Naoufal Bahlawane is a Lead Research and Technology Associate at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology. He graduated in Physicochemical Analysis and received a PhD in Materials Engineering from Claude Bernard University, Lyon, France. He was awarded the JISTEC and AvH fellowships to perform research at Kyushu National Industrial Research Institute in Japan and at Bielefeld University, Germany. As a research group leader at Bielefeld University, where he obtained a habilitation and Venia Legendi in Physical Chemistry, Naoufal Bahlawane has investigated aspects related to the chemistry of deposition and the interplay between the materials’ structure-properties and surface reactivity. His current research activities rely on surface chemistry for the design of functional and smart coatings with tunable physicochemical properties to address specific needs as those associated with optics, thermal management and energy storage.