Yasuaki Einaga received his BS (1994), MS (1996), and PhD (1999) from the University of Tokyo. After 2 years as a research associate at the University of Tokyo, he started a faculty career as an assistant professor in Keio University in 2001, where he was promoted to full professor in 2011. He has been also a research director of JST-CREST (2011-2014), JST-ACCEL (2014-2020), and NEDO (2020-). He was awarded "The Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work" in 2016 and “Awards for Science and Technology” from The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2023 for his pioneering work in diamond electrodes. His research interests include functional materials science, photochemistry, and electrochemistry.

Prof. Sachiko Matsushita received her B.Sc. (1996) and Ph.D. (2000) in Applied Chemistry from the University of Tokyo under Prof. Akira Fujishima's guidance in self-assembled nanoparticle structure fabrication and application. In 2001, she became a post-doctoral researcher in Prof. Toyoki Kunitake’s group at RIKEN and widened her research focus to photonic crystals. After her experience as a lecturer and associate professor at Nihon University, she joined the Department of Metallurgy & Ceramics Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology (currently Institute of Science Tokyo) as an associate professor (2010), and decided to commit to energy issues. After developing a new thermal energy conversion system, semiconductor-sensitised thermal cell (STC), she founds elleThermo, Ltd. (2023) for the practical application of STC

Hirotomo Nishihara is a full professor at Tohoku University, Japan. Having obtained his academic degrees from Kyoto University (Japan), he spent most of his career working for Tohoku University up to date. He has received numerous scientific awards, including the prestigious Gottfried Wargener Prize in 2019 and the JSPS Prize in 2020. In 2022, he took his innovations into the business sphere by establishing a startup company, 3DC. As the Chief Science Officer, he is dedicated to the industrialization of a novel porous carbon material, graphene mesosponge, which he developed. His research interests include nanoporous materials and carbon-based materials

Hiroaki Onoe, received his Ph.D. in Mechano-Informatics at The University of Tokyo under the supervision of Prof. Isao Shimoyama in 2006. Since 2007, he moved to University of California Berkeley and worked with Prof. Richard Mathies in Department of Chemistry as a visiting scholar. Since 2009, he began to work with Prof. Shoji Takeuchi at Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo as an assistant professor. Since 2014, he has joined to Keio University, Japan, and is now a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include microfluidics, biofabrication, organ-on-a-chip, functional nanomaterials and self-assembly technologies.

Tomoko K. Shimizu received her B.Eng. from Keio University, Japan, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She conducted postdoctoral research at RIKEN, Japan, and later served as a senior researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science. In April 2018, she was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University. Her research centers on surface science and materials characterization, with a particular emphasis on scanning probe microscopy and related spectroscopic techniques. In 2018, she received the Young Scientists’ Award of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education. Her current work focuses on gas adsorption on oxide catalyst surfaces, structural characterization of self-assembled organic porous thin films, and investigation of technologically relevant nanomaterials.