André Anders has a joint appointment as the Director and CEO of the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering, Leipzig, Germany, and Professor of Applied Physics at the Felix Bloch Institute of Solid State Physics, Leipzig University. He assumed these positions in September of 2017 after working as Staff Scientist and later Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA, USA, since 1992. He studies physics in Wroclaw, Poland, Berlin, (East) Germany, and Moscow (Russia, then Soviet Union), to obtain his PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) from Humboldt University in Berlin. Dr. Anders has worked for over 30 years in basic and applied plasma physics and material science. Before assuming his current positions in Leipzig, he became experienced in managing projects as group leader and principal investigator in Berkeley, developing disruptive plasma and materials technologies, advising students, and teaching courses. He is engaged in the scientific and technical communities as officer of several conference committees and advisory boards. He is the author of three books and over 300 peer-reviewed journal papers in physics and material science (h-index 63, close to 15,000 citations, Google Scholar 2018). Decision maker as Associated Editor and since 2014 Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Applied Physics for the American Institute of Physics Publishing, Melville, NY. Internationally recognized by awards and election to Fellow of several professional societies.

Koji Sugioka received his B. S., Ms. Eng., and Dr. Eng. Degrees in electronics from Waseda University (Japan) in 1984, 1986, 1993, respectively. He Joined RIKEN in 1986 and is currently a Unit Leader of RIKEN-SIOM Joint Research Unit at RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics. He is also a guest professor at Tokyo University of Science since 2006 and Tokyo Denki University since 2004. Dr. Sugioka has achieved numerous significant research and development results, and is worldwide recognized as one of the most distinguished and influential scientists in the area of laser micro and nano processing. He has made important contribution to both fundamental researches on laser-matter interactions and diverse applications including practical use in the said area. He is internationally renowned for his works on laser doping, laser etching, laser surface modification, laser-induced selective metallization, microfabrication of transparent materials, VUV laser processing, laser surface nanostructuring, and 3D micro and nano fabrication. In particular, he is known as a leading scientist in the ultrafast laser processing technology. His current research interests include ultrafast laser processing for microfluidic, optofluidic, microelectronic and optoelectronic applications. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Laser Institute of America (LIA) and Japanese Laser Processing Society (JLPS), and an SPIE Fellow. He is an author and co-author of 14 invited papers in international journals with referee system and over 160 peer-reviewed journal articles. He also published 2 books and 8 chapters in English and 24 chapters in Japanese and edited 2 international books and 4 Japanese books. He holds 16 licensed patents in the field of optics and laser applications. He received 11 awards for his achievements in laser materials processing, and gave 8 plenary talks, 3 keynote talks, 9 tutorial lectures and more than 110 invited talks at the international conferences. He was also invited to give lectures at a large number of academic and industrial organizations. He served as a chair, co-chair, and committee member of numerous international conferences related to lasers and laser applications. In particular, he is known as one of founders of International Symposium on Laser Precision Microfabrication (LPM). He is also editor-in-chief of Journal of the Laser Micro/Nanoengineering (JLMN).

Dr. Arnold Gillner, studied Physics at the University of Darmstadt and made his PHD in Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen in 1994.
Since 1985 he works as a scientist at the Fraunhofer-Institut for Laser Technology. Starting in 1992 he developed the department for Micro Technology at the ILT and from 2010 he is heading the department of Ablation and Joining. Together with more than 55 scientists he is developing industrial laser processes for macro and micro joining, packaging, micro and nano structuring, polymer applications and Life Science applications. He is heading the board of the Aachen Competence Center for Medical Technology and head of the advisory board of LifeTec Aachen Jülich. He has published more than 150 papers and book chapters in scientific journals and other scientific contributions and holds more than 20 patents on laser processes.

Prof. Ulrich Schmid started studies in physics and mathematics at the University of Kassel in 1992. In 1995, he spent 6 months at the Transport Group in the Physics Department, University of Nottingham, UK, to gain experience in wide band gap semiconductor physics. He performed his diploma work at the research laboratories of the Daimler-Benz AG (now Daimler AG) on the electrical characterization of silicon carbide (6H-SiC) microelectronic devices  for  high  temperature  applications. He finished his studies in 1998 at the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany.  In 1999, he joined the research laboratories of DaimlerChrysler AG (now Airbus Group) in Ottobrunn/Munich, Germany. He developed a robust MEMS flow sensor for high-pressure automotive applications and received his Ph.D. degree in 2003 from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. From 2003 to 2008, he was post-doc at the Chair of Micromechanics, Microfluidics/ Microactuators at Saarland University. Since October 2008, he is  full  professor  for  Microsystems  Technology  at  the  Vienna  University  of  Technology  serving  since 2012 as director at the Institute of Sensor and Actuator Systems. U. Schmid holds more than 35 different patent families and has authored or co-authored more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences.

Holger Kersten is a Professor at the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics at University of Kiel, Germany since 2006. Prior Professor Kersten was the head of the plasma processes group at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald) in Greifswald, Germany. The focus of his research includes basic studies on the interaction of plasmas with surfaces, complex plasmas and their applications in plasma technology. In 1999, he received the Greifswald Plasma Physics Prize in recognition of his research. Professor Kersten was furthermore the president of the German Society for Plasma Technology from 2009 to 2013. He is currently an Editor-in-Chief of the European Physical Journal Techniques and Instrumentation (EPJTI) and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Kiel University.

Talk Title: Plasma cleaning and treatment of art objects

Li, Hua, Ph.D. Professor. Enrolled in the 100 Talents Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Li pursued his undergraduate and M.Eng. study in Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and obtained his B.Eng. and M.Eng. in 1994 and 1997, respectively. Following Dr. Li’s M.Eng. study, he joined Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, from where he earned his PhD degree in 2002. Prior to moving to Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York in 2006, Dr. Li was a research fellow (2002-2005) and Singapore Millennium Foundation (SMF) research fellow (2005-2006) in Nanyang Technological University. During his postdoctoral training in the Biology Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory (2006-2010), Dr. Li was devoted to conducting multiple research projects pertaining to three-dimensional structure reconstruction of cellular molecular assemblies using single particle cryo- electron microscopy. In late April of 2010, Dr. Li returned back to China as a full professor in Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of CAS. Dr. Li has 36 scientific papers published in refereed international journals like PNAS, EMBO Journal, Biomaterials, Acta Materialia, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research–A, Structure, Journal of Molecular Biology, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Surface and Coatings Technology and Journal of Thermal Spray Technology. He was invited to give talks in over 10 international conferences. Dr. Li’s research group has close collaboration with overseas/domestic research laboratories from Nanyang Technological University, National Research Council of Canada, Xi’an Jiaotong University and Northwestern Polytechnical University. Dr. Li’s research interest is surface coatings technology and biomedical imaging. In particular, Dr. Li’s research group works on fundamental and applied research of thermal spray and nanobiotechnology with an emphasis on biomedical imaging, biomaterials, and biomaterial-cell interactions.

Hana Barankova is professor in Science of Electricity at the Department of Engineering Sciences (Angstrom Laboratory), Uppsala University. She studied Solid State Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague and obtained her PhD degree in Electronics and Vacuum Technology from the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. She is a research leader of the Plasma Group and leader and/or principal investigator of several national and international programs. She participates in both research and cooperation projects with industry in- and outside Sweden. She has published over 130 publications, chapters in 7 books, and holds several patents on plasma systems. Her main research area is design, development and applications of different plasma sources and processes. She is a recipient of Mentor Award by the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) for “development of numerous novel plasma sources”.  She is currently Secretary of the SVC, member of several program committees at major international conferences, and member of the International Editorial Board of Surface and Coatings Technology (Elsevier).

Agnès Granier is a CNRS researcher and is currently Deputy Director of the Institute of Material Jean Rouxel in Nantes, France. She has been working for more than 30 years in the field of plasma processes for surface treatment and plasma surface interactions. She obtained her Ph D in Plasma Physics from the University Paris-Sud in Orsay, France. She got a first research experience in the field of microwave plasmas created by surface wave in the Laboratory of Physics of Gases and Plasmas in Orsay and was then recipient of a young researcher award from CNRS. In 1993, she moved to IMN in Nantes to develop research in the field of plasma surface interactions and thin film deposition by PECVD. She led the Plasma and Thin Films group from 2006 to 2012 and then served as Deputy Director of the Institute. She is currently a board member of the French Vacuum Society (SFV), member of a committee of the French research agency, member of scientific committees of different international Conferences and associate Editor of the Plasma Section of Frontiers in Physics. 

Prof. Jyh-Wei Lee is currently the Distinguished Professor of Department of Materials Engineering at Ming Chi University of Technology (MCUT), Taiwan and Joint Appointment Professor, College of Engineering at Chang Gung University, Taiwan.  He is also the Group Leader of the Center for Plasma and Thin Film Technologies, MCUT since 2010. Prof. Lee is the Member of the Editorial Board of Surface & Coatings Technology. He also serves as International Program Committee Member of several International Conferences, such as AEPSE2017, ISSP2019, AEPSE2019 and etc. He is also the President of Taiwan Association for Coating and Thin Film Technology (TACT). Prof. Lee was the Dean, College of Engineering, Tungnan University (TNU) during 2007~2010, and Director, Research Center for Micro/Nanotechnologies, TNU during 2005~2010.

His research focuses on the development of plasma based thin film technologies to enhance the property and performance of coatings used for cutting tools, molding dies, surgical instruments, antibacterial and pollution treatments. He also investigates the nanocomposite and nanolaminated nitride, carbonitride and boronitride hard coatings for tribological applications, corrosion and oxidation protection in related industries. Recently, he works on the research and development of high entropy alloy thin films and thin film metallic glass materials, which can be applied in the high temperature and biomedical fields, respectively. He is skilled in the high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), pulsed dc magnetron sputtering, cathodic arc evaporation deposition and plasma electrolytic oxidation techniques, plasma diagnosis, nanoindentation, AFM and related nanomechanical testing methods. In addition, he has done some research work on chromizing and aluminizing processes for the Fe, Ni and Co based alloys to prolong their surface life at high temperature in the past ten years. Prof. Lee is an author of more than 140 publications and over 50 invited lectures in the field of PVD and related surface engineering technologies.

Deputy Director and the head of the Department of Electrochemical Materials Sciences of the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (Vilnius), Professor (part-time) of the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences at Vilnius University. Ph.D. since 1980 and habilitated Doctor of science since 1999. Professional history: 1987-1989 the member of the International Metal Corrosion Testing laboratory, Havana, Cuba, 1994-1998 research associate at the Research and Advanced Study Center in Merida, Mexico. Research interests embrace metal passivity and corrosion, electroless and electroplating of metals and alloys, electrocatalysis, electrochemical materials sciences. Co-authors of more than 100 scientific papers.

Full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (since 2014), Member of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), Regional representative of Lithuania in (ISE) and member of ISE council (2009-2014), Fellow of The Institute of Materials Finishing (since 2012), Lithuanian lead delegate of the Board of Funders of the FET Flagships in European Commission (since 2015), Steakholder of the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry “SusChem” (since 2014), Member of the Editorial boards of the journals Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing (Maney Publishing) and Chemija (Lithuanian Academy of Sciences).

Prof Andreas Gerdes was born in 1962, studied Chemistry at the TU Clausthal from 1983-1990. He was the Head of the Laboratory for Construction Chemistry in the Institute for Building Materials of the ETH Zürich from 1990 to 2001. In November 2001, He started a position as Head of the Division “Chemistry of Mineral Surfaces” in the Institute for Functional Surfaces (IFG) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Since October 2002 also Professor for Construction Chemistry (W3) at the University of Applied Science Karlsruhe. Head of the Institute for Prevention in Construction at the University of Applied Science Karlsruhe since August 2009. Co-founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of IONYS AG (2008), a spin-off company of KIT and the University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe. Since 2016 Scientific Director of the KIT Innovation Hub “Prevention in Construction”, an Innovation Lab of the Helmholtz Association.

His Research Activities include: Prevention in Construction, Polymer-based and mineral-based Surface Protection Systems, Durability of cement-based materials and Computer-based development of construction chemicals.

Karin Stana Kleinschek, born in Maribor, Slovenia, obtained her undergraduate degree from the Technical Faculty of the University of Maribor. Her undergraduate thesis focused on “Textile Chemistry”. In 1992, she was awarded a master’s degree by the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Maribor. In 1996, she obtained a PhD degree from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Graz, Austria. Her special field of work was Surface characterisation and modification of polymeric materials with special attention on polysaccharides. Since 2004 she is the Head of the Institute of Engineering Materials and Design, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor and Head of the Laboratory for Processing and Testing of Polymeric Materials, which is a part of the institute. Since 2007, she works as Full Professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Maribor, where she teaches various courses on Polymer chemistry and Materials, Surface characterisation of Polymeric Martials and Textile chemistry and Finishing. Karin Stana Kleinschek is a member of various scientific organizations and participates in numerous national as well as international projects. In addition, she acts as thesis adviser and member of organizing committees. Her bibliography consists of more than 800 units.

Tiberiu MINEA is the Director since 2015 of the first plasma physics laboratory in France - Laboratory of Physics of Gases and Plasma (LPGP) - founded in 1965 at University Paris-Sud. He got full Professor position since 2008 in the same University, the Docent degree in 2006 and the Ph.D. in 1998. He is the head of the group Theory and Modeling of Plasmas-Discharge and Surfaces at LPGP since 2006. Prior, he was full time CNRS senior scientist with the Jean Rouxel Material Institute in Nantes, France. He coordinated over thirty research projects and has been involved in many others. His research is deeply related to plasma physics and plasma processing, particularly coating and novel plasma devices for technological applications. In 2016 he was awarded by the Romanian Academy of Science. He was the president of the Plasma division of the French Physical Society (2010-2013), the President of the French Federation of the Scientific Societies (F2S) formed by the Physical, Optical, Electrical and Vacuum Societies (2014-2017). At present, he is the Vice-President of the F2S and the President of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the French Vacuum Society (FVS) since 2013 where he acts as member of the board since 2008.

Dr. Li Hua received his B.Sc and M.Eng degrees in Engineering Mechanics from Wuhan University of Technology, P.R.C., in 1982 and 1987, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Li was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At the end of 2005, he was a Visiting Scientist on invitation at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Johns Hopkins University. From 2001 to 2006, he was a Research Scientist in the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing. Dr Li joined NTU as an Assistant Professor in June 2006 and he was promoted to Associate Professor in March 2013. He is currently in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at NTU. His research interests include the multiphysics modelling of soft matters (smart hydrogel in BioMEMS and biological cell in microscale fields); development of highly efficient numerical computational methodology (meshless & multiscale algorithms); simulation of sustainable energy (building energy efficiency and fuel cell system); and structural dynamics (high-speed rotating shell and composite materials structure). He has sole-authored a monograph book entitled “Smart Hydrogel Modelling” published by Springer, co-authored two monograph books entitled “Meshless Methods and Their Numerical Properties” by CRC Press and “Rotating Shell Dynamics” by Elsevier, and 2 book chapters, one on MEMS simulation and the other on hydrogel drug delivery system modelling, and authored/co-authored over a hundred articles published in peer-reviewed international journals. He received the Silver Award in HPC Quest 2003 - The Blue Challenge presented by IBM & IHPC in 2003. He is also extensively funded by agencies, including the principal investigator of a computational BioMEMS project awarded under A*STAR’s strategic research programme in MEMS, and by industries, including SUN Microsystems (Oracle), Sony, Philips, DSO and JTC.

Xiao-Tao Hao is now working as a professor at School of Physics in Shandong University, China. He received his bachelor degree in physics in 1997 and PhD degree in condensed matter physics in 2002 at Shandong University. He was a research associate at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Singapore from 2002 to 2005. He then moved as a JSPS fellow to Chiba University, Japan. He joined School of Chemistry at The University of Melbourne in 2007 and returned to Shandong University in 2012. His research interest include organic semiconductor physics and device physics, time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy/microscopy, and organic solar cells. He has received a number of awards, including JSPS Research Fellowship (2005), CSJ Distinguished Lectureship Award (2011), and the “National Young 1000 Talents ” (2011), etc. He serves as the Regional Vice President of the Thin Films Society. He also serves as the editorial member of Scientific Reports, 3D Research and Chinese Chemical Letters.

Jung-Sik Yoon, Ph.D. has been Deputy Director position at Plasma Technology Research Center in National Fusion Research Institute for 4 years (or since 2014) with responsible for plasma application technology R&D project and responsibility of Atomic and Molecular data research for low temperature plasma.

Prior to joining National Fusion Research Institute, YOON was Guest Scientist for Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. During his 4 years at Max-Planck Institute, Yoon spent time doing responsibility Bayesian data analysis for optical diagnostic systems.

YOON received a Ph.D. degree in Atomic and Molecular Physics field from Hanyang University, Ansan, Kyungi-Do, Rep. of Korea, and a Post. Doc. in Atomic collisions in plasma from the Max-Planck Institute for Complex System, Dresden, Germany. YOON also a passionate fan of Hanwha Eagles, a professional baseball team in Korea.

Byeong-Soo Bae is a founder and CEO of Solip Tech that is a KAIST spin-off company to commercialize his own developed hybrimer (sol-gel siloxane materials) technology for display and optoelectronic applications.  Also, he is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Director of Wearable Platform Materials Technology Center in KAIST, Korea.  He has worked on sol-gel based oxide, hybrid and composite materials for displays and optoelectronic applications such as waveguides, micro-optics, PDP, LCD, OLED and LED etc.

He received Ph.D from University of Arizona, M.Eng. from Drexel University in USA and B.Eng. from Seoul National University in Korea all in Materials Science and Engineering.  He is a member of both the Korea Academy of Science and Technology, and the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. He won many awards including Korea Technology Grand Award and Woongbi Order of Science and Technology Merit.

Alessandro Pezzella: Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1997 at the University of Naples “Federico II”. He has carried out research mainly in the field of 5,6-dihydroxyindole polymerization, melanin pigment characterization, and oxidative behaviour of phenolic compounds associated with molecular mechanisms underlying degenerative pathologies. molecular mechanisms underlying degenerative pathologies. In recent years his research activity also focused on the exploitation of bioinspired polymers and heterocyclic compounds in organic electronics and bioelectronics.

Main research results are represented by the disclosure of endogenous neurotoxin formation paths of relevance to biological environments, the definition of open issues in melanin research (solubility; structure; morphology), the design and developing of ad hoc protocols for the fabrication eumelanin based electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Since 2008, he coordinates in Naples one of the world lading groups addressing the exploitation of the natural pigment eumelanin in organic electronics. Research activities in this field are disclosing major potentialities of eumelanin as biocompatible active interface between electronic devices and cell cultures. A pioneer study on this topic lead to development and fabrication of eumelanin substrates (eumelanin thin films: ETFs) for stem cell growth and differentiation. This technology also opened to 3D modelling of eumelanin substrates and to the fabrication of microtubular architectures. Parallel studies are addressing the improvement e and modulation of electrical properties of the ETFs.

He was visiting scientist at the Daresbury Synchrotron Laboratory of CCRC (Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, UK); the Lund Laser Centre (LLC) Lund Se; École Polytechnique de Montréal, CAN; The University of California, Santa Cruz, US.

Author or co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed (h-Index: 31 (Scopus), Citations total: over 2900) publications in the fields of organic and bioorganic chemistry, organic electronics and bioelectronics, material science; two patents; a book chapter for the book: Organic Electronics - Emerging Concepts and Technologies (Publisher: Wiley-VCH); two chapters for the Comprehensive Heterocyclic Chemistry -III book series (Alan Katritzky, Ed.).

Dr. Zaoli Zhang holds a senior scientist and group leader position at the Erich Schmid institute of Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences. He studied materials physics, and received his PhD at the University of Science and Technology Beijing in 1997, completed his habilitation at the University of Leoben, Austria, in 2013. In 2000 – 2008, he worked at the Max-Planck institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, and then he held a staff scientist position at the Fritz-Haber Institute and at the University of Ulm. His research fields cover electron microscopy and spectroscopy analysis of various structured and functional materials. Of special interests are interface-triggered phenomena in heterointerface structures, and deformation-induced phenomena in nanostructured materials, as well as structural evolution process with in-situ TEM/HRTEM and spherical aberration-corrected microcopy techniques. He is heading a TEM research group at the institute, and supervises PhD students and postdocs, and makes a great effort to correlate the structure with property of materials at the atomic scale. He has published around 110 peer-reviewed articles.