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The 3rd Edition of the European Graphene Forum 2017

Conference Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Der-Jang Liaw

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Der-Jang LIAW, Polymer Science Doctor (Ph.D. Polymer), now he is a Chair professor of Chemical Engineering, NTUST. He got Master and Ph.D. degrees in polymer science of Osaka University (Japan). He has published about 360 SCI papers (h-index = 44 from ISI Web of Knowledge), 180 conference papers and 60 patents. In 2009, He was a recipient of the International Award from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan with Prof. J. M. J. Frechet (USA) and Prof. K. Muellen (Germany). He received Outstanding Polymer Academic Research Prize in 2012 and Lifetime Achievement Prize from Polymer Society of Taiwan in 2013. He has been a fellow of The Polymer Society of Taiwan since 2014. He has been Academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering since 2011. He is the Editorial Advisory Board of Polymer (UK), Polymer Journal (Japan), Polymer International (UK), Journal of Polymer Research (1994~2001), High Performance Polymers (UK) (NASA Editor-in-Chief), Materials (Switzerland) and Soft Nanoscience Letters (USA). He is also the International Advisory Board of Polycondensation 2014 (Tokyo) and 2016 (Moscow), IUPAC Macro2008 (Polymer Synthesis, Session Chairman), International Advisory Board of European Polymer Congress 2009 (Graz, Austria), International Advisory Committee of Pacific Polymer Federation (PPF), International Advisory Board of International Symposium on Olefin Metathesis (ISOM 19 [France], ISOM20 [Japan] and ISOM21 [Austria]), honorable guest of Nanotechnology-2015 (Dubai, UAE), Federation of Asian Polymer Societies Polymer Congress, 4FAPS-IPC 2015 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), member of Asia Polymer Association, APA-2015 (India) and Organizing Committee of Nanotechnology and Material Science, Nanotechnology-2016 (Dubai, UAE), Keynote speaker and International advisory board of ISCC2016, International Advisory Board & Invited Speaker of Polycondensation 2016, Keynote speaker of International Seminar on Science and Technology in Indonesia , Keynote speaker of International Union of Materials Research Societies-International Conference on Advanced Materials in Kyoto and Plenary& Invited speaker of IUPAC-FAPS 2017 Polymer Congress in Jeju. Currently, Prof. LIAW researches including: (1) synthesis of conjugated polymers used for carrier transporting materials of solar cells, (2) nanographenes-containing polymers, (3) Selective dispersion of carbon nanotube by conjugated polymers wrapping and (4) synthesis and characterization of high performance polyimides (PIs) and polyamides (PAs) with organo-solubility, thermal stability and optoelectronic properties. He studies on synthesis of all possible functional polymers via various polymerization techniques including free radical polymerization, ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), UV curing and moisture curing polymerizations for adhesives and coatings, polycondensation or polymer reaction for optoelectonic devices, biomaterials, next-generation semiconductor materials and solar energy applications.

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Prof. Andras Kis

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Professor Andras Kis was born in 1975 in Croatia where he finished his undergraduate studies in physics in 1999 at the University of Zagreb. In 2000, he moved to Switzerland where he obtained his PhD (Physics) in 2003. In 2004 he was awarded the prestigious Latsis Universiy prize for his PhD work. From 2004 to 2007 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley in the group of Prof. Zettl. At Berkeley hestudied electrical and mechanical properties of carbon and boron nitride nanotubes and gained experience in microfabrication techniques at the Berkeley Microlab. In 2007 he returned to Switzerland and joined the Electrical Engineering Institute at EPFL and formed a research group as a tenure track Assistant Professor Andras Kis and his group study electrical properties of low-dimensional materials such as 2d transition metaldichalcogenides. In 2009, Andras Kis was awarded the ERC starting grant (1.8 million Euros) for a research project (acronym FLATRONICS) in the area of electrical properties of dichalcogenide nanolayers.

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Prof. Monica Craciun

Centre for Graphene Science, University of Exeter, UK

Monica Craciun is currently an Associate Professor in Nanoscience within the Centre for Graphene Science at the University of Exeter in the UK. Her expertise lies in the studies of 2D materials such as graphene and various organic materials. The work of Prof Craciun spans from fundamental research in organic electronics and quantum electronics to applied research in electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices. She completed her PhD in Physics at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands in 2006. She was subsequently post doctoral researcher at The University of Twente, The Netherlands (2006/07) and at The University of Tokyo, Japan (2007/09) where she held a Fellowship of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. She joined the University of Exeter in January 2010 as research fellow and took up the position of Associate Professor in Nanoscience in December 2014. Her current research focusses on engineering the electro-optical properties of 2D materials through chemical functionalization and their use in electronic and optoelectronic devices.

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Dr. Johann Coraux

Institut Néel, CNRS & Université Grenoble Alpes, France

Johann Coraux received his Ph.D. in 2006 at Grenoble University, after works on the structure of III-nitride semiconductors. In 2007-2008 he was an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow in the group of Thomas Michely at the University of Cologne, where he started working on graphene — demonstrating graphene on iridium as a prototype of quasi free-standing high quality graphene. In 2008 he was appointed a tenured position at CNRS, in Grenoble. There, he has been pushing the concept of graphene-based hybrid systems, combining the unique properties of this material to others, including magnetism, superconductivity, and catalytic activity. He is also exploring two-dimensional materials on surfaces as platforms for structural phase transitions.

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Prof. Ester Vazquez

University of Castilla-la Mancha (UCLM), Spain

Prof. Ester Vázquez obtained her PhD degree from the University of Castilla-la Mancha (UCLM) in 2000. She performed her doctoral research mainly in the Microwave and Sustainable Chemistry group of UCLM, working on microwave-assisted organic reactions in dry media. She also spent a few months at the University of Zaragoza, studying silica-supported Lewis acids for catalysis and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, working on microwave applications in radiolabelling tracers for positron emission tomography. After finishing her PhD, she carried out her postdoctoral training in Trieste, Italy, working on biological applications of fullerenes and new fullerene derivatives in the group of Professor Maurizio Prato, in the frame of a European Research Training Network. She then joined the Faculty of Chemistry at UCLM in 2001, completing other short stays in Trieste in 2002 and 2003. In 2009 she received the “Ibn Wafid de Toledo“Price for young researchers of Castilla-La Mancha. She was promoted to associate professor in 2010.

Over the past 15 years Professor Vázquez has focused her research efforts on the functionalization and purification of carbon nanostructures using non-conventional methodologies, demonstrating how scaling-up of the modified carbon nanostructures is possible using green protocols. Her group uses microwave radiations for the activation of carbon nanostructures in solvent-free conditions, preparing multifunctional derivatives that can serve as versatile synthons in materials science and biological applications. She has also applied ball milling methodologies in dry media to shorten and functionalize carbon nanotubes, and recently, for the exfoliation of graphene. The ball milling approach allows the production of highly dispersed graphene in organic solvents and it is one of the best ways of producing graphene suspensions in water, which enables, for instance, the study of interactions of graphene with biological bodies and the incorporation of graphene in smart gels with applications on controlled drug delivery. This work has permitted the collaboration with industrial partners, such as Antolin group and numerous European groups within the framework of the Graphene Flagship project.

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Dr Inigo Larraza

Gnanomat, Spain

Inigo Larraza (BSc, MSc, PhD) is a chemist specialized in polymeric nanomaterials. He started his research career at the University of Helsinki and continued by carrying out his PhD in the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) with stays at the University of Michigan and the Max Planck Institute. He has worked in industry as FP7 and H2020 project manager in the areas of nanotechnology and geopolymers, being involved, also as coordinator, in several international research and innovation projects and proposals. Íñigo is co-author of a number of scientific publications and proceedings and holds a patent.

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Prof. Goki Eda

Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Dr. Eda received his M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2006 and Ph.D. in the same discipline from Rutgers University in 2009. He became a Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society of the UK and worked at Imperial College London. Dr. Eda joined the National University of Singapore as an Assistant Professor of Physics and Chemistry, and a member of the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials in 2011. He is a recipient of the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Research Fellowship and many awards including the Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS) Young Scientist Award, University Young Researcher Award, and IPS Omicron Nanotechnology Award. He is an Associate Editor of npj 2D Materials and Applications.

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Dr. Roberto Clemente

Gnanomat, Spain

Dr. Roberto Clemente is the CEO and Co-founder en Gnanomat. He obtained a Bachelor Degree in Chemistry and a PhD degree. After a postdoc in The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, US) he completed his professional training with an MBA. Dr. Clemente led innovation companies, participated as member of different boards of directors of innovation companies and participated in different companies as Strategic Consultant and Business Development Director.

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Mr. Inigo Charola

Business Development Director at Graphenea, Spain

Iñigo Charola is Business Development Director at Graphenea. He has an extensive experience in industrial related products at marketing and sales positions. He started his career at ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in security products, then as Sales and Marketing Director at an industrial processes private company. Before joining Graphenea he is been working in the Electronic Manufacturing Services industry as a Sales Director. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from University of Wales, a Master in Marketing and Sales Management from ESIC and an Executive MBA from Deusto Business School.

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Prof. Maurizio Prato

Director of the Carbon Nanotechnology Research Group and Professor at University of Trieste, Italy

Prof Maurizio Prato is a Full professor at University of Trieste since 2000. He got his PhD degree from University of Padova- Italy, followed by post- doctoral positions in Texas Tech University- USA, University College Dublin-Ireland, Yale University- USA and University of California-USA. He’s a member of the International Advisory Board of the following Journals published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK): Chemical Communications, 1997; Journal of Materials Chemistry, 1994-2002; Chairman of the Editorial Board, Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2003-Present.

He was awarded the: Federchimica Prize (1995), National Prize for research, Italian Chemical Society (2002), González Ciamician, Spanish Chemical Society (2008), ERC- Advanced Investigator Grant Award (2008) and Medaglia Angelo Mangini (2009).

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Prof. Frank Koppens

Group Leader, Professor, Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), Spain (to be confirmed)

Prof. Frank Koppens is a group leader at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona. Koppens has a PhD in physics (from the Netherlands) and worked as a scientist at Harvard University.

Currently, he is leading the innovation and scientific activities that exploit the new wonder material “graphene”. Graphene is thinner, stronger, more flexible and a better conductor than any other material.

The graphene activities at ICFO focus on the creation of new devices, or its building blocks, such as wearable electronics and health devices that are flexible and transparent, as well as new types of cameras and sensors surpassing human capabilities. But graphene also enables faster data-communication and faster computing, as well as flexible super-batteries, flexible displays, and so on.

Koppens is co-leader of the European graphene flagship, a one Billion Euro project, which aims to take graphene applications from the laboratories to the market.

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Prof. Vladimir Falko

Manchester University - United Kingdom

Prof. Vladimir Fal’ko is condensed matter theorist responsible for several advances in the theory of electronic and optical properties of atomically thin two-dimensional crystals and fundamentals of nanoelectronics. His current research interests include graphene-based electronic and optoelectronic systems and electronic and optical properties of various atomically thin two-dimensional crystals and their heterostructures. He is one of the initiators of the European Graphene Flagship Project, founder of Graphene Week Conference series and Editor-in-Chief of the IoP Journal ‘2D Materials’.  Falko is currently Director of the National Graphene Institute and Professor of Condensed Matter Theory at the University of Manchester.

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Prof. Bart J. van Wees

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Bart van Wees (Nootdorp, 1961), Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Groningen, is a known authority in his field and considered to be one of the best physicists in the world. He is a brilliant researcher in the highly complex field of conductance in nanostructures and was a pioneer in the new field of spintronics (rotation of electrons). He was awarded the NWO Spinoza Prize in 2016 – also known as the Dutch Nobel Prize – for his groundbreaking work. Van Wees made his mark early on in his scientific career with a revolutionary breakthrough in the research into quantizing the conductance of a point contact. It was for this work that he received the McMillan Award from the University of Illinois in 1990 and, together with two colleagues, the Shell Prize two years later. The content of his most cited article on this research, an article from 1987, now appears in all textbooks on the steps of quantized conductance. Having transferred to the UG in 1991, he continued his pioneering work with fundamental research into superconductivity in nanostructures, a field that is now largely based on his work. This was the groundwork that led him to become the world-leading scientist he is today. His research now focuses on a completely new field: spintronics or the study of the rotation of electrons. He was the first in the world to succeed in achieving what is termed spin injection in graphene. Graphene is a new, extremely thin two-dimensional material that consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a h exagonal lattice. Both the possible applications and the economic impact of this research on business are unprecedented. Furthermore, Van Wees’s work has led not only to interesting discoveries but also to breakthroughs that are relevant to society. For instance, he is looking for properties in materials that are also present at room temperature, which can be used in practice. One of his greatest skills is linking fundamental research to practical applications. With his great passion for physics and his unique talent, Van Wees is a particularly productive scientist, who boats more than 250 outstanding scientific publications and over 18,000 citations. He ranks among the absolute top in his field and has a unique ability to apply science to society.

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Prof. Herbert Zirath

Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Prof Herbert Zirath Received his MSc and PhD degree from Chalmers University, Göteborg, Sweden, in 1980 and 1986, respectively. He is since 1996 a Professor in High Speed Electronics at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, MC2, at Chalmers University. He is the head of the Microwave Electronics Laboratory leading a group of approximately 50 researchers in the area of high frequency semiconductor devices and circuits. His main research interests include foundry related MMIC designs for millimeterwave applications based on both III-V and silicon devices, SiC and GaN based transistors and circuits for high power applications, device modeling including noise and large-signal models for FET and bipolar devices, and InP-HEMT devices and circuits. He is working part-time at Ericsson AB as a microwave circuit expert. He is author/co-author of more than 350 refereed journal/conference papers, and holds 5 patents.

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Prof. Paolo Samorì

University of Strasbourg, France

Paolo Samorì is Distinguished Professor at the University of Strasbourg and Director of the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS), where he leads the Nanochemistry Laboratory. He obtained a master’s degree (Laurea) in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Bologna, Italy in 1995 and a PhD in chemistry from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany in 2000. He was appointed Permanent Researcher at the National Research Council (CNR) in Bologna in 2001, Visiting Professor at ISIS in 2003 and Full Professor in 2008.

The current research activities of Paolo Samorì are focused on the chemistry of two-dimensional materials, smart supramolecular systems as well as high-performance multifunctional materials and (nano)devices in order to develop an “Internet of functions” for energy, sensing and optoeletronic applications.

Paolo Samorì was elected Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) in 2010, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2012, Member of the Academia Europaea and of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) in 2014 and Foreign Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB) in 2019. He also received numerous prestigious awards, including the Guy Ourisson Prize from the Cercle Gutenberg in 2010, the CNRS Silver Medal in 2012, the Spanish-French Catalán–Sabatier Prize from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) and the German-French Wittig–Grignard Prize from the German Chemical Society (GDCh) in 2017, the RSC Surfaces and Interfaces Award, the Pierre Süe Prize from the French Chemical Society (SCF) and the Blaise Pascal Medal in Materials Science from EURASC in 2018, the ERC Advanced Grant (2019), the “Étoiles de l’Europe” Prize (2019), the ERC Proof of Concept Grant (2020), the RSC/SCF Joint Lectureship in Chemical Sciences (2020) and MRS fellow (2021).

Paolo Samorì is Associate Editor of Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances (RSC) and Member of the Advisory Board of Advanced Materials, Small, ChemPlusChem, ChemNanoMat, ChemPhysChem, ChemSystemsChem (Wiley-VCH), Chemical Society Reviews, Nanoscale Horizons, Journal of Materials Chemistry, Chemical Communications (RSC), ACS Nano, ACS Omega (ACS) and BMC Materials (Springer Nature).

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Prof. Valeria Nicolosi

Trinity college Dublin, Ireland

Prof. Nicolosi received a BSc with honours in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Catania (Italy) in 2001. In 2006 she received a Ph.D. in Physics in 2006 from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, working under the supervision of Prof. W. J. Blau and Prof. J. N. Coleman.  During her PhD she worked on the processing and characterisation of MoSI nanowires. After receiving her PhD she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the group of Prof. J. N. Coleman until December 2007. She moved to the University of Oxford in February 2008 as a Marie Curie Fellow, to work in the field of advanced electron microscopy in the group of Prof. Peter Nellist. In April 2008 she was awarded with a Royal Academy of Engineering/EPSRC Fellowship. This fellowship provided a total of GBP 800,000 funding for a 5 years period started on March 2009. In Oct 2009 she was elected Departmental Lecturer in Materials and Kurti Fellow at Brasenose College Oxford. In 2011, she was awarded a 1.5M EUR starting grant from the European Research Council to expand her work in processing and advanced characterisation of nanomaterials devoted to the development of novel energy storage devices. As of 2012 she became an ERC Research Professor at the School of Chemistry and at the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin and a principal investigator with CRANN. Prof. Nicolosi’s present research interests include atomic-resolution aberration corrected electron microscopy and liquid-phase processing of low dimensional nanomaterials.

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Mr. Kuan-Tsae Huang

CEO, AzTrong, US/Taiwan

Kuan-Tsae Huang is the Chairman/CEO of AzTrong based in Maryland and Taiwan. He is an expert in Graphene and its commercialization in heat spreading, battery & supercapacitor, composites and Enernet applications. He had 20+ years working at IBM Watson and Global Services, was a Vice President, played a key role to help IBM successfully transformed into a global service company, based on e-commerce, knowledge economy and solution offerings, etc. He works with clients to transform business and strategy by leveraging graphene technology. Dr. Huang's career included CEO for several start-up companies in Silicon Valley and Asia, the President of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU); adjunct professor at Fordham University; senior consultant at US National Institute of Health, etc. Currently, he is also a consultant to many companies leveraginggraphene, senior advisor to Ditthavong & Steiner patent law firm, Virginia, Chairman of Taskco e-Business Corporation.

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