Home - Plenary Speakers
Dr. Bharat Bhushan received an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971, an M.S. in mechanics and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1973 and 1976, respectively, an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, NY in 1980, Doctor Technicae from the University of Trondheim at Trondheim, Norway in 1990, a Doctor of Technical Sciences from the Warsaw University of Technology at Warsaw, Poland in 1996, Honorary Doctor of Science from the National Academy of Sciences, Gomel, Belarus in 2000, University of Kragujevac, Serbia in 2011, and University of Tyumen, Russia in 2019. He is a registered professional engineer. He is an Academy Professor (San Jose, CA), and has served as an Ohio Eminent Scholar and The Howard D. Winbigler Professor in the College of Engineering, Director of the Nanoprobe Laboratory for Bio- & Nanotechnology and Biomimetics (NLB2), and affiliated faculty in John Glenn College of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. In 2013-14, he served as ASME/AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, House Committee on Science, Space & Technology, United States Congress, Washington, DC. He has served as Expert Investigator on IP related issues in the U.S. and International Courts. His research interests are in Fundamental studies in the interdisciplinary areas of Bio/nanotribology/nanomechanics, Nanomaterials Characterization, Scanning Probe Techniques, Magnetic Storage, Bio/nanotechnology, Nanomanufacturing, Bioinspired Liquid Repellency, Self-cleaning, Anti-icing, Anti-fouling, and Water Harvesting, Science and Technology Policy. He is an internationally recognized expert of bio/nanotribology and bio/nanomechanics using scanning probe microscopy, and biomimetics. He is considered by some one of the pioneers of the tribology and mechanics of magnetic storage devices, nanotribology, green tribology, and biomimetics. He had introduced the word nanotribology in a title of a Nature paper in 1995 and in a title of a first book on green tribology in 2010. He is one of the most prolific authors. He has authored 10 scientific books, 100+ handbook chapters, and 900+ scientific papers (Google Scholar’s one of 1248 Highly Cited Researchers in All Fields, h-index - 140+ with 90k+ citations; Scopus’s one of 401 Scientists for Career-long Citation Impact Across All Fields out of over 8 million scientists from around world, and Fourth Highly Cited Researcher in Mechanical Eng.; ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science and in Cross-field Category. His research was listed as the Top Ten Science Stories of 2015. He has also edited more than 60 books and holds more than 25 U.S. and foreign patents. He is co-editor of Springer NanoScience and Technology Series and co-editor of Microsystem Technologies. He has given more than 400 invited presentations including 300+ keynote/plenary addresses at major international conferences on six continents. He delivered a TEDx 2019 lecture on Lessons from Nature. His biography has been listed in over two dozen Who's Who books including Who's Who in the World. He has received more than two dozen awards for his contributions to science and technology from professional societies, industry, and U.S. government agencies including International Tribology Gold Medal and Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK) Global Award for bioinspired surfaces. He received NASA’s Certificate of Appreciation to recognize the critical tasks performed in support of President Reagan’s Commission investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. He is also the recipient of various international fellowships including the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize for Senior Scientists, Max Planck Foundation Research Award for Outstanding Foreign Scientists, and Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. He is foreign member of the International Academy of Engineering (Russia), Byelorussian Academy of Engineering and Technology and the Academy of Triboengineering of Ukraine, honorary member of the Society of Tribologists of Belarus and STLE, fellow of ASME, IEEE, and the New York Academy of Sciences, and member of ASEE, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi.He is an accomplished organizer. He organized the Ist Symposium on Tribology and Mechanics of Magnetic Storage Systems in 1984 and the Ist Int. Symposium on Advances in Information Storage Systems in 1990, both of which are now held annually. He organized two international NATO institutes in Europe. He is founder of an ASME Information Storage and Processing Systems Division founded in 1992 and served as founding chair during 1993-1998. He has previously worked for Mechanical Technology Inc., Latham, NY; SKF Industries Inc., King of Prussia, PA; IBM, Tucson, AZ; and IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA. He has held visiting professorship at University of California at Berkeley, University of Cambridge, UK, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, University of Paris, Orsay, ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne, Univ. of Southampton, UK, Univ. of Kragujevac, Serbia, Tsinghua Univ., China, Harbin Inst., China, and KFUPM, Saudi Arabia.
Giuseppina Nocca is Associate Professor in General Biochemistry at the Catholic University in Rome, where she coordinates a research group engaged in the characterization of the Drug Delivery System. She has been carrying out research for 30 years in the field of biochemical interactions between cells and drugs and between cells and biomaterials (overall in the dentistry field). In particular, she has a documented experience in the study of the alterations of the metabolic pathways that underlie the toxicity of drugs or biomaterials, as a starting point for improving the biocompatibility characteristics of biomaterials, using both primary and stable cell cultures in 2D and 3D, together with techniques for the synthesis and characterization of nanocarriers for drug delivery. She is the author of over 60 full-length publications in indexed international journals with a total Impact Factor of 934 and an H-index of 19 (source: Scopus) and total Impac Factor 1273 and H-index of 22 (source: google scholar) Prof. Nocca is the holder of numerous courses in disciplines related to the Biochemistry in the degree courses activated at the Rome office of the UCSC, including Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry, Biotechnology for Personalized Medicine, and Cosmetological Sciences and Technologies. She is an editorial board member of seven journals. She received many awards including 1st prize for the best research in the "National Congress of the Graduate School of Dentistry," Study of biocompatibility of a self-curing adhesive for orthodontic use. and 1st prize for the best research in the "Dr. Garberoglio competition ""Advantages of a new approach fortesting biocompatibility of endodontic materials ", 28th National Congressof the Italian Society of Endodontics, Naples, November 15th-17th, 2007 Funding Obtained: ▪ 2011: PI of the university project (Line D1) "Evaluation of the differentiating capacity of dental pulp stem cells according to their metabolic conditions" ▪ 2018: PI of the University project (Line D1) "New platforms for oral drug delivery" ▪ 2019: PI for the second year of the University project (Line D1) "New platforms for oral drug delivery" ▪ 2021: Unit Head of the SISMAC project "Innovative Sensorized Systems through Additive Manufacturing for Cranioplasty" funded by POR FESR Lazio 2014-2020. Project T0002E0001. Based on the Public Notice "Research Group Projects 2020" (Executive Resolution no. G08487 of 19 July 2020) Resolution 13 April 2021, no. G04014.
Professor Itamar Willner is a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His research interests include bionanoscience, DNA nanotechnology, biomimetic systems, catalysis, biocatalysis, photocatalysis, stimuli-responsive materials and drug delivery systems, energy conversion by artificial photosynthetic systems and biofuel cells. He received many awards including the Max-Planck Research Award for International Cooperation, The Israel Chemical Society Award, The Israel Prize in Chemistry, The Rothschild Prize, the EMET Prize and the Gold Medal of the Israel Chemical Society. He coauthored over 850 research papers, and was listed by Thompson Reuters/Clarivate as a Highly Cited Researcher and among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (2014-2020). He has over 76,000 citations and has an h-index of 147 (Web of Science), 162 (Google Scholar). He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and of the German National Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina. He is a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is or was a member of more than 30 Editorial Boards or Editorial Advisory Boards of Journals, including Angew. Chem.; J. Am. Chem. Soc.; Nano Lett.; ACS Nano.; Materials Today Chemistry; ChemPhysChem; Langmuir; Small; ChemBioChem; ChemElectroChem; and more.
Iijima is University professor of Meijo University, and formerly Director, Research Center for Advanced Carbon Materials, AIST. He received his PhD degree in physics (Tohoku University, 1969) and worked at Arizona State University (1970~1982) and Cambridge University (1979). He developed high resolution transmission electron microscopy methods, and studied numerous materials. In 1982 Iijima joined the Ultra-Fine Particles Project (JST) and moved to the NEC Research Laboratories. In 1991 he discovered carbon nanotubes and opened up a new era of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Recently he is working on photo-thermal acoustic properties of nanomaterials. He was recognized with numerous awards, Europhysics Prize, Benjamin Franklin Medal, Order of Cultural Merits (Emperor of Japan), Balzan Prize, Prince of Asturias Award, Kavli Prize, etc. He is a member of the Japan Academy, and foreign members of the NAS and the CAS.
Prof. Chung is a Jade Mountain Chair professor (Yushan Scholar) at the Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology of NTUST, Taiwan. Before joining NTUST, he was a Provost’s Chair Professor at the ChBE department of NUS in 2011-2021. His research focuses on polymeric membranes for clean water, clear air, clear energy and pharmaceutic separation. In 2005-2008, he worked as a Senior Consultant for Hyflux, led and built its membrane research team. He became a Fellow in the Academy of Engineering Singapore in 2012 and received the Underwood Medal from IChemE (Institute of Chemical Engineers, UK) for exceptional research in separations and Singapore President’s Technology Award in 2015. He was a highly cited researcher in Chemical Engineering & Materials Science and Engineering by the Elsevier and Shanghai Global Ranking in 2016 and received Distinction Award in Water Reuse and Conservation from International Desalination Association (IDA) in 2016. He was also a highly cited researcher from Clarivate Analytics in 2018 and 2019. He was ranked as No. 7 in Chemical Engineering worldwide by the list of “the top 2% scientists in the world” published by Stanford University in 2020 (http://www.globalauthorid.com/WebPortal/EliteOrder. 2020). He was one of the top 0.1% of scholars on Water Purification over the past 10 years, as "World Expert" by Expertscape (2021). (Water Purification: Worldwide - Expertscape.com). His H-index =118 (Scopus) or 137 (Google Scholar); Number of citations > 53744 (Scopus) and > 69,132 (Google Scholar) (May 22, 2022). He is an editorial board member of more than 20 journals including J. Membrane Science, Env. Sci. & Tech., AIChE J., Separation & Purification Tech., I&EC Research, J. Applied Polymer Science, Membranes and many others.
Juan Bisquert is a professor of Applied Physics at Universitat Jaume I de Castelló. He is the funding director of the Institute of Advanced Materials, a research center of international reputation with vision of understanding and creation of materials, bringing scientific insight and producing advanced applications for a better future. He published 400 papers in research journals, and authored a series of books, summarized in the volume Physics of Solar Energy Conversion (CRC Press 2020) that establishes a general physical picture of solar energy devices. He has 43000 citations and h-index 106 (Clariviate). He is Executive Editor for Europe of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. He has been distinguished in the list of Highly Cited Researchers from 2014 to 2021. He created nanoGe Conferences. The research activity of Juan Bisquert has been focused on materials and devices for production and storage of clean energies, in particular photovoltaic devices, based on nanostructured metal oxides, semiconductor quantum dots, organic and hybrid semiconductors, and related applications such as luminescence. The main contribution of Bisquert is the application of measurement techniques and physical modeling in several areas of energy devices providing insight to processes of electronic charge transfer, carrier transport, chemical reaction, etc., especially in the field of impedance spectroscopy. The research field is dominated by hybrid metal halide perovskites, a class of photovoltaic materials and devices that show excellent performance and radically new semiconductor properties. Due to mixed ionic-electronic properties it is possible to construct resistive switching for memory applications and brain-inspired computing.
Professor Peter X. Ma is the Richard H. Kingery Professor at the University of Michigan. He has published more than 300 full-length articles (H-index 110), 5 books, delivered 290 plenary/keynote/invited lectures. He has served on 94 grant/prize review panels, reviewed articles for more than 90 journals, and served on 13 editorial/advisory boards. Among his recognitions, Dr. Ma received Isaac Schour Memorial Award from International Association of Dental Research, Clemson Award from the Society for Biomaterials, and was named one of the Top 100 Materials Scientists in the world. Dr. Ma is a Fellow of AIMBE, BMSE, MRS, and AAAS.
Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 110; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); and is a fellow of over 8 societies.
Puru Jena, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond, USA received his early education in Odisha, India, graduating from Ravenshaw College in 1966 with M. Sc. in Physics. After receiving his Ph. D. in Physics from the University of California, Riverside in 1970 and postdoctoral and visiting appointments at Dalhousie University and University of British Columbia in Canada, Northwestern University, and Argonne National Laboratory, he joined Michigan Technological University as an Associate Professor of Physics in 1978. He moved to VCU in 1980 where he has remained ever since, except for a year (1986-87) at the National Science Foundation as a Program Director and a year (2007-08) at the US Department of State as Jefferson Science Fellow and Senior Science Adviser. Author of more than 650 papers and 14 edited books, Prof. Jena works at the interface of Physics, Chemistry, and Materials Science with emphasis on nanostructured materials. He has given over 525 invited lectures at international conferences and institutions in 34 countries and 6 continents. His Google Scholar citations and H-index stand at 33,700 and 90. His many honors include Prof. A. K. Chandra Memorial Award of the Indian Chemical Society, Outstanding Scientist of Virginia, Presidential Medallion, Outstanding Faculty of Virginia, Outstanding Scholar as well as University Award of Excellence from VCU, and David Hare Professorship Lecture. He has served on scientific panels at the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, National Academy of Science, Virginia Governor’s Task Force on Renewable Energy and Presidential Commission on Nanoscience and Energy between Russia and USA.
Ph.D. in Macromolecular Sci. at Case Western Reserve University. He is currently Peter A. Asseff, PhD Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and is Fellow of ACS (PMSE), SAMPE, and SPE. Awards among others: The Global Salute to Polymers Award (The American Chemical Society); The Alexander von Humboldt Award for Senior Scientist, Humboldt Foundation, Germany; Eminent Scientist, RIKEN:Japan; Award for Excellence in Adhesion Res., The Soc. of Adhesion; The Intern. Res. Award, SPE; The Lifetime Contribution Award for Polybenzoxazine Research, The 4th Intern. Symp. Polybenzoxazines. Twelve edited and translated books, 40 disclosures and patents, and 530 papers. H-index is 98 with total citation of 34,000. Editor-in-Chief of "Composite Interfaces," and Associate Editor of “Polym. & Polym. Compos.” and “Frontiers: Compos. Mater..” Member of the Editorial Board of “The J. of Adhesion,” “J. of Nanostructured Polym. and Nanocompos.,” “Polymers” “J. of Materials,” “Intern. Res. J. of Pure & Appl. Chem.,” “Austin J. of Nanomed. & Nanotechnol.,” “Intern. J. of Nano Studies & Technol.,” “J. of Nanotechnol. & Mater. Sci.” “BOAJ Nanotechnol.” “Nanomater. Chem. & Technol.” “Recent Patents on Mater. Sci.,” “Nanomater. Chem. & Technol.,” “Macromolelcules: An Indian J.” “Sci” “J. of Adv. Eng.” “React. Funct. Polym.”
Prof. Dr. Spomenka Kobe, Scientific Advisor at the Departmen t for Nanostructured materials. Until 1 st May 2018 she was acting as a Head of department (16 years). She is a full professor at the International Postgraduate School “Jožef Stefan” and a member of the Governing Board of the School. She was 20 years the Leader of the National Research Programme “Nanostructured Materials,” and until 2017 the Slovene director of The International Associated Laboratory between CNRS, Nancy, France and Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia She is also a mem ber of the G overning Board of eseia (European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance).She initiated rare earth magnet research activities in Slovenia and was the coordinator of the European project “Replacement and Original Magnet Engineering Option” ROMEO (FP7 NMP) and A novel circular economy for sustainable RE based magnet s « MaXycle (ERA MIN)MIN). During her c areer she has been a principal investigator of many national and international projects.Prof. Kobe is a Member of the Slovenian A cademy of Engineering . She acts as the European Expert and Evaluator a n d re p rese n ted Eu r op e du ring t h e t h ree T rilateral Eu r op e U S Ja p a n ) m e eti n gs o n C ritical R aw M aterials. She is the recipient of two State Awards for Scientific Research and two Innovation Awards from industry. Her scientific work is documented in more than 1 80 refereed publications, seven book chapters and 30 invited talks at international conferences. Her applied research achievements include eight patents (4 EP), three innovati ons and five successful transfers of technology to the industrial production; in total 725 registered bibliographical units.In 2019 Prof. Dr. Spomenka Kobe was the recipient of the prestigious Fray International Sustainability Award for “Leadership in development new technologies that contribute to global sustainable development in the environment, economy, and social points of view.” In her honor, one of the Symposia in the frame of SIPS 2019 (Sustainable Processing Summit & Exhibition) was named “ Kobe International Symposium on Science of Innovative and Sustainable Alloys and Magnets
Suk-Ho Choi is a professor in Department of Applied Physics at Kyung Hee University. He received BS degree from Seoul National Univ. and MS/PhD degrees from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He spent sabbatical years at National Institute of Standards and Technology in USA, Australian National University, and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. He worked as a director at Institute of Natural Sciences at Kyung Hee University for 10 years, and was appointed as Fellow Professor from 2009. Prof. Choi has been involved in areas of fabrication and characterization of semiconductors over the last 4 decades. During this time, he has designed, developed, and constructed various chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems including graphene/2D materials CVD, and PL/EL, I-V, C-V, dark- and photo-conductivity systems. In recent years, Prof. Choi has established two major areas of research, one on the optical and electrical properties of low-dimensional materials such as quantum dots/nanowires/graphene/2D materials and their heterostructures, and the other on fabrication/characterization of the low-dimensional-materials-based electronic and optical devices including LEDs, solar cells, piezoelectric cells, photodetectors, non-volatile memories, and sensors. He has published over 235 papers in the relevant research area.
John Texter is Professor Emeritus of Polymer and Coating Technology at Eastern Michigan University. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology, Associate Editor of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, and Section Editor for Applications of Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science. He has worked for Eastman Kodak Company in various areas of dispersion and emulsion technology and consults through Strider Research Corporation. He received his undergraduate engineering education and his PhD in Chemistry from Lehigh University, where he studied at the Zettlemoyer Center for Surface and Coatings Research. He is an experienced lecturer, inventor, editor, organizer, and technical project manager with over 250 publications including five books, 47 issued U.S. patents, and many research and review articles. He has received numerous awards and honors and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology. He has served as Chairman of the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, Chairman of the Chemistry at Interfaces Gordon Research Conference, Chair of the Chemistry of Supramolecules and Assemblies Gordon Research Conference, and organizer of many international symposia. He is a visiting guest Chair Professor at the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science of Soochow University and has been a visiting professor at the Colloid and Interfaces Max Planck Institute in Potsdam (Golm), at the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, and at the Fachhochschule Esslingen. His research focuses on stimuli responsive polymers, particles, and materials and the general area of dispersion science and practice.
