Yoshihiro Iwasa is a world-renowned Japanese physicist and materials scientist, currently serving as Professor at the University of Tokyo and Deputy Director of the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS). He is internationally recognized as a pioneer of iontronics, a field he helped establish that exploits ionic control to manipulate the electronic, magnetic, and quantum states of materials.
At the University of Tokyo, Prof. Iwasa is a Professor in the Department of Applied Physics and a core member of the Quantum-Phase Electronics Center. At RIKEN CEMS, he leads the Emergent Device Research Group, where his work bridges condensed-matter physics, materials science, and next-generation electronic devices. His scientific impact has been consistently recognized by Clarivate as a Highly Cited Researcher, including in 2025.
Luisa Torsi is an internationally acclaimed chemist and a pioneer in organic bioelectronics and single-molecule sensing. She is Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bari Aldo Moro and a Fellow of the National Academy of the Lincei. Prof. Torsi currently serves as Vice President of the Scientific Council of the Italian National Research Council and President of the Regional Agency for Technology, Technology Transfer, and Innovation (ARTI).
She has received numerous prestigious honors, including the Wilhelm Exner Medal, the IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry Award, and the President of the Republic Prize. Author of approximately 290 scientific papers and co-inventor of 14 patents, she is globally recognized for translating single molecule bioelectronic technologies into real-world diagnostic applications.
Prof. Andrey Rogach is the Yeung Kin Man Chair Professor in Photonics Materials at the City University of Hong Kong, where he also serves as the Founding Director of the Centre for Functional Photonics (CFP). He is a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea (MAE) and holds a habilitation degree from Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich.
Prof. Rogach’s research focuses on colloidal chemistry approaches to synthesize semiconductor and metal nanocrystals with precisely controlled sizes, shapes, and compositions. By tuning their optical properties across the visible and near-infrared spectrum, his group explores applications in light-emitting devices, photodetectors, and hybrid nanostructures. Using advanced optical spectroscopy, they investigate energy transfer and charge separation processes at the nanoscale.
Xinliang Feng is a world-leading materials scientist renowned for pioneering research in synthetic molecular materials, graphene, and two-dimensional (2D) systems. He is Director of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (Department of Synthetic Materials and Functional Devices) and Chair for Molecular Functional Materials at Technische Universität Dresden, where he is also a core member of the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed).
An elected member of acatech, Academia Europaea (MAE), EurASc, and ML, Prof. Feng has authored 800+ high-impact publications, is among the most highly cited researchers worldwide, and is a recipient of the prestigious DFG Leibniz Prize.
Prof. Hernán Míguez is a Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the founding leader of the Multifunctional Optical Materials Group, which he established in 2004 after joining the Institute of Materials Science of Seville as a tenured scientist. Since then, his work has gained wide recognition at both the scientific and technological levels.
His research excellence has been acknowledged with major distinctions, including an ERC Consolidator Grant and the RSEF–BBVA Prize in Physics and Innovation. Prof. Míguez is a frequent keynote and invited speaker at leading international conferences, universities, and research institutions. He also serves on the editorial board of Advanced Optical Materials and contributes to the scientific advisory boards and councils of prominent research centers such as ICIQ and INL.
Silvia Vignolini is an internationally recognized physicist and materials scientist renowned for her pioneering work on sustainable and bio-inspired materials with optical functionality. She is Director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam,
leading the Department of Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials. Her interdisciplinary research spans chemistry, soft matter physics, optics, and biology. Prof. Vignolini has authored over 130 publications and received numerous prestigious awards, including the Philip Leverhulme Prize, Steven Vogel Award (Institute of Physics), RSC Gibson–Fawcett Award, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award, KINGFA Young
Investigator Award, and the Premio Daniela Pucci Award, highlighting her international leadership in bio-inspired and sustainable materials research.
