Geoffrey Mitchell is Chief Scientific Officer at Visionary Equation lda, a high tech startup company based in Marinha Grande, Portugal , a researcher at the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development at the Polytechnic of Leiria in Portugal. He is Adjunct Professor at the Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, in Mysore India, Visiting Medical Physicist, Oxford University Hospitals Trust, Oxford UK and Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Reading in the UK. His eclectic research work bridges material science, physics, biology, chemistry, computer simulation and technology and he is passionate about the opportunities which arise in manufacturing. He has pioneered the development of in-situ time-resolving neutron and x-ray scattering procedures to evaluate the structural and morphological transformations involved during manufacturing including Reaction Injection Moulding, Thermoforming, 3D printing and Injection Moulding of semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymers and biopolymers. He plans to use this to develop a multiscale digital twin for injection moulding. He has applied this approach to 3D printing to develop the concept of morphology mapping. He is actively engaged in the digitialisation of materials He is a strong advocate for Climate Change and the challenges of sustainability. He has edited a number of books, the most recent “Controlling the Morphology of Polymers” and “Electrospinning – Principles, Practise and Possibilities” with a second edition to be published in 2024. He currently writing a book in partnership with Professor Mahadevappa Kariduraganavar at Karnatak University in Dharwad India on “Design, Processing and Degradation of Plastics.
Maria Laura Du Lorenzo is now director research scientist at the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Polymers of the Italian National Research Council (ICTP-CNR, Italy). In 1998 she was a Research Associate at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA). Her main research interests focus on the thermal analysis of homopolymers and multi-component polymeric materials. Major investigations concern structure-property relationships, transition kinetics (crystallization, melting, glass transition), morphology, mechanical, and barrier properties. Dr. Di Lorenzo is Head of the Laboratory of Thermal Analysis at ICTP-CNR. Dr. Di Lorenzo received the “First AIM Award for Young Researchers”, from the Italian Association of Science and Technology of Macromolecules (AIM) in 2007 and the “A. Lucci Award”, from the Italian Association of Calorimetry and Thermal Analysis (AICAT), for “her innovative contribution to the development of calorimetric and thermoanalytical instruments for the characterization of polymer-based materials” in 2002.
Professor Young was educated at the University of Cambridge and became Professor of Polymer Science and Technology in Manchester in 1986. He was the founding Head of the School of Materials in the newly-formed University of Manchester in 2004, which is now the largest university materials department in the UK and the focus of major UK materials research initiatives. He is a Fellow of Royal Society (2013), Royal Academy of Engineering (2006) and Academy of Europe (2015). His main research interest is the relationships between structure and properties in polymers and composites. He has introduced of a number of revolutionary techniques that have given a completely new insight into the micromechanics of deformation in fibres and composites. In particular, he has pioneered the use of Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of deformation processes that take place at the molecular level. Over recent years he has extended this approach to the mechanics of deformation of graphene and other 2D materials in nanocomposites. His contribution in research has been recognised through numerous invitations to give Plenary and Keynote lectures at International Conferences and through the awards of the Griffith Medal (2002), Leslie Holliday Prize (2011), Swinburne Medal and Prize (2012) and Platinum Medal (2019) from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
María del Carmen Garrigós Selva, Chemistry PhD (2003). Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry in the University of Alicante (Spain) from 2008. Current head of the Polymer and Nanomaterials Analysis Research Group. She currently has got four positive evaluations from the National Committee of Evaluation of the Research Activities dependent from the Spanish Government. She has participated in 43 research competitive research projects with public financing (17 of them as Principal Investigator), being the most relevant 5 consecutive projects financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (2009-2024) as well as four international projects under the H-2020 calls (two of them as the Principal Investigator) from 2016 to 2022. In addition, she has participated in more than 130 research and innovation projects with different national and international companies, most of them as Principal Investigator.
She has been author of 2 books on Food Analysis and co-author in 17 book chapters in biopolymers, additives analysis and development of methods for food analysis. Moreover, she has participated in 25 publications on academical research. Author or co-author of 93 research papers published in journals in Analytical Chemistry, Food Technology and Polymer Science, 67 of them published in journals in the first quarters of the respective topics. The total number of citations is 3226, accounting for 457 citations per year in the last 5-year span and h index 32. She has participated in the scientific committees in many international conferences, particularly in the International Conference on Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers (BIOPOL), where she was co-chair in the 8th edition. She has supervised 5 PhD thesis presentations and she is currently supervising 4 more to be presented in the next future.
Her main research areas are:
J. González began his scientific career in 1992 at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he studied cyclodextrin inclusion complexes. He earned his PhD at the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), specializing in glass fiber-reinforced polymers. He completed research stays at several institutions, including Tampere University, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), and NIST, focusing on polymer science and materials characterization. He currently leads the AFM Laboratory at UC3M. In 2006, he founded the Polymeric Composite Materials and Interfaces research group (an official UC3M group), dedicated to the development of multifunctional thermoplastic materials. He pioneered a high-energy ball milling method to achieve uniform nanoparticle dispersion, enabling the design of materials with unique electrical and antibacterial properties. He has extensive experience in advanced nanoscale characterization techniques and has established close collaborations with internationally recognized groups, including the University of Salerno, University of Aveiro, UCSB, CWRU, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the University of the Basque Country, and the University of Navarra, among others. His current research focuses on developing polymer nanofibers via Solution Blow Spinning (SBS) for medical, electrical, and food packaging applications. He has published more than 125 SCI articles, led international, national, and regional research projects, and serves on several editorial boards in the field of polymer science.
Keynote talk title: Active Fibrous Materials Based on PLA/Magnetic nanoparticles Prepared by Solution Blow Spinning
Dr. Coltelli is an associate professor at the University of Pisa, Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering and holds a degree in chemistry and PhD in chemical science from the University of Pisa. She has 20 years of experience in materials science and technology, in particular polymers, biopolymers, blends, and composites, especially related to their interaction with the environment. She is the author and co-author of more than 70 publications in international journals, a book related to the reuse of polymers, and three patents related to added-value polymeric blends obtained from recycled materials.
Filomena Freitas is an Assistant Professor at the Chemistry Department of NOVA School of Sciences and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon (FCT NOVA), Portugal, and a Senior Researcher at the Biochemical Engineering Group (BIOENG), at UCIBIO, FCT NOVA. She has completed a PhD in Biological Engineering by FCT NOVA in 2004. She has developed research on the development of upstream and downstream processes for the production of value-added microbial products, including polysaccharides and polyhydroxyalkanoates, as well as intellectual property development and technology transfer. Special focus is also given on the biological valorization of agro-industrial wastes/byproducts, aiming at implementing sustainable bioprocesses. She has over 110 papers published in international peer review journals, book chapters and International Patents, which have recently been granted in several countries.
Stanisław Kuciel is a graduate of the Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School in Krakow, and then the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Krakow University of Technology. In 1998, he defended his PhD in the field of recycling and Materials Engineering. He is the author and co-author of over 250 publications on the testing mechanical properties under variable loads and the problems of recycling, polymer composites, biomaterials and biocomposites. He is the supervisors of over 250 engineering and master's theses in the fields of Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical and Materials Engineering. He deliver many lectures in the field of Strength of Materials, Polymer Composites, Polymer Processing and Engineering Materials. He was the manager of several projects in the field of biomedical engineering, polymer waste utilization or innovative biocomposites from renewable raw materials, etc.
Sergio Torres-Giner received in 2003 a Dipl-Ing in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Spain. In 2004, he achieved a MSc in Process Systems Technology at Cranfield University, England, followed by an MBA in Industrial Management in 2005 at Catholic University of Valencia ‘San Vincente Mártir’, Spain. He was able to complete his PhD in 2010 in Food Science at the University of Valencia, Spain.
He gathers more than 14 years of experience in both public research agencies and industrial R&D organizations. He was a Predoctoral Research Assistant at the Joint Research Unit of Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies (UMR-IATE) of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) (2006) under the Leonardo da Vinci programme and later he carried out his PhD at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (IATA-CSIC) (2006-11) with an I3P predoctoral fellowship. During his postdoctoral career he was a recipient of a Torres Quevedo contract and he worked as a Product Development Scientist for Ferro Corporation – Specialty Plastics Division (2011-14), as a Packaging Application Specialist for A. Schulman, Inc. – Masterbatch Division (2014-16), and as a R&D Project Manager for UBE Industries, Ltd. – Engineering Plastics (2016-17). In the teaching field, he was a part-time Associate Professor at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) (2016-17) in the department of Chemical Engineering and since 2017 he teaches with a "Venia Docendi" at UPV in the area of Materials Science and Food Packaging.
In early 2017, he returned to IATA–CSIC to the group of Novel Materials and Nanotechnology for Food Applications, where since 2018 he has been the recipient of a Juan de la Cierva – Incorporación Postdoctoral contract. He has performed scientific missions at the University of Minho – School of Engineering as a Visiting Researcher (summer of 2017) through a Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) of a European COST Action, at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) as a Scientific Associate (summer of 2018) under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, and at the Institute for Polymer Materials (POLYMAT) of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) as an Invited Researcher (summer of 2019). In 2018, he co-founded the spin-off Ocenic Resins S.L. from the Joint Unit IATA-CSIC/Universitat Jaume I (UJI) in “Polymers Technology”, which is dedicated to the development and manufacturing of property balanced compounded bioresins for food packaging applications and food-contact disposable articles. He is also a Professional Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) since 2012, being actively involved in several conferences and events related to bioplastics. Currently, he is leading research activities to develop novel processes and materials that aim to enhance packaged food quality, safety, and even health attributes according to the Circular Economy and Bioeconomy strategies. He also currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Applied Sciences in Section "Food Science and Technology" and Polymers in Section "Bio-Based and Biodegradable Polymers" whereas he guests several special issues in the fields of biopolymers and sustainable food packaging.
Dr. Manoj K. Patel received his B.Tech degree from NIT Jamshedpur and completed his PhD from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi. Currently, he is working as a senior principal scientist at CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh and an honorary professor at AcSIR. His research interests include food safety and nutrition, 3D Food printing, green energy, electrostatic liquid atomization, airborne charged particulate technology, surface decontamination, precision agriculture, UAVs and aerial electrostatic spraying, and social innovations. Dr. Patel has transferred eight (08) technology know-how to various industries for commercial production and created three (03) startups. Dr. Patel has received several awards; the most prominent are: the Young Achiever Alumnus Award 2024, the BRICS Young Scientist Award 2022, the CSIR Young Scientist Award 2020, the IETE-Hari Ramji Toshniwal Award 2020, the IEI Young Engineers Award 2019, the NRDC National Societal Innovation Award 2017, the Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award 2016 etc. He is a recipient of the CSIR Raman Research Fellowship from CSIR (2024-2025), the Post Graduate Research Program for Engineers (PGRPE) Fellowship from CSIR (2010-2012), and the TATA Cummins Meritorious Scholarship from TATA CUMMINS (2009-2010). Dr. Patel is a Fellow of the Indian Social Science Academy (ISSA) and the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). Currently, he is serving as a secretary of the Electrostatics Society of America (ESA), USA, and an external member of the Board of Studies (BoS) of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jamshedpur.