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First Round of Abstract Submission Ends: Nov 30, 2025
Extended Early Bird Ends: May 31, 2025

Plenary Speakers

Prof. Xumu Zhang
Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Title: @ Catalysis—A New Horizon In Asymmetric Catalysis
Xumu Zhang received his BS from Wuhan University (1982) and MS from Chinese Science Academy (1985) with Professor Jiaxi Lu and University of California, San Diego (1987) with Professor Gerhard N. Schrauzer. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1992 from Stanford University under the guidance of Professor James P. Collman (The supervisor of Nobel Prize winner K. Barry Sharpless and Robert H. Grubbs). He pursued postdoctoral research at Stanford University from 1992 to 1994. Before joining SUSTech as the first chairman of chemistry department in 2015, he was a professor of chemistry in Pennstate University and distinguished professor in Rutgers University.

In 2002, Xumu Zhang became the first person from mainland China to be honored with the prestigious ACS Cope Scholar Award. He was recognized for his groundbreaking invention of the chiral ligands' toolbox, which facilitated the development of homogeneous catalysts, enabling the practical synthesis of numerous chiral molecules, particularly those of great biological significance. In 2014, an efficient ring-forming chemical reaction known as the "Zhang Enyne Cycloisomerization" was named after him, and has been documented in the book Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis. In 2016, he was awarded as Asian Core Program (ACP) Lectureship. In 2022, he was elected as a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and received Evonik Chemical Innovation Award Outstanding Scientist (one per year).

In frontier areas of science, Xumu Zhang has applied over 50 U.S. and international patents, published more than 400 papers and the papers are cited over 25000 times. One of his notable achievements includes the development of privileged, powerful, and practical chiral ligands for asymmetric catalysis. These ligands have enabled promising industrial applications, particularly in the synthesis of drug molecules. Recently, he developed a new type of ligands designed for use as metalorganocatalyst. These ligands possess dual activating modes, combining the strengths of metal catalysis and organocatalysis. This innovative approach opens up new possibilities in catalytic reactions.
Prof. Adolfo IULIANELLI
National Research Council of Italy, Italy
Title: Chemical and membrane engineering: the impact of process intensification and circularity principles in the net-zero CO2 emission energy sector perspective
Adolfo Iulianelli, Master Degree in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Chemical and Material Engineering at the University of Calabria (Italy). Nowadays, he is Senior Researcher at the National Research Council - Institute on Membrane Technology of Italy. He is/was scientific responsible of various scientific projects, coordinating the activities focusing on the application of membrane engineering in the field of green chemistry, renewable energy, decarbonized H2 generation, fuel processing, CO2 capture and valorization, gas separation.

Iulianelli is author and co-author of more than 270 scientific products (h-index = 44 (SCOPUS), 46 (GOOGLE SCHOLAR)) as peer reviewed articles, patents, books, chapters book, etc.

He is President of the International Agency for Green Energy – Italian Division and served as Monitor Expert for the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and as Expert Indipendent Rapporteur for the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), Expert Referee for MERANET agencies as well as for the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Fullbright Award Romania-U.S. Program, etc. and as Expert Evaluator for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce as well as for the Ministry of University and Research (ANVUR-VQR).

Iulianelli is Associate Editor of Fuel Processing Technology (Elsevier, Q1, IF = 7.2), and Editorial Member of various scientific journals and served as Managing-Guest Editor for International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Renewable Energy, Membranes, ChemEngineering, etc. He delivered several Plenary/Keynote and Invited lectures, serving as Chair/President and Member of numerous Scientific/Organizing Committees in international conferences, workshops and further scientific events.

Iulianelli is qualified as Full Professor in “Chemical plants and technologies” & “Systems, methods and technologies of chemical and process engineering” and is Member of the “Industrial & Civil Engineering Ph.D. board“ at University of Calabria (Italy), supervising several Post-doc researchers, PhD and Master Degree students.
Prof. Stefan Brase
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Title: To be confirmed.
Stefan Bräse studied chemistry in Göttingen, Bangor and Marseille, obtaining his PhD in 1995. After postdoctoral work in Uppsala and at Scripps Research, he began independent research at RWTH Aachen in 1997 and became a professor in Bonn in 2001. He has been a professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) since 2003 and Director of the Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems at KIT since 2012. His research focuses on synthetic chemistry, molecular engineering and digitalization in chemistry.
Prof. Gita Sedghi
University of Liverpool, UK
Title: Innovating for Inclusion: Transforming Education for a Globalised World
Gita Sedghi is a professor of Chemistry education. With a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Chemistry, she has an outstanding record of advancing excellence in teaching and learning. Her contributions have earned her prestigious awards, including the Principal Fellowship of the HEA, the National Teaching Fellowship, and the RSC Excellence in Higher Education.

Gita’s approach fosters transformative learning environments that elevate the student experience. These efforts provide students with inclusive, globalised opportunities for personal and professional growth, equipping them with the skills and experiences to succeed in an interconnected world.

She has several publications and conference presentations to share her innovative practices and insights into the challenges educators face in meeting the varied needs of a globalised student body and how strategic leadership can harmonise institutional goals with educator aspirations. Her initiatives include internationalisation activities, peer-assisted learning, pre-lab tutoring systems, and targeted interventions to improve mathematics skills. Central to her work is embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion into the curriculum, reflecting her commitment to creating high-quality, inclusive resources that meet the needs of a diverse student community.

Gita’s recent focus has been the transformative potential of Digital Chemistry, a cross-disciplinary curriculum equipping graduates with the skills to address global challenges. A new postgraduate programme offers hands-on AI, automation, and robotics training, preparing students to apply cutting-edge digital tools to chemical research and drive innovation in the chemical industry.
Prof. Dr. Christof Woll
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Title: Digitalizing Materials Research: Insights from Designing Metal-Organic Frameworks for Advanced Optoelectronic Applications
Christof Wöll is Director of the Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (since 2009). He studied Physics at the University of Göttingen and received his PhD in 1987 at the Max-Planck-Institute of Dynamics and Self-Organization.

After several years of postdoctoral activity at the IBM Research laboratories in San Jose, USA and at Heidelberg University, in 1996 he took over the chair for Physical Chemistry at the University of Bochum (until 2009) and founded the collaborative research center SFB 558. He has received several awards including the Max-Planck Medal for his PhD thesis (Max-Planck Society) and the van’t Hoff Prize of the German Bunsen Association. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina and was the Spokesperson of the German Physical Society (DPG) Surface Physics Division (2016−2018). His research activities focus on fundamental processes in Surface Physics and Surface Chemistry, in particular development and advancement of techniques for the characterization of molecular adsorbates, oxide surfaces, and surface-mounted meal-organic frameworks (SURMOFs).
Prof. Seth Marder
University of Colorado, USA
Title: The Role of Interfacial and Doping Chemistry in Organic and Hybrid Opto-electronics.
Seth Marder is the Director of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, which is a joint between the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) and the NREL. He is also a professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Chemistry, a Fellow of the Materials Science and Engineering Program at CU-Boulder, and a Senior Research Fellow at NREL. He has published over 625 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index = 130 and over 83,000 citations (Google Scholar), has 40-issued patents, and co-founded two successful start-up companies. He has edited several proceedings and books, including two, a volume set with Jean-Luc Bredas entitled The World Scientific Publishing Company Reference on Organic Electronics: Organic Semiconductors. Among his recognitions and awards, Dr. Marder was a recipient of an NSF Special Creativity Award, the ACS Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, Georgia Tech Outstanding Faculty Research Author, and its Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award (Georgia Tech’s highest award for any faculty member), the MRS Mid-Career Award, and a Humboldt Research Award. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Optical Society of America, SPIE, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, and the National Academy of Inventors and a Member of the World Cultural Council.
Prof. Mauro Maccarrone
Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, Italy
Title: The Challenge of Developing Selective Drugs to Target the Endocannabinoid System.
Dr. Enzymology and Bio-Organic Chemistry, is Professor and Chair of Biochemistry at the Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila (Italy). He is also Head of the Lipid Neurochemistry Unit at the European Center for Brain Research – IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome.

Published numerous highly cited full papers (citations = 26152; h-index = 85 according to Scopus). Invited speaker at more than 110 international congresses, Guest Editor of 16 theme-issues of scientific journals, holder of 9 granted patents.

President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) in 2010-2011. Chair of the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on “Cannabinoid Function in the CNS”. Visiting Professor at University of Cambridge in 2017.

Received various international awards, including the “2007 IACM (International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines) Award for Basic Research”, the “2016 Mechoulam Award” for cannabinoid research, the “2020 Tu Youyou Award” for medicinal chemistry, and the “2024 Lifetime Achievement Award” by ICRS.

Included in the Stanford University “World Top 2% Scientists’ List”, the “Highly Ranked Scholars™” (top 0.05%), the AD Scientific Index “World Top 100 Biochemists”, and the “Top Italian Scientists”.

Secretary of the Italian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2023.

Chair of the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee and Director of FEBS since 2024.
Prof. Ron Naaman
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Title: Chirality and the Electron’s Spin- A miraculous match.
Born in Israel, Prof. Ron Naaman earned his BSc in 1973 from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and his PhD in 1978 from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in California, and spent a year in the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University. In 1981, Prof. Naaman joined the Weizmann Institute. From 1989-1995, Ron chaired the Institute’s Chemical Services Unit and from 1995-2000, he headed the Department of Chemical Physics. From 2008-2010, Prof. Naaman was the Chair of the Scientific Council at the Institute. His research focusses on studying the interaction of electrons and their spin with organic and bio-related molecules. He is the Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a member of Academia Europaea. He is the recipient of the Chiral Medal and the gold medal of the Israel Chemical Society.
Prof. Damia Barcelo
University of Almeria, Spain
Title: Assessment of Removal Technologies for Microplastics in Surface Waters and Wastewaters:Green Methods and Sustainable Solutions
Honorary Adjunct Professor, email: damiab@ual.es,Chemistry and Physics Department, University of Almeria, 04120, Almeria, Spain, Full Research Professor IDAEA-CSIC,Barcelona, Spain since 1999-january 2024, now retired. Awarded as Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universities of Ioannina, Greece, in 2014 and by the University of Lleida, June 2021 and Almeria , Spain in May 2022. Honorary and Guest Professor at ZAFU, Hangzhou, China in 2019 till March 2022 , Foreign Expert of East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai, China, 2021-2024 and High-level expert from Shanghai University, China, 2023-2025. From January 2022 till December 2026 he has been appointed Adjunct Professor in Sustainability Cluster, School of Engineering at the UPES, Dehradun, India .Member of the International Scientific Advisory Committee of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences(CRAES), Phase I 2020-2024 and Phase II 2025-2029.

DBarceló has supervised > 67 PhD students, since 1992 – to date . He has been Instructor of short courses at PITTCON, SETAC NA, AP and ExTech conferences since early 2000. D Barceló expertise is on analysis, fate , risk and removal of emerging contaminants, nanomaterials and microplastics from water as well as sewage epidemiology of drugs and proteins using advanced mass spectrometric techniques. Hirsch-Index of 191 / 154/138 and total number of citations over 164K / 111K/91.5K (sources Google Scholar / Scopus/Web of Science) and more than 1500 publications . Research.com ranked in 2024 D Barcelo as 4th and 43rd environmental scientist and chemist, respectively in the world. He has been involved in editorial activities in the following Elsevier journals as co-Editor in chief and editor from 1990 to date: STOTEN, GREEAC, Methods X, CSCEE, and COESH. He is also Editor-in-chief of the book series Wilson + Wilson Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry from Elsevier since 1997- today and co-editor-in-chief of the Handbook of Environmental Chemistry book series from Springer since 2007-today and Advances In Chemical Pollution, Environmental Management and Protection) since 2016-today .From 1993 to date he has been editor and co-editor of 40 books on environmental chemistry.
Prof. Shelley D. Minteer
Missouri Univ. of Science & Technology, USA
Title: Decarbonizing the Chemical Industry through Electrosynthesis.
Dr. Shelley Minteer is a Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability at Missouri University of Science and Technology. She is also the Director of the NSF Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry. She received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Iowa in 2000 under the direction of Professor Johna Leddy. After receiving her PhD, she spent 11 years as a faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Saint Louis University before moving to the University of Utah in 2011 to lead the USTAR Alternative Energy Cluster. She was a Technical Editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society (2013-2016) and also an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2016-2020) before becoming the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the ACS Au Journals. She has published greater than 450 publications and greater than 550 presentations at national and international conferences and universities. She has won several awards including the Luigi Galvani Prize of the Bioelectrochemical Society, International Society of Electrochemistry Tajima Prize and Bioelectrochemistry Prize, Grahame Award of the Electrochemical Society, Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and the International Society of Electrochemistry, American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry, and the Society of Electroanalytical Chemists' Young Investigator Award and Reilley Award. Her research interests are focused on electrocatalysis and bioanalytical electrochemistry. She has expertise in biosensors, biofuel cells, electrosynthesis, and bioelectronics.
Prof. Mark D. Allendorf
Sandia National Laboratories, USA
Title: Metal hydrides from Nano to Macro: Disruptive Science for Materials-Based Energy Storage and Conversion.
Dr. Mark D. Allendorf is Co-Director of the DOE Hydrogen Materials – Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC) and a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. He obtained his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Stanford University. At Sandia, his research focuses on the fundamental science and applications of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and on hydrogen storage. Current interests include metal hydrides and MOFs for energy storage, geologic hydrogen, and machine learning for materials discovery. His research has generated over 240 publications, as well as fourteen patents. He is Past President and Fellow of The Electrochemical Society and has received Sandia awards for research, leadership, and teamwork, as well as a 2014 R&D100 Award for a novel approach to radiation detection.
Prof. Rachel Caruso
RMIT University, Australia
Title: Controlling morphology and composition of materials for energy and environmental applications.
Rachel Caruso completed her PhD in the School of Chemistry at The University of Melbourne. She moved to Germany and worked in Berlin at the Hahn Meitner Institute and then in Potsdam at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. She returned to The University of Melbourne where she held Australian Research Council funded research fellowships and a 50% secondment at the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation. She moved to RMIT University in 2017 as Director of the Advanced Materials Enabling Capability Platform and now is a Distinguished Professor in Applied Chemistry and Environmental Science within the School of Science and Deputy Director of an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence on Green Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide. She is also Deputy Director of two Research Centres at RMIT University: the Centre for Atomaterial and Nanomanufacturing and the Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry. Her research group has investigated approaches to control the morphology and composition of inorganic materials with potential application in areas such as photocatalysis, photovoltaics and batteries.
Prof. Maohong Fan
University of Wyoming, USA
Title: Development of novel low-energy-consumption CO2 capture technologies.
Dr. Fan is SER Professor in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and the Carrell Endowed Chair. As a PI or Co-PI, he has many projects in the areas of chemical and energy generation as well as environmental protection, which have been supported by domestic and international funding agencies such as NSF, DOE, EPA, USGS and USDA in the U.S., New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in Japan, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and industrial companies such as Siemens and Caterpillar. He has helped various chemical, environmental and energy companies to overcome their technical challenges. His NSF projects in recent years are in the areas of solar catalytic chemical looping based biomass refinery, simultaneous and low-emission utilization of coal and biomass, and application of nanotechnologies in energy production and environmental protection. Moreover, his recent DOE projects cover the areas of mercury removal, CO2 capture, rare earth extraction, carbon fuel cells, production of chemicals/fuels and hydrogen from ethane, catalytic production of near-zero-CH4 syngas, and catalytic ethylene glycol synthesis.
Prof. Angelos M. Efstathiou
University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Title: How Transient and Isotopic Techniques Advance the Design of Bifunctional Supported Metal Catalysts.
Dr. Angelos M. Efstathiou is an Emeritus Professor at the Chemistry Department of the University of Cyprus, and Director of the Heterogeneous Catalysis Lab.

He received BSc from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (1981), MSc (1985) and Ph.D (1989) from the University of Connecticut in Chemical Engineering. He has received several awards, namely: CATSA Eminent Visiting Award 2019 (Catalysis Society of South Africa); Royal Award for Sustainable Technology Transfer 2008 (European Environment Agency); First Research Award “Nikos Symeonides - 2007” (Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation); and First European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS) Young Scientists Award (2001).

World’s Top 2% scientist in the Chemistry field and Physical Chemistry sub-field according to the list published by Stanford University (USA) for the years 2020-2024, and World’s Top 0.05% in the Field of Catalysis (2024).

He has published over 180 peer-reviewed international journal papers and 4 book chapters and received over 10,750 citations resulting in an h-index 62 (Google Scholar). He has also published 65 papers in conference proceedings. He has given over 50 invited keynote and plenary lectures, and more than 90 oral presentations in international and national conferences.

He served as Editor of Catalysis Communications Journal (2016 - 2023) and member of the Editorial Board of Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy (2012 - today).

His research is currently focused on catalyst development and in situ characterization, kinetic and mechanistic studies using advanced transient, isotopic and operando methodologies (DRIFTS-Mass Spectrometry, UV-vis/DRS-Mass Spectrometry) for the Dry Reforming of Methane, Methanation and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, CO2 hydrogenation, Low-temperature NH3-SCR and H2-SCR of NOx.
Prof. Thomas J. Schmidt
Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland
Title: The Oxygen Evolution Reaction - The Enigma in Water Electrolysis
Thomas J. Schmidt has been Professor and Chair for Electrochemistry at ETH Zürich since 2011 and Head of PSI’s Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences at Swiss Paul Scherrer Institute. Since 2023, he also acts as Director of the Swiss Center of Excellence on NetZero Emission.

As a chemist by training with a PhD from University of Ulm/Germany in 1996, he held previous positions at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Paul Scherrer, Institute, and in chemical industries.

Prof. Schmidt’s personal research is focused on the development and in-depth understanding of catalysts, materials, processes and devices for the storage and conversion of renewable energy into electricity or chemical energy carriers. In this context, the goal is the in-depth understanding of technologies like Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC), Polymer Electrolyte Electrolyzer Cells (PEEC) for water electrolysis and processes like the co-electrolysis of CO2 and water, respectively. Furthermore, research is performed related to energy system modeling addressing the economic and ecologic transition of the energy system.
Prof. Thomas Wirth
Cardiff University, UK
Title: Intensification and Electrification of Flow Chemistry.
Thomas Wirth is professor of organic chemistry at Cardiff University. After studying chemistry in Bonn, he obtained his PhD and at the Technical University of Berlin. After a postdoctoral stay at Kyoto University, he started his independent research at the University of Basel in 1994, before taking up his current position at Cardiff University in 2000. He was invited as a visiting professor to several places. Thomas Wirth was awarded the Werner-Prize from the New Swiss Chemical Society (2000), the Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society and the Bader Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016). In 2016 he was elected as a fellow of The Learned Society of Wales. His main interests of research concern stereoselective electrophilic reactions, oxidative transformations with hypervalent iodine reagents including mechanistic investigations and electrochemical synthesis performed in microreactors.
Prof. Gerhard Klebe
Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany
Title: Multiple Ways to Inhibit tRNA-Guanine Transglycosylase: A Target to Fight Shigellosis
Gerhard Klebe studied chemistry at the University of Frankfurt/M., Germany, and received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry. After postdoctoral positions in crystallography (Grenoble, CNRS and ILL, France, Univ. of Bern, Switzerland), he was responsible for molecular modeling and crystallography at BASF-AG, Ludwigshafen, Germany. In 1996 he joined the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, as full professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. In 2005, he turned down an offer from ETH Zurich for a chair in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Since 2020 he is retired. He served on the editorial boards of several journals, was a member of the advisory boards of the CCDC, Cambridge, the Leibniz Institute FMP in Berlin and the Helmholtz Institute in Saarbrücken. His research has focused on the understanding of protein-ligand interactions, including chemical synthesis, microcalorimetry, molecular biology, crystallography, bioinformatics and software development. Internationally recognized software tools such as CoMSIA, AFMoC, DrugScore, Relibase/Cavbase or MOBILE were developed in his laboratory. Several drug discovery projects have focused on lead finding for neglected and poverty related disease targets. To gain better insight into affinity and selectivity determining features, his group has performed extensive thermodynamic studies of enzyme-ligand complexes. He has written a textbook on drug design that has been published in German, English and Chinese. Together with scientists at Bessy, HZB Berlin, a crystallography-based fragment screening beamline was established. In 2017, he was involved in the founding of CrystalsFirst, a start-up in the fragment field. About 100 PhD students have graduated from his lab. More than 400 scientific papers and more than 1600 PDB entries have come out of his group. He organized a biennial International Workshop on New Approaches in Drug Discovery and Design and organized the GRC on Computer Aided Drug Design in 2011.