Abdoulaye Djire Texas A&M University

Açelya Yilmazer Ankara University

Aleksandra Vojvodic University of Pennsylvania

André Taylor New York University

Andreas Rosenkranz University of Chile

Andrew Rappe University of Pennsylvania

Anirudha Sumant Argonne National Laboratory

Anita Lekhwani Springer Nature

April Rodd Wiley

Armin VahidMohammadi Tesla

Babak Anasori Purdue University

Bahram Nabet Drexel University

Brendan G. DeLacy Ballydel Technologies

Chong Min Koo Sungkyunkwan University

Chris Shuck Rutgers University

De-en Jiang Vanderbilt University

Dhriti Nepal Air Force Research Laboratory

Dmitri Talapin University of Chicago

Emily Edwards Cell Reports Physical Science

Faisal Shahzad Khalifa University

Hassan A. Arafat Khalifa University

Husam Alshareef King Abdullah University of Science & Technology

Ian Kinloch University of Manchester

John Anderson University of Chicago

Joshua Uzarski U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center

Kosuke Kawai Waseda University

Layla Mehdi University of Liverpool

Lyubov Titova Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Majid Beidaghi University of Arizona

Maksym Pogorielov University of Latvia and Sumy State University

Masoud Soroush Drexel University

Micah J. Green Texas A&M University

Michael Ghidiu Nature Communications

Michael Naguib Tulane University

Michel W. Barsoum Drexel University

Mohammad Hossein Zarifi University of British Columbia

Naresh Osti ORNL

Paul Weiss UCLA

Paweł Piotr Michałowski Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics

Po-Yen Chen University of Maryland, College Park

Qing Huang NIMTE

Sanjiv Dhingra University of Manitoba

Seon Joon Kim KIST and UST

Shayan Seyedin Newcastle University

Steven May Drexel University

Susan Sandeman Trinity College Dublin

Tae-Woo Lee Seoul National University

Vadym Mochalin Missouri University of Science & Technology

Valeria Nicolosi Trinity University

Yohan Dall’Agnese Nature

Zahra Fakhraai University of Pennsylvania

Zdenek Sofer University of Chemistry and Technology Prague

Abdoulaye Djire

Dr. Abdoulaye Djire is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University with an additional affiliation in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and a member of the Texas PowerHouse Energy Policy Advisory Council. Prior to joining Texas A&M, Dr. Djire held positions as a Staff Scientist and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the Chemistry and Nanoscience Center. He earned his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. Djire has over 35 published research articles in esteemed journals and had numerous invited talks at prestigious institutions and international conferences. At Texas A&M University, Dr. Djire serves as the Principal Investigator of the Discovery Journey to Innovative Renewable Energy (DJIRE) laboratory and program. His team focuses on finding sustainable solutions to combat climate change and promoting global access to clean energy through the exploration of innovative materials and public education initiatives. Dr. Djire has received numerous awards and recognitions including the 2019 DuPont GOLD Award and the 2023 U.S.-Africa Frontiers Fellowship.

Açelya Yilmazer

Acelya is working in the Biomedical Engineering Department of Ankara University as an Associate Professor. She is also the vice director of the Stem Cell Institute in Ankara University. After she obtained her PhD in the Nanomedicine Lab based in the School of Pharmacy – University College London in 2012, she returned back to Turkey to establish her research laboratory. Her research group works on the preclinical evaluation of nanomaterials with specific focus on the anti-cancer and anti-viral development. She has pioneered the use of various novel 2D nanomaterials for photodynamic and photothermal therapy for cancer for the first time in literature. She has received the Best Young Investigator Award by the Turkish Society of Medical Biology and Genetics (2013), Young Investigator Award by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (2018), the Scientific Encouragement Award by the Ankara University (2019) and the Young Women Scientist Award in 2023 by L’Oréal Turkey and UNESCO National Commission. 

Aleksandra Vojvodic

Dr. Aleksandra Vojvodic is the Rosenbluth Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Director of Penn Institute of Computational Science (PICS) at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on theoretical and computational-driven materials design for chemical transformations and energy conversion and storage. She is currently an ACS Catalysis Associate Editor. She has been recognized as the Trottier Foundation Fellow in Accelerated Decarbonization and Fellow in Bio-inspired-solar-energy in Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), was chosen as one of the “Women Scientists at the Forefront of Energy Research”, is the recipient of the Mellichamp Distinguished Lecture, Young Innovator Award in NanoEnergy, the European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS) Young Researcher Award and of the MIT Technology Review 35 Award. She has published more than 90 papers. Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, she was a staff scientist at the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where she led a group conducting research on oxide surface reactivity. She was the Swedish Research Council postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and at the Center for Atomic-scale Materials Design at Technical University of Denmark. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from the Department of Applied Physics at Chalmers University of Technology and her Master of Science in Physics from Lund University in Sweden. 

André D. Taylor

Prof. André D. Taylor is a Professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at New York University, where he leads the Transformative Materials and Devices Group (TMD Lab). His research focuses on the synthesis and integration of nanomaterials into devices such as fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, and solar cells.

Prof. Taylor earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, his MS from Georgia Institute of Technology, and his PhD from the University of Michigan. He has delivered plenary and invited lectures at local, national, and international levels. His work has resulted in several patents and numerous archival publications.

Dr. Taylor is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award and the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE). In 2015, he was honored as a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Associate Professor at MIT. In 2021, Dr. Taylor and his colleagues launched the Center for Decarbonizing Chemical Manufacturing Using Sustainable Electrification (DC-MUSE). As the Center Director, he promotes DC-MUSE’s vision of catalyzing the decarbonization of the chemical industry through innovative chemical manufacturing processes powered by sustainable electricity grids.

In 2024, Dr. Taylor received a prestigious Research Excellence Award from NYU in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of science. For further publication links and recent press releases, please visit the websites linked above.

Andreas Rosenkranz

Andreas Rosenkranz is a Professor for Materials-Oriented Tribology and New 2D Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials at the University of Chile. His research focuses on the characterization, chemical functionalization, and application of new 2D materials. His main field of research is related to tribology (friction, wear, and energy efficiency), but in the last couple of years, he has also expanded his fields towards water purification, catalysis, and biological properties.  He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed journal publications, is a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and acts as a scientific editor for different well-reputed scientific journals including Applied Nanoscience and Frontiers in Chemistry. 

Andrew Rappe

Andrew M. Rappe is Blanchard Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.  He received his A.B. in “Chemistry and Physics” summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1986, and his Ph.D. in “Physics and Chemistry” from MIT in 1992.  He was an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley before starting at Penn in 1994. 

Andrew received an NSF CAREER award in 1997, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 1998, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in 1999. He was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2006.

Rappe was named Weston Visiting Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2014, and Ziqiang Professor at Shanghai University in 2016. He was awarded the Humboldt Research Award in 2017 and the Cheney Fellowship at University of Leeds in 2018.

Andrew is one of two founding co-directors of the VIPER honors program at Penn, the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research.

Andrew has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles. In recent years, he has become a leader in the theory of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites and of topological materials. He has championed the use of the bulk photovoltaic effect for solar energy harvesting, and he has made seminal contributions to the theory of ferroelectric materials and to topological physics. In the field of electrochemistry, Rappe studies how nonstoichiometric surfaces, smart material substrates, and anomalous light-matter interactions yield electrocatalysts with breakthrough activity and selectivity for hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution, and CO2 reduction reactions.

Anirudha Sumant

Dr. Anirudha Sumant is a Group Leader of the Nanofabrication and Devices Group and Materials Scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, and leading the research on nanocarbon materials including CVD-diamond, carbon nanotube, graphene as well as other 2D materials. His main research interests include electronic, mechanical, and tribological properties of carbon-based materials and other 2D materials as well as surface chemistry, and micro-nano fabrication. He is the author and co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed journal/proceedings publications, 2 book chapters, and has 39 granted patents. His work on demonstrating superlubricity (near-zero friction) at an engineering scale opened a new era in solid lubrication technology. The list of his awards includes four R&D 100 awards, NASA Tech Brief Magazine Award, three TechConnect National Innovation Awards, the Pinnacle of Education Award, and the Excellence in Commercialization Award. He is a member of MRS, STLE, and AVS and is currently an editorial advisory board member for Applied Physics Letters and the specialty Chief Editor of the journal Frontiers in Carbon.

Anita Lekhwani

After studying at Columbia University, Anita’s career spanned three international publishers before joining Springer Nature in June 2016, where she oversees the Materials Science and Engineering Journals Group in New York. Anita is responsible for the journals of several global materials societies as well as key Springer titles such as Graphene and 2D Materials, co-edited by Drs. Babak Anasori, Costas Galiotis, and Yury Gogotsi. She has published numerous books, including 2D Metal Carbides and Nitrides (MXenes): Structure, Properties and Applications jointly edited by Anasori and Gogotsi and several Nobelists incuding Stoddart, Ertl, and Olah. As the Executive Publisher of many award-winning authors and publications, she can help you find a suitable home for your next Mxene-related article!

April Rodd

April Rodd is in a Deputy Editor at Wiley working in the materials science group on the journals Small and Advanced Functional Materials, focusing on areas of materials science that intersect with biology and nanoscale science. Before joining the editorial team in 2023, April worked with Wiley’s society partners and external editors as a Development Editor. Prior to joining Wiley in 2021, she conducted research on the developmental and environmental toxicology of nanomaterials and other environmental pollutants. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University in Providence, RI, followed by 4 years of postdoctoral research.

Armin VahidMohammadi

Armin VahidMohammadi is a Sr. Engineer at Tesla working on batteries and energy storage solutions for electric vehicles (EVs). Armin has been working on energy materials and systems for over 7 years, researching different materials and battery systems and products both in R&D scale and industry scale and settings. Before Tesla, he was at Wildcat Discovery Technology working on the development of new cost-efficient cathode materials, and before that led electrochemical and energy storage research activities of DNI working with Yury Gogotsi between 2020-2022. Armin received his Ph.D in Materials Engineering from Auburn University where he worked on energy materials and systems (batteries and ultracapacitors). Before his graduate studies, Armin worked in the automotive industry in the Middle East, researching vehicles and their performances and features for market launch.  

Babak Anasori

Dr. Babak Anasori is the Reilly Rising Star Associate Professor at Purdue University, with joint appointments at the Schools of Materials Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Graphene and 2D Materials, a Springer-Nature journal. Dr. Anasori received his PhD from Drexel University in 2014. From 2016 to 2019, he was a Research Assistant Professor at the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University. He has authored more than 170 refereed publications on MXenes and their precursors, and he has been recognized as a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher from 2019 to 2023. He ranked 4th on the 2023 list of Rising Stars of Science in the USA by Research.com. Additionally, ScholarGPS identified him as the number #1 in Mechanical Engineering among all scholars in the USA in the past five years. Dr. Anasori has received several international awards, including the 2016 Materials Research Society (MRS) Postdoctoral Award, the 2021 Drexel University 40-under-40, the 2021 Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) Rising Star Award in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and the 2024 Abraham Max Distinguished Professor Award at Purdue School of Engineering. His research lab focuses on developing novel MXenes for various applications, including energy generation, electromagnetic interference shielding, and ultra-high temperature ceramics.  

Bahram Nabet

Bahram Nabet received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, before joining Drexel University in 1989 where he is presently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Affiliated Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. His research interest was in the interaction of light and biological matter, bio memetics, leading to  implementation of optoelectronic neural network circuitry influenced by insect eye which perform front-end processing of images, leading to his first book “Sensory Neural Networks: Lateral Inhibition” published by CRC press. His more recent research interests are in information transfer without charge transport, and optoelectronics of the interaction of light with reduced dimensional systems. His analysis of Schottky contacts to 2D and 1D systems has replaced the classic Richardson constant and barrier height calculation, and is universally used in metal-2D contacts. Among other work, he has produced  nanowire lasers on Silicon, THz polarizers, and has invented optoplasmonic photodetectors (PD’s) which overcome their transit time limitation leading to record speed, sensitivity, and power usage. His work on rectifying properties of MXenes has established their suitability surpassing gold metal, and by co-optimizing them with  two-dimensional electron gas systems (2DEG), has produced fastest reported photodetectors. He is co-author of over 200 publications, including 4 books, is on the editorial board of 6 journals, and is a member of the Franklin Institute Committee on Science and the Arts, which was established in 1824.

Babak Anasori

Dr. Babak Anasori is the Reilly Rising Star Associate Professor at Purdue University, with joint appointments at the Schools of Materials Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Graphene and 2D Materials, a Springer-Nature journal. Dr. Anasori received his PhD from Drexel University in 2014. From 2016 to 2019, he was a Research Assistant Professor at the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University. He has authored more than 170 refereed publications on MXenes and their precursors, and he has been recognized as a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher from 2019 to 2023. He ranked 4th on the 2023 list of Rising Stars of Science in the USA by Research.com. Additionally, ScholarGPS identified him as the number #1 in Mechanical Engineering among all scholars in the USA in the past five years. Dr. Anasori has received several international awards, including the 2016 Materials Research Society (MRS) Postdoctoral Award, the 2021 Drexel University 40-under-40, the 2021 Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) Rising Star Award in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and the 2024 Abraham Max Distinguished Professor Award at Purdue School of Engineering. His research lab focuses on developing novel MXenes for various applications, including energy generation, electromagnetic interference shielding, and ultra-high temperature ceramics.  

Brendan G. DeLacy

Brendan G. DeLacy, PhD is President and Founder of Ballydel Technologies, a research and development firm focused on providing material and technology solutions for a variety of product applications in the defense, energy, pharmaceutical, and consumer goods sectors. Dr. DeLacy’s technical interests include the synthesis and characterization of novel nanomaterials and composites (including the scaled-up synthesis of MXenes), as well as the optimization of the electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical, and electronic properties of these materials. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from St. Joseph’s University, a M.S. degree in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Drexel University.

Chong Min Koo

He recieved his BS degree from Hanyang University in 1997 and Ph.D. degree from Chemical Engineering Department of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 2003. He performed a postdoctoral fellowship in Minnesota University for two years(2003-2005) and worked for LG Chemicals in two years (2005-2007) and Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) (2007-2022). He currently works as a professor in the School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering in Sungkyunkwan University. He won the several awards including LG Group Best Research and Development Award (2007), KIST Best Researcher Award (2016, 2017, 2020), Songgok Scientist Award (2017), Best Academic Award (2018) from Korea Polymer Society, Young Scientist Award from the Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (2017), Best Korean Scientist Award from KRF (2018), Korea President Award (2019), and S-OIL Best Scientist Award (2020). His research interest covers 2D nanomaterials including transition metal carbides (MXene) and graphene and their polymer nanocomposites for EMI shielding, thermal conduction, flexible electrodes, and energy storage. 

Chris Shuck 

Dr. Christopher E. Shuck is currently an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department at Rutgers University. He received his Ph.D. in 2018 from the University of Notre Dame in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and B.S.E. in 2013 from Princeton University in Chemical and Biological Engineering. He received numerous awards for his work, including the Fulbright Scholarship in 2016. He was a research assistant professor at the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University until 2023. His research interests include chemical kinetics, materials synthesis, and 2D materials. Christopher’s work has led to a direct change in the definition of both MAX phases and MXenes (Discovery of M₅AX₄ and M₅X₄T_x MXene), he has pioneered work into solid-solution MXenes, and has applied MXene work into many fields, including electrochemical energy storage, electromagnetic interference shielding, and biomedicine.

De–en Jiang

De–en Jiang is a Professor in Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with a secondary appointment in Department of Chemistry, at Vanderbilt University. He received his BS and MS degrees from Peking University and PhD degree from UCLA, all in chemistry. He worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory first as a postdoc and then as a staff scientist before joining University of California Riverside (UCR) in 2014. He was a Professor of Chemistry at UCR, as well as a cooperating faculty member of Chemical & Environmental Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering before moving to Vanderbilt in July 2022. His research focuses on computational materials and chemistry for energy and the environment. He received the DOE Early Career Award and the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. He was an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. According to Google Scholar, his 370+ peer-reviewed publications have been cited over 30,800 times with an H-index of 92. He was a Highly Cited Research by Clarivate in 2023. 

Dhriti Nepal

Dhriti Nepal (dhriti.nepal.1@afrl.af.mil) is the Senior Research Materials Engineer in the Polymer Composite Branch, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Her research interests include 2D materials, Directed assembly of nanomaterials, Hierarchical design of nanocomposite, Bioinspired materials, Vitrimer nanocomposite, and Liquid crystalline materials. She has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She received her PhD (2006) from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea, in Materials Science and Engineering. She did her postdoc at Auburn University (2006-2008) and Georgia Institute of Technology (2008-2009) and worked as a research scientist at AFRL/UTC (2009-2015). She joined RX/AFRL as a Research Materials Engineer in 2015. She is a Secretary at the PMSE Division of the American Chemical Society.

Dmitri Talapin

Dmitri Talapin is Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry, James Franck Institute, and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. His research interests focus on inorganic nanomaterials, from synthetic methodology to self-assembly to charge transport and optoelectronic devices.

He was born in USSR and grew up in Belarus, received a doctorate degree from the University of Hamburg, Germany in 2002, followed by a postdoctoral work at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. In 2005-2007, he was a staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and joined faculty of the University of Chicago in 2007. His recognitions include ACS Inorganic Nanoscience Award, Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award, David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, and others. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2014 and serves as an Associate Editor for Chemical Science published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Emily Edwards

Emily Edwards obtained her PhD in chemistry from the University of Rochester. She began as an editor with Cell Reports Physical Science in 2022, and handles catalysis, energy, and sustainability content. Emily’s scientific background is in energy-relevant photocatalytic systems combining inorganic and biological elements. As an editor at CRPS she also works closely with other Cell Press journals in the physical science portfolio.

Faisal Shahzad

Faisal Shahzad earned his Ph.D. in Nanomaterials Science and Engineering from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in August 2017. Currently, he serves as a Senior Research Scientist at RIC2D, Khalifa University, UAE. His research focuses on developing MXenes and other functional nanomaterials for applications such as printable inks, EMI shielding, energy storage, and water remediation. Dr. Shahzad has contributed to a commercialization team aimed at scaling up the production of 2D materials for various applications. During this presentation, he will discuss MXene-based magnetic materials and their role in enhancing EMI shielding properties.

Hassan A. Arafat

Prof. Arafat is the senior director of the Research and Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC-2D) and professor of chemical engineering at Khalifa University (KU) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he is working since 2010. His current research interests include membrane-based desalination and the development of novel membranes for water applications. He is also an expert on “sustainable desalination”, an approach that integrates multiple interdisciplinary tools to enhance the prospects of deploying desalination for achieving water and food security. The sustainable desalination concept was first introduced in 2017 in Prof. Arafat’s book: “Desalination Sustainability: A Technical, Socioeconomic and Environmental Approach”. Prof. Arafat received a Ph.D. and BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Univ. of Cincinnati (USA) (2000) and the Univ. of Jordan (1996), respectively. From 2000 to 2003, he worked at Argonne National Laboratory (USA) on separation processes development for nuclear waste treatment. Between 2003 and 2010, he was a faculty member of the Chem. Eng. Dept. at An-Najah University (Palestinian Territory). Between 2009 and 2012, he served as an adjunct associate professor of the Biological Eng. Dept. at Utah State Univ. (USA) and in 2010, he spent six months as a visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). Between 2018 and 2022, he was the director of the Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT) at KU. He is a recipient of several prestigious research fellowships by the US National Academy of Science (USA), the Open Society Foundation (USA) and DAAD (Germany). Through his career thus far, he supervised 58 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students and received 29 research grants, totaling more than $16M. His research was published in 280+ book chapters, journal papers, and conference presentations, in addition to two US patents. He was invited to deliver over 60 keynote and invited talks worldwide. Among other honors, Prof. Arafat received the Khalifa Award for Education, presented by the President of UAE, the Mohammad Bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Excellence, presented by the Prime Minister of UAE, the United States Department of Energy Secretarial Honor Award, the Mondialogo Engineering Award by Daimler AG and UNESCO, and the Univ. of Cincinnati Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship. He is a member of the selection committees of the prestigious Zayed Sustainability Prize and the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Water Award. In 2021, he was granted the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Citizenship by nomination of the UAE’s Prime Minister Office in recognition of his accomplishments and service to the UAE.

Husam Alshareef

Husam Alshareef is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He is also the Director of the newly-established Center of Excellence in Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies at KAUST. He obtained his Ph.D. at NC State University followed by a post-doctoral Fellowship at Sandia National Laboratories, USA.

He spent over 10 years in the semiconductor industry where he implemented processes in volume production for chip manufacturing. He joined KAUST in 2009, where he initiated an active research group focusing on the development of nanomaterials for electronics and energy applications. His work has been recognized by over 25 awards including the SEMATECH Corporate Excellence Award, two Dow Sustainability Awards, the Kuwait Prize for Sustainable and Clean Technologies, and the KAUST Distinguished Teaching Award. He has published over 600 papers and 80 issued patents. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Institute of Physics (IoP), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He has been a Clarivate Analytics Highly-cited Researcher in Materials Science for several years. 

Ian Kinloch

Prof. Ian Kinloch holds the Morgan Advanced Materials/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Carbon Materials in the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester.  His research on nanomaterials for composites and energy storage spans the divide between fundamental science and industry. He is a member of the National Graphene Institute and Henry Royce Institute and has held previously EPSRC Challenging Engineering and EPSRC/RAEng Research Fellowships.  

John Anderson

John was born in Downers Grove, a suburb about 40 minutes west of Chicago. He acquired his interest in chemistry at an early age from his grandmother, who was a chemist at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago. Seeking to further his study of science, John matriculated at the University of Chicago. Once there, John quickly joined the laboratory of Professor Greg Hillhouse. It was in the three years that John spent in Greg’s lab that he found his love for inorganic chemistry. During this time, John focused on researching phosphine complexes of Ni, specifically with respect to their reactivity with small molecules such as carbon dioxide and carbon disulfide.

After graduating John began his graduate studies in Boston at MIT in the group of Professor Jonas Peters. His time in Boston was to be short-lived however, as the Peters group moved to the California Institute of Technology in sunny Pasadena, CA quickly thereafter. John also made the move and received his Ph.D. from Caltech. John’s thesis centered around a discrete Fe complex that mediates catalytic nitrogen fixation to ammonia.

After finishing his thesis, John came to Northwestern to work in the laboratory of Dave Harris. During this time, John has focused on materials, particularly metal organic frameworks. A central theme is the ability to stabilize reactive species, such as low coordinate dioxygen adducts, within metal organic frameworks thus allowing their characterization and study.

In his independent career, John and the Anderson group have been interested in linking the physical properties of transition metal centers, particularly their spin and radical character, to reactivity and bulk properties.

Joshua Uzarski

Dr. Joshua Uzarski is a Research Chemist at U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center. He earned his BS in Chemistry from Aquinas College and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Virginia Tech. He then completed a DTRA Chem/Bio Defense NRC postdoc at the Soldier Center, followed by starting his civilian career in 2014. His work focuses on applying fundamental surface science to a myriad of defense related applications, including low-dimensional and biologically inspired materials, sensors, as well as machine learning-enabled data generation for accelerated material discovery and sensor performance. His work is supported by a network of US-based and international academic collaborators along with domestic and international defense partner organizations.

Kosuke Kawai

Kosuke Kawai received his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical System Engineering of The University of Tokyo in 2021. He was a JSPS Research Fellow at Waseda University in 2021. He is currently working as an assistant professor at Waseda University. His research interest focuses on energy storage materials for batteries and supercapacitors.

Layla Mehdi 

Professor Mehdi is currently part of the School of Engineering and Associate Director of the Albert Crewe Centre for Electron Microscopy at the University of Liverpool (since 2017). She received her undergraduate and Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Warsaw in Poland and her PhD in Chemistry from Miami University, USA. Following her PhD, she joined the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2013 and in 2016 was promoted to a permanent staff scientist. Her work at PNNL involved the development of the in-situ TEM stages to study dynamic processes with application to Li-ion batteries as part of the Joint Centre for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) funded by the US Department of Energy. She has over eleven years of experience in the development and application of in-situ methods in electron microscopy for which she has received numerous awards. These include 2021 KIT International Excellence Grants and Fellowships, the 2019 Albert Crewe Award from the Microscopy Society of America MSA for distinguished contributions to the field of Microscopy and Microanalysis in the physical sciences by an early career scientist, the 2015 MRS Postdoctoral Award, the 2015 Microscopy Society of America postdoctoral award, the 2014 Microscopy & Microanalysis Presidential award, and the 2013 Miami University award for outstanding PhD work.
Additionally, in 2016 she received a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship to perform Research at Nagoya University, Japan in collaboration with Toyota, which she turned down to join the University of Liverpool.

Her primary research area is focused on Li-ion batteries and she is the Energy Science Team Lead of Relativistic Ultrafast Electron Diffraction and Imaging (RUEDI) Facility. Currently, her research group focuses on developing advanced new microscopy methods to generate an in-depth understanding of reaction kinetics at solid/liquid and solid/gas interfaces in batteries and electrocatalysis.

Lyubov Titova

Lyubov Titova is a Professor of Physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. Her research interests are at the intersection of photonics and advanced functional materials, applying ultrafast optical and terahertz spectroscopy to nanomaterials with applications in solar energy conversion, sensing and optoelectronics.

She earned her BS in Physics at the Precarpathian National University in Ukraine and Ph. D. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame, IN (USA). She went on to do a postdoc at the University of Cincinnati, working on spatially- and time-resolved photoluminescence imaging of semiconductor nanowires. Later, she moved to the University of Alberta, Canada as an Avadh Bhatia Postdoctoral Fellow to work on time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy of semiconductors, and continued at the University of Alberta as a Research Associate in the Ultrafast Nanotools Lab. She moved to the Physics Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2014 and established the Ultrafast Optical and Terahertz Spectroscopy Lab. She currently serves as an Associate Editor at Optics Express.

Majid Beidaghi

Majid Beidaghi is an Associate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Florida International University in 2012. Then, he was a postdoctoral researcher associate at A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and the Department of Material Science and Engineering at Drexel University from 2012 to 2015. Before joining the University of Arizona in 2023, he was an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Auburn University. He received the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award in 2017 and the NSF CAREER award in 2019. The current research in Beidaghi’s group focuses on the discovery and synthesis of advanced materials such as MXenes and other 2D materials and the development of manufacturing methods for applications such as energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors), sensors, and separation membranes. 

Maksym Pogorielov

Dr. Maksym Pogorielov is a Senior Researcher at the University of Latvia and a Professor at Sumy State University in Ukraine.   At Sumy State University, Dr. Pogorielov supervised the Biomedical Research Centre, while at the University of Latvia, he led the Group of Innovation Biomaterials and Nanomedicine. His primary research focuses on the fundamental interactions of MXenes with biological systems, including cells, bacteria, and animals.  Additionally, his group leverages MXenes to develop innovative anticancer strategies and tissue engineering constructs for conductive tissue regeneration and infected wound healing. Dr. Pogorielov has coordinated several EU and local grants, including MSCA-SE, M-Era.Net, among others.

Masoud Soroush

Masoud Soroush is a professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Drexel University. He directs the Future Layered nAnomaterials Knowledge and Engineering (FLAKE) Consortium, which includes Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Purdue University. His research focuses on advanced manufacturing and novel materials for sustainability, energy, and health; functional safety; and process systems engineering. He has edited/co-edited and contributed to eight books and has documented his work in more than 400 publications. Soroush is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. His national awards include the AIChE’s 2023 Excellence in Process Development Research Award, the AIChE’s 2021 Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology, the U.S. National Science Foundation Faculty Early CAREER Award, and the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award from the American Automatic Control Council. 

Micah J. Green

Micah J. Green studied chemical engineering at Texas Tech (undergraduate), MIT (Ph.D), and Rice University (postdoc). He currently serves as Professor and Associate Department Head in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he leads a research group that focuses on nanomaterials and composites processing. He has received the NSF CAREER Award, the Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the DuPont Young Faculty Award for his work in these areas. 

Michael Ghidiu

After a background in organometallic synthetic chemistry, Michael completed his PhD at Drexel University under Dr. Michel Barsoum, researching the structural effects of ions and water on MXenes. He then completed three years of postdoctoral research with Dr. Wolfgang Zeier at Justus Liebig University Gießen working on solution-based synthesis of solid lithium-conducting electrolytes before joining Springer Nature as an Associate Editor with Nature Communications.

Michael Naguib

Michael Naguib is a Ken and Ruth Arnold Early Career Professor in Science and Engineering and an associate professor in the department of Physics and Engineering Physics at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Prior to joining Tulane in 2018, he was a Wigner Fellow (2014-2017) and Research Staff (2017-2018) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University in 2014 where he co-invented MXenes in 2011. He has published more than 110 papers (with more than 48,000 citations and h-index of 62) in international journals and presented many plenary, keynote and invited lectures and seminars at a number of international conferences and universities. He has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics four times and has received many awards such as NSF CAREER Award, Robert L. Coble Award, Kroto Award, Ross Coffin Purdy Award, Rising Star Award by Tulane University, MRS Gold Graduate Student Award, Graduate Excellence in Materials Science Award, Young Alumni Emerging Leader Award by Drexel University, and was listed as Drexel University Forty-Under-Forty. He is an Associate Editor of Energy Advances. His research group works on the synthesis and characterization of layered materials and novel nanomaterials with a focus on 2D materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion.

Michel W. Barsoum

Prof. Michel W. Barsoum is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University. He is an internationally recognized leader in the area of MAX phases and more recently the 2D solids labeled MXenes derived from the MAX phases. Most recently he also discovered a new universal mechanism – ripplocation – in the deformation of layered solids. With over 500 refereed publications and a Google h index is 144, his work has been cited >115,000 times to date. He was on the Web of Science’s highly cited researchers list from 2018 to 2023. He is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Society of Engineering Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, a fellow of the American Ceramic Soc. and the World Academy of Ceramics. He is the author of the books, MAX Phases: Properties of Machinable Carbides and Nitrides and Fundamentals of Ceramics, a leading textbook in his field. In 2020, he was awarded the International Ceramics Prize for Basic Science by the World Academy of Ceramics. This prize is awarded quadrennially and is one of the highest in his field. The prize was awarded for “…  outstanding contribution in opening new horizons in material research and specifically for your pioneering work in MAX phases and their derivatives.” 

Mohammad Hossein Zarifi

Mohammad Hossein Zarifi  (Ph.D. PEng, PRC Tier II, SMIEEE), received the B.Sc., MSc. and Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Tabriz, Iran, in 2004, 2006 and 2009 respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor and Tier II Principal’s Research Chair (PRC) in Sensors and Microelectronics with the School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia, and the director of Okanagan MicroElectronics and Gigahertz Applications laboratory (OMEGA Lab), Canada. Prior joining UBC, Dr.Zarifi was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta from 2013-2017. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings as well as 5 issued or pending patents. Dr. Zarifi received CMC-NRC first place award, on industrial collaboration, for the innovative microwave sensors, in Canada, at 2015. Dr Zarifi’s research focus on millimetre-wave and tera-hertz (THz) theory and techniques, antenna sensors, microwave and millimeter sensors, and flexible electronics for communication and sensing applications. Dr. Zarifi is a member of IEEE MTT-S TC- 26 “RFID, Wireless Sensor and IoT” and a member of IEEE MTT-S TC- 4 “Microwave Passive Components and Transmission Line Structures”, and a senior member of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, and has served as a reviewer for numerous journals and conferences. Dr. Zarifi is also the recipient of the Emerging Researcher Award and the Best teaching award at the School of Engineering, at the University of British Columbia in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Naresh Osti

Naresh C. Osti earned his MS in Physical Chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, and his PhD in Chemistry from Clemson University in South Carolina in 2014. He joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as a postdoctoral researcher and currently serves as an R&D Staff/beamline scientist at the backscattering silicon spectrometer (BASIS) in ORNL’s Neutron Scattering Division. His research investigates the structure and dynamics of energy-related materials (both hard and soft) and their real-life applications, particularly on nano-confined fluids, polymers, and polymer nanocomposites. Naresh has extensive experience utilizing various neutron scattering techniques at different user facilities for materials characterization.

Paul Weiss

Paul S. Weiss is a nanoscientist and holds a UC Presidential Chair and is a distinguished professor of chemistry, bioengineering, and materials science at UCLA. He studies the ultimate limits of miniaturization, developing new tools and methods for atomic-resolution and spectroscopic imaging and chemical patterning. He applies these advances in other areas including quantum information, sensing, neuroscience, microbiome studies, tissue engineering, cellular therapies, and high-throughput gene editing. He has won awards in science, engineering, teaching, publishing, and communications. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, AAAS, ACS, AIMBE, APS, AVS, Canadian Academy of Engineering, Chemical Research Society of India, Chinese Chemical Society, IEEE, MRS, and National Academy of Inventors. He was the founding editor-in-chief of ACS Nano. 

Paweł Piotr Michałowski

Paweł Piotr Michałowski was born in Poznań, Poland in 1984. He obtained his master’s degree in physics from Umeå University (Sweden) in 2007 and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland) in 2008. In 2015 he obtained a Ph.D. degree in physics from Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland). His scientific interest focuses on the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) technique since 2007 when he worked at Fraunhofer Center for Nanoelectronics Technologies (Dresden, Germany). Since 2015 he works at Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics (previously known as Institute of Electronic Materials Technology) and is responsible for CAMECA IMS SC Ultra spectrometer. At the beginning of 2020, he became the head of the Department of Structural Research and Materials Characterization which was later renamed to Characterization of Materials and Devices Research Group. He is cooperating with more than fifty institutions, both, academia and industry. He is currently focusing on developing dedicated measurement procedures – tailored for specific samples – that allow reaching a subnanometer depth resolution and enable characterization of 2D materials like graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides, and MXenes. These procedures can also be applied to the analysis of full structures of semiconductor devices like VCSEL, solar cells, or various transistors. 

Po-Yen Chen

Dr. Po-Yen Chen is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Maryland (UMD), College Park. Dr. Chen is also affiliated in Maryland Robotics Center (MRC). He received a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU) and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After his Ph.D., he was awarded Hibbitt Early Career Fellowship and served as an independent researcher at Brown University for 2 years, and then he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at National University of Singapore (NUS) for 2.5 years before he joined UMD. He received AME Young Investigator Award in 2018 and AIChE SLS Outstanding Young Principal Investigator Award in 2019. In 2020, Po-Yen was named as Innovators Under 35 in Asia by MIT Technology Review and received AIChE 35 under 35 Award. Recently, he is elected to Global Young Academy (GYA) and Fellow of Vebleo. His research focuses on the intersections of nanomaterials self-assembly, machine intelligence, and soft robotics/machines. He seeks to create the synergy between machine intelligence and automated robots to construct high-accuracy prediction models enabling automatic design of functional soft matter for soft robot/machine applications. By implementing data augmentation and statistical analyses, he can reveal the underlying nanomaterial self-assembly mechanisms that dictate data-driven design principles. The insights gained from machine intelligence-guided experiments can be utilized to fabricate stretchable electronics for wearable technologies and smart soft machines.

Qing Huang

Qing Huang, Professor, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science. He pursued degrees in Tianjin University from 1995 to 2002; and obtained bachelor degree in inorganic non–metallics and master degree in materials science. From 2002 to 2005, he studied in Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, CAS; and obtained his PhD in materials physics and chemistry. During 2005 to 2010, he carried out post–doctoral research at National Institute for Materials Science, Japan and University of California Davis, USA. In 2010, he joined Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, and focused on the developments and applications of energy materials under extreme environments including the layered materials (MAX phases and MXenes) and silicon carbide composites for high–safety energy systems. 

Sanjiv Dhingra

Dr. Sanjiv Dhingra is a Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Manitoba. He is also the Director of the Canada Italy Tissue Engineering Program at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre, Winnipeg, Canada. His research interests are focused on the post-myocardial infarction cardiac regeneration and tissue engineering using stem cell therapy and biomaterials. The current research in Dr. Dhingra’s lab focuses on understanding the host immune response against transplanted stem cells. Another major area of interest in Dr. Dhingra’s lab is to develop MXene based immunomodulatory materials to prevent rejection of transplanted stem cells and solid organs. Dr. Dhingra has published several papers in this area in prominent journals. Dr. Dhingra has been actively involved in promoting the field of cardiac stem cell therapy and tissue engineering. He has organized several national and international conferences and symposia. He was the Chair of International Conferences on Future of Regenerative Medicine, which were held in different parts of Italy, in Tuscania (2017), Ostuni (2018), and Rome (2023). Dr. Dhingra has been recognized nationally and internationally for his accomplishments in research. He received Outstanding Leadership Award in Cardiovascular Research from the Life Science Association of Manitoba. Previously he has been recognized by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2012 and Canadian Cardiovascular Society in 2017 for his efforts in the field of cardiovascular stem cell therapy and tissue engineering. Recently Dr. Dhingra received Dr. Rakesh Kukreja Oration Award (2023) at the Annual Meeting of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (Indian Section), and Dr. Guido Tarone Lecture Award (2023) at the Annual Congress of the Italian Society of Cardiovascular Sciences. Dr. Dhingra’s laboratory is currently funded by multiple agencies including CIHR and NSERC. He continues to serve as committee member on several granting agency review panels such as CIHR, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, NSERC, European Science Foundation, and Medical Research Council of England.

Seon Joon Kim

Seon Joon Kim is a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), and associate professor at the Korea University of Science and Technology (UST). He received his Ph.D. from Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) in 2017 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at KAIST from 2017 to 2018 and at the Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University in 2018. His research made pioneering advances in the utilization of MXenes into gas sensors, and he has received the KIST Young Fellow award in 2024 for his efforts in the advancement of MXene nanomaterial technologies. His current research interests focus on the synthesis and surface modification of conductive 2D nanomaterials such as MXene and graphene and their utilization into thin-film electronics or electrochemical applications.

Shayan Seyedin

Dr Shayan Seyedin is an Associate Professor at Newcastle University (UK). He previously worked in multiple research and fellowship roles at Imperial College London (UK), Drexel University (USA), and Deakin University (Australia) after receiving his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wollongong (Australia) in 2014. In 2017, he was awarded an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for his research at the Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University. He then received an Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2018 to work at the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University. His research made pioneering advances in processing 2D materials like graphene and MXenes into neat, hybrid, and composite structures such as films, fibres, yarns, and textiles that could store energy or sense strain, pressure, or touch. He has published >50 journal articles and book chapters, which featured in 9 journal cover pages and >50 media outlets. He has been recognised amongst the Top 2% Scientists Worldwide in 2023 by Elsevier. 

Steven May

Steve May is a professor and department head of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, having joined the department as an assistant professor in 2009. He received a B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University. Following his doctorate, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne National Laboratory from 2007-2009 in the Materials Science Division. His research focuses on the synthesis of novel electronic and magnetic materials in thin film form and characterization of their functional properties for potential use in next generation information processing, data storage, or energy devices. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and has received the NSF CAREER award, an ARO Young Investigator Award, the Ross Coffin Purdy Award from the American Ceramic Society, and the Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers from ASM International. 

Susan Sandeman

Dr. Susan Sandeman is a Reader in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at the University of Brighton, UK with an interest in biomedical device technologies for tissue repair. She is also Director of Doctoral Studies and Deputy Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices. Her PhD was in ophthalmic biomaterials in which she considered the role of cellular ageing in corneal wound repair and implant success. The published work of Dr Sandeman’s group on MXenes for medical device applications has demonstrated blood compatibility and inflammation repressive effects of conductive Ti3C2TX and a potential role in artificial lens design. With funding of > £8 million from UKRI MRC, EPSRC, British Council, NIHR, EUFP7, Horizon 2020, company patent and licensing investment, Dr Sandeman’s group have developed a range of adsorbent, nanostructured and smart polymer materials as prototypes to replace or repair organ function with application to blood filtration, liver disease, kidney dialysis and devices for anterior eye. She is an advocate for the pivotal role of postgraduate research students in scientific innovation and the need for ambitious interdisciplinary training programmes involving placement opportunities to better facilitate communication across disciplinary boundaries.

Tae-Woo Lee

Tae-Woo Lee is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University, Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2002. Following his doctoral studies, he joined Bell Laboratories in the USA as a postdoctoral researcher. From 2003 to 2008, he worked at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology as a senior research staff member. Before joining Seoul National University, he served as a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) until August 2016. Professor Lee has been a fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) since 2022 and a fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) since 2020. His research focuses on flexible electronics and optoelectronics, utilizing organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite semiconductors, organic semiconductors, and carbon-based 2D materials for applications in displays, solid-state lighting, solar energy conversion devices, and bio-inspired neuromorphic devices. 

Vadym Mochalin

Dr. Vadym Mochalin has received Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from L. M. Litvinenko Institute of Physical Organic and Coal Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and M.S. in Biochemistry (cum laude) from Donetsk National University, Ukraine. He is now Associate Professor in Chemistry at Missouri University of Science & Technology with joint appointment in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. His current research interests include fundamental chemistry, synthesis, characterization, purification, chemical modification, modeling, and developing applications of nanodiamond, MXene, nanoonions, nanocarbons, and other nanomaterials for composites, energy storage, biomedical applications, and extreme environments. Dr. Mochalin has co-authored over 90 research papers in peer reviewed journals, has been invited to write several book chapters and review articles and is an inventor on 7 international patents. He serves on the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports – a Nature Research journal. Since 2021 Dr. Mochalin serves as editor of Diamond and Related Materials (Elsevier).

Valeria Nicolosi

Professor Nicolosi is the Chair of Nanomaterials and Advanced Microscopy at the School of Chemistry in Trinity College Dublin (TCD). She received a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Catania (Italy) and a Ph.D. in Physics from TCD in 2006. She moved to the University of Oxford in February 2008 as a Marie Curie Fellow. In April 2008 she was awarded with a Royal Academy of Engineering/EPSRC Fellowship. In 2012 she returned to TCD as Research Professor. In 2016 she was promoted to Chair of Nanomaterials and Advanced Microscopy. She is the first woman to have reached the position of Chair in the School of Chemistry since the foundation of TCD in 1592. Prof. Nicolosi 6 times ERC awardee (StG in 2011, followed by 3 PoC grants to bring results of frontier research closer to the market, a CoG in 2016, followed by a further PoC in 2019). She has published more than 200 high-impact-papers and her research has attracted more than 25 M euro funding over the last 9 years. Aspects of her research has been licenced to companies like Thomas Swann, Samsung, Intel, Lego, etc. In 2018, 2019 and 2020 she was recognized as one of the world’s most influential researchers of the past decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations in Web of Science. Prof. Nicolosi served as Advisory Board member of the European Innovation Council (EIC) from 2019 to 2021. As a recognition of her carrier achievements, in 2021 Prof. Nicolosi was conferred the honourary decoration of “Cavaliere” in the Order “Stella d’Italia” by the President of the Italian Republic, at the proposal of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Yohan Dall’Agnese

Dr. Yohan Dall’Agnese is a Senior Editor at Nature, the weekly international journal publishing the finest peer-reviewed research. He obtained PhD degrees from Drexel University and Université Paul Sabatier, working on MXenes for batteries and supercapacitors, followed by postdoctoral research in Japan on electrocatalysis for fuel cells. He was appointed as an Associate Professor at Jilin University (2017-2019), then Assistant Professor at University College London (2019-2021), working on energy storage and conversion. He then moved to the scientific journal Nature, where he handles the energy-related fields (batteries, photovoltaics, fuel cells, catalysis, etc.) and keeps a keen eye on MXenes.

Zahra Fakhraai

Zahra Fakhraai is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She received her PhD degree in Physics from the University of Waterloo in 2007, where she studied the dynamics of polymers in thin films and at interfaces. After two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto (2008-09) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (NSERC post-doctoral fellow, 2009-11) she joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a Professor of Chemistry with a secondary appointment at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her group at Penn combines experiments and modeling to explore structure, dynamics, and optical properties to study glass transition and other dynamical phenomena at nanometer length scale. She has also developed in-situ characterization techniques based on spectroscopic ellipsometry to study thermal stability, local microenvironments, and electrochemical properties of two-dimensional materials and their hybrid interfaces. Zahra is a member of the American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the recipient of the APS Padden Award (2007), NSF Career award (2014), Sloan fellowship in Chemistry (2015), the Journal of Physical Chemistry JPC-PHYS lectureship award (2017), APS Dillon Medal (2019), and ACS Rising Starts Award (2021). She is also active in broadening participation of historically marginalized groups in STEM and is serving as a faculty mentor for the Penn chapter for the Alliance for Diversity in Science & Engineering (ADSE). She has received the Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research (2021) and the Trustees Council of Penn Women Faculty Award for Undergraduate Advising (2024).

Zdenek Sofer

Prof. Zdenek Sofer is tenured professor at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague since 2019. He received his PhD also at University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czech Republic, in 2008. During his PhD he spent one year in Forschungszentrum Julich (Peter Grünberg Institute, Germany) and also one postdoctoral stay at University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Research interests of prof. Sofer concerning on 2D materials including graphene, MXene, layered chalcogenides and other 2D materials, its crystal growth, chemical modifications and derivatisation. His research covers various applications of 2D materials including energy storage and conversion, electronic, catalysis and sensing devices. He is an associated editor of FlatChem journal. He has published over 650 articles, which received over 30 000 citations (h-index of 89). He received in 2019 President of Czech Science Foundation Award and in 2016 Neuron Impulse award.