Professor Marcela Bilek holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, a BSc from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. Prior to her present appointment as Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Sydney (since 2000), she worked as a visiting Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, USA, held a visiting Professorship at the Technische Universitat Hamburg-Harburg in Germany and a Research Fellowship at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, UK.

Professor Bilek heads the Applied and Plasma Physics Research Group. Research projects in these areas are a stimulating mix of fundamental physics and practical applications, in areas which include materials physics, plasma deposition and processing, thin film materials, vacuum glazing, renewable and sustainable energy and cross-disciplinary research in the areas of biointerfaces and medicine.

Marcela has received a number of honours for her work including the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year in 2002, an ARC Federation Fellowship and an MIT TR100 Young Innovator award in 2003, the Australian Academy of Science Pawsey Medal in 2004 an Australian Innovation Challenge Award in 2011 and an ARC Future Fellowship in 2012. In 2013 she was elected to the Fellowship of the American Physical Society (APS) "for outstanding contributions to the physics of plasma processing, resulting in plasma sources, processes and materials with applications to industries ranging from information technology to biomedicine". In 2015 she was elected to the Fellowship of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) "for contributions to the science and application of plasma processes for materials modification and synthesis".

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

André Anders is Founder/CEO of Plasma Engineering LLC. He was the Director of the Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM) in Leipzig, Germany, and Professor of Applied Physics at Leipzig University (2017-2025). 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.