Speakers

Paul T. Anastas is the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment. He has appointments  in the School of the Environment, Department of Chemistry, and Department of Chemical Engineering. In addition, Prof. Anastas serves as the Director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale. Anastas took public service leave from Yale to serve as the Assistant Administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency Science Advisor from 2009-2012. From 2004 -2006, Paul Anastas served as Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C. He was previously the Assistant Director for the Environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he worked from 1999-2004. Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Dr. Anastas received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and worked as an industrial consultant. He is credited with establishing the field of green chemistry during his time working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the Chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch and as the Director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program. Dr. Anastas has published widely on topics of science through sustainability including eleven books, such as Benign by Design, Designing Safer Polymers, Green Engineering, and his seminal work with co-author John Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice.

Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Director of the Molecular Nanotechnology Lab, a world-leading research centre working on the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials for the sustainable production of chemicals and energy at the University of Alicante, Spain.

President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) from 2022-23, where he introduced major changes such as the establishment of the Scientific and Executive Boards, the integration of the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) and the creation of the Presidents' Forum. 

For the past 15 years, he has been a member of the World Economic Forum, where he has made a significant impact in promoting the global voice of science through his participation in the Young Global Leaders Forum, the Experts Network and the Global Agenda Council in Emerging Technologies. Since 2012, Prof García-Martínez has contributed to the identification of the World Economic Forum's Top Ten Emerging Technologies and its annual report, which is presented to government and global business leaders in Davos.

His contributions to nanotechnology have unlocked the potential of heterogeneous catalysts for the conversion of bulky molecules by introducing controlled intracrystalline mesopositivity. This technology is considered a major scientific achievement and is now widely used in academic laboratories and chemical companies around the world, saving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 per year by reducing the amount of waste and coke that would otherwise be burned to produce green gas emissions in key industrial processes ranging from biomass conversion to catalytic cracking. He is also a renowned entrepreneur. As founder of Rive Technology, the company that commercialises his catalysts, he started, grew and recently sold this business to Grace, the largest catalyst manufacturer.

Prof. García-Martínez is a science communicator who has written several outreach and opinion articles and interviews in Science, Nature, the Washington Post, Scientific American and other publications, promoting science for the global good internationally.

His contributions to catalysis, energy and chemistry have been recognised with some of the most prestigious awards, including 1) Young Global Leader, 2009 - World Economic Forum, 2) Innovator of the Year, 2007 - MIT, 3) Member of the Round Table of Top Entrepreneurs, 2008 - European Commission, 4) Emerging Researcher Award, 2015 and Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success, 2018 - American Chemical Society, 5) Premio Rey Jaime I, 2014, 6) Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2007 and the American Chemical Society, 2021, and 7) Member of the Council of Emerging Technologies - World Economic Forum.

After graduating with a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1977, I was an Overseas Research Fellow of the Royal Society in Rome, Italy (1977-1978), a Research Fellow at New Hall, Cambridge (1978-1981) and a Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow at James Cook University of North Queensland (1983-1985). I have worked in the UK pharmaceutical industry (Smith Kline Beecham) and previously held a lecturing position at The University of Wollongong (1986-1990). I joined The University of Queensland in 1990 and was appointed to a professorship in 2006. I was Deputy Head of School 2005-2009 and retired from my formal teaching and research role in 2020.

I have held leadership positions within the Royal Australian Chemical Institute as the first female President of the Queensland branch (1996-1997), and as Chair of the International Relations Committee (1996-2004).  My contributions within the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the global body representing chemistry, have included membership of Division III (organic and biomolecular) since 2006, including as Division President (2014-2015), and as an elected Member of the IUPAC Bureau (2018-2021). I am currently Vice-President/President-elect for 2024-2025, and will assume the Presidency of IUPAC for the 2026-2027 biennium.

The marine flatworm Maritigrella marygarsonae is named in my honour. In 2024, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute named its award for mid-career researchers in organic chemistry as the Mary Garson Medal.

Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff CBE FRS FREng studied at King's College, Cambridge, B.A (1969) and Ph.D. (1973) under the supervision of J. J. Turner FRS on the Matrix Isolation of Large Molecules. In 1972, he was appointed Research/Senior Research Officer in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1979, he moved to a Lectureship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. Promotion to Reader in Inorganic Chemistry and then to Professor of Chemistry followed in 1985 and 1991 respectively. In addition, he is Honorary Professor of Chemistry at Moscow State University (currently suspended). From 1994-99, he held an EPSRC/Royal Academy of Engineering Clean Technology Fellowship at Nottingham. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (2002), of the RSC (2002) and of the IChemE (2004). He was awarded CBE (2008) for "Services to Sciences", and knighted in 2015 for "Services to the Chemical Sciences". He was made Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia (2008) and Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2011) and Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society (2015). In 2012, He was elected a Fellow of the Academia Europaea and, in 2013, Associate Fellow of TWAS, the World Academy of Science and Associate Member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (2014), Honorary Fellow of the RSC (2015), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016) and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2017). He was a Council Member of the IChemE (2009-13) and Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society (2011-16) In 2018, he was appointed Honorary Professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology and was awarded the 2019 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public by the American Chemical Society. He received an Dr hon causa from the New University of Lisbon (2019), and Honorary Doctorates from Newcastle University (2022) and Warwick University (2023). In 2021, a Nottingham Tram was named in his honour and in 2022 he was appointed Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Broxtowe. His research interests are focussed on supercritical fluids, continuous reactions and their applications to Green and sustainable Chemistry.. Since 2008, he and his colleagues have collaborated with videomaker Brady Haran to make chemistry videos for the YouTube channel Periodic Videos.

Matthias Beller, born 1962 in Gudensberg, Germany, studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen, where he completed his PhD thesis in 1989 in the group of L.-F. Tietze. As recipient of a Liebig scholarship, he spent one year with K. B. Sharpless at MIT, USA. From 1991 to 1995, Beller worked in industry. Then, he moved to the Technical University of München as Professor for Inorganic Chemistry. In 1998, he relocated to Rostock to head the Institute for Organic Catalysis, which became in 2006 the Leibniz-Institute for Catalysis. The work of his group has been published in more than 1200 original publications, reviews and >150 patent applications have been filed (H-index: 160). Since 2016, he is a “Highly Cited Researcher” (among the top 1% of researchers with most cited documents in a specific field).

Matthias Beller is Vice President of the Leibniz Society – one of the major science organizations in Germany and a member of the German National Academia of Science “Leopoldina” and three other Academies of Sciences.

João G. Crespo, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the School of Science and Technology – NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal. Dean of Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology, ITQB NOVA. Former Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation and former Coordinator of NOVA Doctoral School. Co-founder of the spin-off company “Zeyton Nutraceuticals”. Member of the Portuguese Academy of Engineering. Honorary member of the European Membrane Society. Over 400 peer-reviewed papers in the domain of membrane science and engineering. Research Keywords: Membrane materials and processes; Bioseparations; Water treatment and valorization of bioresources; Advanced Process Monitoring. 

Hajime Ito was born in 1968 in Osaka, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 from Kyoto University under the supervision of Prof. Yoshihiko Ito and Prof. Masahiro Murakami. He then joined the research group of Prof. Akira Hosomi at Tsukuba University before moving to the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki in 1999. He then worked as a visiting scientist in the research group of Prof. Kim D. Janda at The Scripps Research Institute. In 2002, he joined the research group of Prof. Masaya Sawamura at Hokkaido University. He was promoted to full professor in 2010. He became a distinguished professor in 2022. He is also appointed as the Deputy Director of the Institute of Reaction Design and Development (WPI-ICReDD) at Hokkaido University. He is also appointed as a PI for JST CREST “Innovative Reactions.

His research interests include the development of new organic synthesis methods and organic crystalline materials through the use of organoboron, silicon, and mechanochemistry. He received the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work (2014), the SSOCJ Fujifilm Functional Materials Science Award (2017), the HSFC DemoDay Hokkaido Governor’s Award (2022) an the Chemical Society of Japan Award (2025).

Qin Li is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Griffith University. She obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland (2002) and BEng (1994) and MEng degrees (1997) from Zhejiang University. A chemical engineer and nanotech scientist, Prof. Qin Li conducts research on functional materials and applied nanotechnology to provide solutions for environmental monitoring, water purification, waste reformation and renewable energy. Prof. Li was a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow from 2006 – 2008 hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, winner of Curtin Innovation Award 2009, and the finalist of Women in Technology Research Award in 2015 and 2020. Prof. Li has edited two books and co-authored 6 book chapters, over 118 journal papers and 4 international patents with an h-index of 50 (Google Scholar). Qin Li is named in the Stanford analysis of top 2% of researchers across all disciplines in the world. In 2023 Research.com ranking report, Qin Li is ranked No. 114 in Australia, and No. 3428 in the World in the area of Materials Science. Prof. Li is the co-Founding Chair of the Green and Sustainable Chemistry National Interest Group at RACI, and advocates for Innovating Sustainably.

Morten Meldal earned his PhD in 1986 from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), specializing in carbohydrate synthesis, structure, and immunology. Following his doctorate, he pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge (1986) and later at the University of Copenhagen. He subsequently joined the Carlsberg Laboratory, where he led synthesis research and, from 2002, served as Professor.

Meldal has a strong entrepreneurial track record as cofounder of Combio A/S and contributor to the establishment of Versamatrix A/S. From 1997 to 2008, he directed the SPOCC Center for Combinatorial Chemistry, and in 2011 he became Professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Chemistry and Director of its Nano Science Center. He later led the Lighthouse Center for Chemical Biology (CECB), a multidisciplinary hub established in 2013.

His research spans synthetic chemistry, molecular recognition, combinatorial screening, and computational design, with applications in biological target proteins such as interleukins, caspases, proteases, apoptosis inhibitors (XIAP), melanocortin receptors, and intrinsically disordered proteins. At CECB, his group pioneered fluorescence-based assays, combinatorial solid-phase technologies, PEG-based resins for biomolecular screening, and microparticle matrix encoding. A notable achievement has been the development of beta-bodies, computationally designed antibody mimetics with high affinity and specificity, now advancing toward commercialization.

Meldal has coauthored more than 330 publications and is co-inventor on 30 patents, reflecting his impact across chemistry, biology, and translational science. His groundbreaking work in click chemistry—a transformative concept in synthetic chemistry—was recognized with the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2022/summary/

In 2025, Professor Meldal was further honored with the Hans Christian Ørsted Award in Chemistry, acknowledging not only his pioneering research in click chemistry but also his commitment to communicating science to the public. The award was presented in Rudkøbing, the birthplace of Ørsted.

Professor Zhimin Liu received her Ph D degree in 1997 from China Petroleum University (Beijing). After two-year post-doc research work at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), she joined ICCAS where he was promoted as a full professor in 2008. Her research interest is green and sustainable chemistry with focus on studying physicochemical issues in catalytic transformation of renewable and recyclable carbon resources (including CO2, biomass, spent plastics). She is the author or co-author of over 400 peer-reviewed scientific publications and 30-patents. She is a Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society, and was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2019. Professor Zhimin Liu has won some important awards in China, such as China National Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists, a Second Class Prize of National Natural Science Award of China, Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of CAS. She was an awardee of IUPAC 2025 Awards for Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering. As a conference chair, she organized the 10th IUPAC conference on green chemistry in 2024.

Pradeep’s work is in the area of molecular materials and surfaces.

His group discovered that noble metal nanoparticles degrade halocarbons efficiently to amorphous carbon and metal halides at room temperature and at low concentrations. This discovery has led to the world’s first nanochemistry-based water filter for pesticide removal as many pesticides of relevance are halocarbons. This technology is estimated to have reached about 10 million people. His group developed several technologies to remove other contaminants from drinking water. Combining several such materials, an all-inclusive affordable drinking water purifier has been developed. Exciting aspect of this technology is the creation of advanced materials by simple and environment-friendly methods. This nationally approved clean water technology, named AMRIT, is being implemented now in the arsenic, iron and uranium affected regions of India. About 1.4 million people are being supplied with contaminant-free water daily by these installations. Several other drinking water technologies have been rolled out from his lab. To take such technologies forward, seven companies have been incubated with the participation of IIT Madras and three of them have manufacturing units outside the campus. This activity is now being expanded globally. This work spread over the past 25 years has led to the realisation of affordable water using advanced materials as an important research area.

A large part of his recent research is on atomically precise clusters of noble metals. His group discovered several new clusters and associated properties. These have been used for diverse applications ranging from luminescent labels to metal ion sensors. His group has shown that such small pieces of matter behave like simple molecules, in their chemical reactions between each other. To account for their unique properties, including reactions, a nomenclature system has been introduced.

His other interest is in molecular solids, especially water ice. He studies ultra-thin films of such solids at low temperatures of the order of 10 K. This is of relevance to atmospheric and interstellar chemistry. He has discovered that clathrate hydrates can exist in simulated interstellar conditions. The work is of significance to several areas such as origin of life, energy security, carbon dioxide sequestration, etc.

The other major theme of research is around microdroplets. His team has discovered the formation and transformation of nanoparticles in such confined environments. He has shown that charged water microdroplets break natural minerals to nanoparticles spontaneously. This work is important in the evolution of the planet and can be used in enhancing soil fertility.

His lab is equipped with all the instruments needed for research in the area. In addition, he builds instruments for specific purposes.

The group is highly interdisciplinary.

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, water treatment, and sustainable cooling systems. She has successfully led several large industrial-academic consortia related to these areas, including SOST-CO2 with 14 companies and 30 academic institutions focused on CCU.

The impact of her work has been recognized through several prestigious awards, including, among others, the global recognition Women 50 in Hydrogen in 2025, 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 an elected 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 Paris 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 (chemical and water sectors).

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/press-release/

Omar M. Yaghi received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. He is a University Professor and the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. He is the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute whose mission is to build centers of research in developing countries and provide opportunities for young scholars to discover and learn. He is also the Co-Director of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute (Kavli ENSI) focusing on the basic science of energy transformation on the molecular level, the California Research Alliance by BASF (CARA) supporting joint academia-industry innovations, as well as the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet (BIDMaP) which aims to develop cost-efficient, easily deployable versions of two classes of ultra porous materials – known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) – to help limit and address the impacts of climate change.

 His work encompasses the synthesis, structure and properties of inorganic and organic compounds and the design and construction of new crystalline materials. He is widely known for pioneering several extensive classes of new materials: Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs), and Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs). These materials have the highest surface areas known to date, making them useful for hydrogen and methane storage, carbon capture and conversion, water harvesting from desert air, and catalysis, to mention a few. The building block approach he developed has led to an exponential growth in the creation of new materials having a diversity and multiplicity previously unknown in chemistry. He termed this field 'Reticular Chemistry' and defines it as 'stitching molecular building blocks into extended structures by strong bonds'. His work on MOFs, COFs, and ZIFs led to over 300 published articles, which have received a total of more than 250,000 citations and an h-index of 190.

 Yaghi is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He has also been honored with many awards, including the Sacconi Medal of the Italian Chemical Society (2004), Materials Research Society Medal (2007), American Chemical Society Award in the Chemistry of Materials (2009), Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize (2010), King Faisal International Prize in Science (2015), Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2017), BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences (2017), Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2018), Eni Award for Excellence in Energy (2018), Gregori Aminoff Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2019), August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann-Denkmünze of the German Chemical Society (2020), Royal Society of Chemistry Sustainable Water Award (2020), VinFuture Prize (2021), Wilhelm Exner Medal (2023), Solvay Prize (2024), Tang Prize (2024), Balzan Prize (2024), IUPAC-Soong Prize for Sustainable Chemistry (2025), and MRS Von Hippel Award (2025).

Her research activities comprise the study of plasma and plasma-surface interactions by means of computer modelling and experiments, for various applications, mainly CO2 , CH4 and N2 conversion into value-added chemicals and fuels, plasma medicine and microelectronics. Her courses include kinetics of gases and chemical reactions, physicochemistry of solutions and colloids, plasma technology, plasma modelling, and chemical reaction engineering.

Owen Catchpole is the Team Leader and Chief Engineer in the Food Processing and Biotechnologies research group. His chemical engineering background gets applied to the development of extraction, separation and fractionation processes to produce nutraceuticals, functional foods, dietary supplements and cosmeceuticals. Using biologically derived raw materials they work from laboratory-scale up to a semi-commercial scale.

Their team research has led to the establishment of supercritical extraction as a new industrial process in New Zealand. This included building and running NZ’s first commercial supercritical extraction plant. As a result, they have enabled a range of high value products, supporting process and product patents for both New Zealand and international companies. Moreover, his area of expertise includes supercritical extraction-processing & products, Chemical, process and food engineering, functional food and nutraceutical product development, tech transfer and scale up, bee products (honey & propolis), marine lipid products and processing.

Currently, he is working to establish food processing technology expertise in Auckland and work closely with the FINNZ network.

He is the first fellow of Callaghan Innovation of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi.

Jairton Dupont was born in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). He gained his PhD in Chemistry from the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg (1988), and after postdoctoral research assistant at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory of the University of Oxford, he was appointed Professor of chemistry at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil).

From 2014 to 2017 he was appointed as an EPSRC/GSK Chair in Sustainable Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. His research interests are mainly centered on ionic liquids with special emphasis in catalysis, nanomaterials and alternative energies.

Dr. Joon Ching Juan is Professor of Catalysis and Nanotechnology at the Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), Universiti Malaya. He currently serves as Chair of the Frontier Natural World Research Cluster at Universiti Malaya and Head of International Cooperation at NANOCAT. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Chemical Technology (2003) and PhD in Chemistry (2007) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

His research focuses on nanomaterials and catalysis, with particular emphasis on understanding and manipulating nanostructures for environmental and energy-related applications. To date, he has published over 250 WoS/Scopus-indexed articles, with an h-index of 54 and more than 14,300 citations. He has supervised over 42 postgraduate students and actively integrates fundamental research with real-world applications.

Dr. Juan is a strong advocate of research-driven innovation. He has secured research funding from national, industrial, and international sources, including TWAS (UNESCO), MOSTI, and industry partners. He is also the founder of Nanochemical@UMI which specializing in nanomaterials, and has filed eight patents for industrial applications.

He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the IKM Gold Medal Award (2024), recognition as a Top 2% Scientist Worldwide by Stanford University (2020–2024), Top Outstanding Young Malaysian (2020), Future Academician Award (2018), Malaysia Research Star Award (2017), and the National Young Scientist Award (2016), among others. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Chartered Chemist (CChem), Chartered Scientist (CSci), and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Chemistry (IKM).

In leadership and professional service, Dr. Juan is the President of Balai Ikhtisas Malaysia (BIM), Founder of the Malaysia Young Chemists Network (MYCN), Treasurer of the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS), and National Representative to IUPAC. He also serves in numerous national and international committees related to chemical safety, nanotechnology standards, and environmental management. He is frequently invited to deliver keynote and plenary lectures and serves as consultant and advisor to government agencies and industry.

Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer (FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA, FEI)

* Champion and Director- UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC)

* Director- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Green Industrial Futures

* Deputy Principal (Global Sustainability) and Director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) at Heriot-Watt University

Prof Mercedes Maroto-Valer (FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA, FEI) is Champion and Director of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) focused on accelerating the sustainable transition of industries to net zero. She is Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Green Industrial Futures.

Prof Maroto-Valer is Deputy Principal (Global Sustainability) at Heriot-Watt University, leading the sustainability agenda, making a significant impact on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across all the campus locations (Scotland, Dubai and Malaysia).  She is director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) at Heriot-Watt University, where she holds the Robert Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering. She has previously held academic appointments at the University of Kentucky, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Nottingham.

Her internationally recognised track record covers energy systems, CCUS, integration of hydrogen technologies and low carbon fuels. Her research portfolio (total ~ £100M) includes a range of national and international funders and she has held a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Award. She has over 625 publications and has received numerous international prizes and awards.

Prof Maroto-Valer holds leading positions in professional societies and strategic boards, including the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), an independent advisory council to the United Nations Secretary General. She represents the UK at the global intergovernmental clean energy initiative Mission Innovation – Technical Advisory Group. She is also member of the Science and Technology Advisory Council of the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), providing evidence-based information to support key decisions to guide the country’s energy security and net zero policies.

Professor Chiharu Tokoro received her B.Eng. in Resources Engineering from Waseda University in 1998 and her M.Eng. and Ph.D. in Geosystems Engineering from The University of Tokyo in 2000 and 2003, respectively. She began her academic career at Waseda University in 2004 as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Lecturer in 2007, Associate Professor in 2009, and Full Professor in 2015. She currently serves as Dean of the School and Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering, and since 2021 has also held a cross-appointment as Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, in addition to serving as a Project Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science.

Her leadership experience includes serving as Director of the Office for Promotion of Equality and Diversity (2018–2022), Associate Dean of Science and Engineering (2020–2022), and Associate Director of both the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study and the Waseda Center for a Carbon Neutral Society (2022–2024). She also contributes to industry–academia collaboration as an Outside Director of JX Advanced Metals Corporation and Tekscend Photomask Corporation.

Professor Tokoro’s research focuses on resource circulation engineering, emphasizing selective separation technologies for the circular economy. Her work includes elucidating separation mechanisms at solid–liquid interfaces, developing smart solid/solid separation technologies, advancing electric-pulse dismantling methods, improving the hydrometallurgical recovery of critical metals, and applying powder process simulation for energy-efficient recycling systems. She has published over 200 scientific papers and serves on the editorial boards of Advanced Powder Technology, Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, and Scientific Reports.

She plays an active role in national and international scientific governance as a Council Member of the Science Council of Japan, Member of the Engineering Academy of Japan, and National Representative to the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD). She has contributed to numerous governmental advisory committees for METI, MOE, MEXT, NEDO, JST, and local governments.

Her achievements have been recognized with major honors, including the Environment Minister’s Award at the 68th National Convention on Life and Environment (2024), the MEXT Minister’s Award for Science and Technology (2019), and the Recycling Technology Development Honda Award (2022), reflecting her significant contributions to resource circulation and sustainable technology development.

Saudi Aramco Chair in Catalysis & Petrochemicals

Dr. Konstantinos Triantafyllidis is Chair Professor (Saudi Aramco Chair in Catalysis & Petrochemicals) at the Department of Chemistry of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). He also serves as Senior Research Scholar at the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Refining and Advanced Chemicals (IRC-RAC, KFUPM).

Dr. Triantafyllidis has been Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and Collaborating Faculty Member at the Chemical Process & Energy Research Institute (CPERI/CERTH) in Greece. He also served as the founder and Head of the “ENVIGREEN” Research Unit, in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI) at AUTH. His research activities focus on Green chemistry and technology, Heterogeneous catalysis, Porous and metal/oxides nanomaterials, Conventional and bio/waste-refining to fuels, chemicals and polymers, and (Bio)based polymer nanocomposites.

Dr. Triantafyllidis has long experience in downstream crude oil and waste refining catalytic processes towards fuels, chemicals and materials. His research spans from the development of novel catalytic materials to the design and optimization of lab-to-medium scale processes. Primary focus is given on biomass and plastic waste, as well as CO2 valorization and co-processing approaches towards sustainable development via advanced chemical processing. He has over 180 publications, 12,000 citations, H-index: 64 (google scholar), more than 300 conference presentations. He has participated as PI or Main Researcher in more than 45 European Union, national and industrial research projects. Also, he has served as National representative in European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS), the EuChemS/Division of Green and Sustainable Chemistry and the IUPAC-Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal (Sustainable Chemistry for the Environment, Open access).

Prof. Triantafyllidis earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry (1990) from the University of Ioannina (UOI) in Greece, followed by postgraduate training at SHELL/KSLA, Amsterdam (1991), and PhD degree (2000) also from UOI in Greece. He then served as post-doctoral researcher (2000-2002) at Michigan State University, USA.

Jane Wissinger received her B.A. from Susquehanna University, M.S. from Georgia Institute of Technology and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northwestern University. She was a research scientist at Rohm & Haas Co. for five years before beginning her academic career in 1992 at the University of Minnesota. In 1998, Wissinger was hired as the Organic Chemistry Laboratory Director and continued to instruct organic chemistry lecture courses, an advanced organic chemistry laboratory course, as well as an upper division Green Chemistry course. Wissinger maintained an active research program focused on the development of curriculum materials for the college and high school levels that exemplify modern green chemistry methodology, advances in sustainable polymers, and guided-inquiry pedagogy.

Wissinger was a Senior Principal Investigator in the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers and passionate about educating students and the public about the need and opportunities for designing better plastics. Though retired from teaching (Aug. 2023), she remains active in promoting green/sustainable chemistry, systems thinking, and the UN SDGs locally and on a national and international level though workshops, publications, and symposia organizer. Wissinger’s efforts were recognized with a U of MN Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor award (2014), an ACS-CEI Award for Incorporation of Sustainability in Chemistry Education (2018), the Brasted Award for Excellence in College Teaching (2021), and the inaugural ACS-Green Chemistry Institute Award Career Achievement in Green Chemistry award (2024). Wissinger was named an American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellow in 2023 for her professional achievements and service to the ACS. Wissinger currently serves on the ACS Committee on Environment and Sustainability and the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development.

In 2010, Kevin Lam received his PhD in Medicinal and Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium under the supervision of Professor Istvan Marko. His doctoral work led to the development of a new radical-based deoxygenation reaction (the Lam-Marko reaction).

After completing his PhD, he moved to the University of Vermont (UVM). His research focused on the application of analytical/physical electrochemistry alongside spectroscopy to study the complex redox behaviour of organometallic compounds.

In 2013, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Nazarbayev University in Astana. During his time in Kazakhstan, Kevin developed a new research programme in molecular electrochemistry.

He then joined the University of Greenwich as a Reader in 2017, and was promoted to Full Professor of Synthetic Electrochemistry in 2023, and invited to take become the head of C-SMART (Centre for Synthesis, Materials, Analytics and Research in Translational Science) in 2025.

Principal Research Interests:

Green chemistry, porous materials, supercritical fluids, electrochemical energy conversion, environmental chemistry

Education and Research Experience: 

Associate Professor (2019-now) Xiamen University

Postdoctor(2015-2019) École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

PhD (2015), Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences

BS (2010), Xiangtan University

Tiago Rodrigues obtained a PharmD at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon (2006) and a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Lisbon (2010). After a postdoctoral stay at the ETH Zurich (2011-2015), where he was also a Lecturer (2012-2015), he returned to Portugal as a senior scientist at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular. He was an Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon (2015-2020) and a Group Leader since 2020. In 2019 he co-founded TargTex, a VC-backed biotech company that develops life-changing therapies for glioblastoma multiforme. He has supervised or co-supervised >25 BSc, MSc and PhD students and postdocs from multiple cultural and scientific backgrounds, and currently supervises a PhD student. He has published 60 peer-reviewed papers in top tier journals (eg. Nature Chemistry, Nature Reviews Chemistry, JACS, PNAS, Angew Chem Int Ed, Chem Sci, ACS Cent Sci, among others), has an h-index of 25, filed 2 patents, contributed 3 book chapters, guest edited for Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry and delivered >70 talks. His work has been widely recognized through multiple national and international awards, highlighted in both scientific outlets and social media (e.g. national TV). His research interests lie at the interface of medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, cheminformatics, targeted therapeutics and machine learning/artificial intelligence.