Valbona Aliko, Full Professor in Animal EcoToxicoPhysiology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana, Albania. Leader of NanoToxicology NanoAlb Research Group and Coordinator of NanoAlb PhD Programme-Quartz, Albanian Academy of Science. Research interests focused on studying the mechanisms of adaptive response of animals to environmental stress (heavy metals, pesticides, nanoparticles), by using multi-biomarker approach and designing & bio-functionalizing biosensors with possible application in monitoring environmental pollution and biota health

Alfredo de la Escosura-Muñiz holds a PhD in Chemistry (2006) from the University of Oviedo (Spain). Most of his post-doctoral career has been spent at Prof. Merkoçi’s group at ICN2 (Barcelona, Spain), where he specialized in Nanobiosensors. He has participated in +25 national and international projects (5 as PI) and is the coauthor of over 95 scientific publications (+4100 citations; h-index: 39) and 4 patents. As of December 2023, he holds a position as Associate Professor in the Nanobioanalysis Group, Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, University of Oviedo (Spain) where he is also the Group Leader. His research interests focus on the development of biosensing systems based on nanoparticles and nanochannels for point-of-care diagnostic applications

Dr. G. Dodbiba earned his Ph.D. in materials-process engineering in 2004. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2004 to March 2006. From 2004 to 2009, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosystem Engineering at the University of Tokyo. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Innovation at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Engineering.
Dr. Dodbiba's research focuses on the behavior of materials, minerals, solid wastes, and effluents in aqueous systems, intersecting physics, physical chemistry, and colloidal chemistry. He has authored over 120 peer-reviewed papers on the physical and chemical processing of composite materials.

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.

Dr. Maria Guix received her PhD in Chemistry, M.S. degree in Nanotechnology and B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). During her PhD she worked in the Prof. Merkoçi’s group at Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), working on the integration of nanomaterials in biosensing platforms. As a PhD candidate, she did two short internships related to the development of catalytic nanomotors, first in EMPA (Switzerland) and then in the University of California San Diego (USA) under the supervision of Prof. Joseph Wang. She later joined Prof. Oliver Schmidt’s group as a postdoctoral researcher at IFW Dresden, developing biocompatible micromotors for biomedical applications. Afterwards, she moved to Purdue University to work on the automation of magnetic microrobots for safe manipulation tasks by using visual-based control methods. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) for 4 years under the supervision of Prof. Samuel Sánchez’ group, focusing her research line in the development of advanced functional living robots. She recently moved to the University of Barcelona at Prof. Josep Puigmartí group as Ramon y Cajal senior researcher.

Biologist by the University of the Basque Country (2005) and PhD in Chemistry by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2013). He carried out the doctoral thesis in the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona, focused on the development of polymer-based microfluidic biosensors with dual detection (optical and electrochemical). In December 2013 he joined the Chair of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (TU Dresden, Germany) as postdoc, where he gained experience in the use of nanomaterials to boost the sensitivity of field-effect transistors for biodetection. In October he started leading the biosensorics group of the same Chair, supervising projects related to point-of-care diagnostic platforms, flexible microelectronics, and gas sensors toward electronic nose development. In January 2024 he became part of the Health Unit of Tecnalia (Spain), leading the research line of biosensors and microelectronics for diagnostics and for the monitoring of biological and biomedical processes.

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

ICREA Research Professor Josep Nogués earned his degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 1986. After obtaining his PhD at the Kungliga Tekniska Höskolan (RoyalInstitute of Technology) in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1993, he moved to the University of California San Diego (USA) to complete his postdoctoral studies. Four years later he returned to the UAB as an associate researcher, becoming an ICREA research professor in 2001 and a founding member of the former Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN) shortly thereafter. His Magnetic Nanostructures group was formally integrated into the ICN structure in 2006.

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.

Fetah Podvorica is Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Prishtina and Corresponding Member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosova. Since 2014 he has been visiting professor at University of Paris, former University of Paris 7, and previously was visiting professor at Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie de Paris (ESPCI); during the period 2003-2013. He did his PhD thesis at the University of Paris 7 in 2000 and his Habilitation he obtained in 2010 at the University of Paris 6. His research interests include: electrochemical or chemical modification of material’s surfaces with 2D organic thin layers and their use for different applications; the use of Electro-Fenton method for the degradation of organic pollutants in waste water. He has 2 patents, 1 book and 4 book chapters, more than 50 published papers in peer review journals, H index: 26 and over 5900 citations (scholar). He was Associate Editor in the Springer journal, Chemistry Africa and is member of Advisory Boards of several journals.

Samuel obtained his PhD in Chemistry at Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2008. Currently, he is ICREA Research Professor, Group Leader and Deputy Director at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia. Before that, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems Stuttgart, at the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences at IFW Dresden, Germany, and at MANA-NIMS in Japan. He is currently honorary visiting Professor at HIT Harbin in China and Adjunct Professor at POSTECH University in South Korea.
Samuel received several awards (among others): The MIT TR35 Top Innovator Under 35 Spain 2014, Guinness World Records in 2010 and 2017, the Princess of Girona Scientific Award 2015 and the National Research Award for Young Talent 2016 by the Catalan Research Foundation, and this year receive the Scientific Excellence award from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry and recently the prestigious Bank Sabadell Foundation award for "Basic Science and Engineering award". He is elected member of the Young Academy of Spain since 2020. He received the prestigious ERC-Starting grant in 2013 and the ERC-Consolidator Grant in 2019, together with two ERC Proof of concept grants. Besides extensive public funding (>8Mi Eur), he has cooperation agreements with the Private sector and hospitals.

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.

Kledi Xhaxhiu is a full time professor at the Chemistry Department, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana. He is also acting as a co-coordinator of the Albanian Unit of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NanoAlb). For 1.5 year he was deputy minister of the environment of Albania. Kledi Xhaxhiu studied Food Chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana. Elaborated the diploma thesis at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry-Biology, University of Siegen, Germany. Completed PhD at the same university and faculty at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry. Participated in an internship at the Intermediate Products Department, BASF A.G. Ludwigshafen, Germany. He Post-doctorated at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He has co-authored over 65 publications in international and national scientific journals and has presented in more than 40 international and national scientific conferences. He is an as editorial board member of 6 scientific international journals and member of scientific/advisory board of 14 international conferences. His research interests of include syntheses and structural characterization of solid compounds, thermal expansion and thermal behavior of solids, physical properties of solid compounds and their composites with conducting polymers, such as: thermoelectric and photo-sensorial; adsorption-desorption of heavy metals on layered/channeled solids, adsorption-desorption of organic pollutants from clays and fly ash; carbon paste electrodes for targeted determination and quantification of electro-active compounds in aqueous solutions; sub- and supercritical extraction of essential oils from plants and fruits. Actually cooperates with several research groups in distinguished universities abroad.