and functional 2D materials-based devices.

Dr. Felix Zamora is a Full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Vice-Rector for Innovation and Transfer at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). He is a member of the Condensed Matter Physics Institute (IFIMAC) and was named Distinguished Full Professor under the Community of Madrid’s Excellence Program (2020). The Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry honored him with its Research Excellence Award (2015). He leads UAM’s Nanomaterials Laboratory (nanomater.es), where his group advances covalent organic frameworks (COFs), intelligent nanomaterials based on coordination polymers, and two-dimensional materials for applications in energy and water treatment. He has authored 260+ publications and delivered more than 100 invited talks worldwide. He has led R&D projects with Abengoa, Repsol, and Iturri; holds 10 patents (two transferred); and founded four spin-offs: Nanoinnova Technologies (2008–), Fourteen Energies (2019), Porous Inks Technologies (2020), and Porous Energy (2025–).