Invited speakers

Plenary Lecturers

Professor Akihisa Inoue

Prof. Inoue is the President of Tohoku University, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Institute for Materials Research (IMR) at Tohoku University in 1975. From 1982 to 1984 he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a visiting scientist. In 2000 he was elected as the Director of IMR, the youngest Director in over 40 years. From 2002 to 2006 he also served as Deputy President of the University. In November 2006 he became the 20th President of Tohoku University. Throughout his career, his main research interests have been the mechanical and physical properties of functional materials. For the last 10 years or so, he has worked on the fundamentals and applications of bulk metallic glasses, nanocrystalline materials and quasicrystals. Prof. Inoue has won numerous awards, including Japan Academy Prize (2002) and membership in the US National Academy of Engineering.
According to the ISI Web of Knowledge, he is ranked 1st in the world in Materials Science by Essential Science Indicators, and also as a Highly Cited Researcher under the categories of Materials Science & Physics.

Professor Subra Suresh

Prof. Suresh is the Dean of Engineering and Ford Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he holds joint faculty appointments in Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biological Engineering, and Health Sciences and Technology. He has authored about 220 journal articles, three widely followed books, and 15 patents, and has co-edited a number of research volumes. Prof. Suresh has been elected to the US National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Sciences, Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the Developing World based in Trieste, Italy, and German National Academy of Sciences. He has been elected a Fellow or Honorary Member of all of the major materials professional societies in the USA and India. A recipient of the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal, the 2007 European Materials Medal (the first non-European selected to receive this prize given jointly by 26 European materials societies), and the 2008 Eringen Medal of the Society of Engineering Science, and a Senior Humboldt Research Prize, he holds an honorary doctorate from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology. In 2006, MIT’s Technology Review magazine selected him as one of the top 10 researchers whose work will have “significant impact on business, medicine or culture”. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge, he is ranked 38th in the world in Materials Science by Essential Science Indicators, and also as a Highly Cited Researcher under the category of Materials Science.

Professor Dr. Reiner Kirchheim

Prof. Kirchheim received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Stuttgart in 1973 and worked until 1993 as a senior research scientist at the Max-Plank-Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart. In 1993 he joined the faculty of Physics at the Georg-August-University Göttingen, where he became Full Professor in Materials Physics. Prof. Kirchheim is known for his research in the field of thermodynamics and kinetics of materials, with special emphasis on hydrogen in metals. He has published more than 250 papers. Prof. Kirchheim has won numerous awards, including elected member of the Göttingen Academy of Science as well as the German National Academy of Technical Sciences. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge, he is ranked as a Highly Cited Researcher under the category of Materials Science.

Professor Andrew Briggs

Prof. Briggs is Professor of Nanomaterials at Oxford University (UK), and currently holds an EPSRC Professorial Research Fellowship. He is Director of the Quantum Information Processing Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration, which involves twelve universities and four industrial laboratories in the UK. He is Professorial Fellow of St Anne’s College, Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and Liveryman of the Clothworkers’ Company. He has over 500 publications, the majority in internationally refereed journals. His current research with members of his laboratory has shown that electron and nuclear spins in endohedral fullerene molecules and other materials can be manipulated with exquisite precision, with relatively long memory times for quantum information. These materials can be assembled as components for solid-state quantum computing and related quantum technologies.

Professor Knut W. Urban

Prof. Urban is a professor for experimental physics at RWTH Aachen University, and Head of the Institute for Microstructure Research at Research Centre Juelich, Germany. In 2004 he founded the Ernst Ruska Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons as a national and international user centre. He was part of the team that developed in the 1990's aberration-corrected electron optics, and has pioneered, with his co-workers, the application of atomic-resolution electron microscopy to materials science.

Professor Buddy D. Ratner

Prof. Ratner is the Darland Chair in Technology Commercialization and Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering, University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. (1972) from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He served as President of the Society For Biomaterials and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). In 2002 he was elected to the National Academies, USA. Prof. Ratner has authored more than 400 scholarly works and has won numerous awards. In 2008 he was recognized as one of the "One Hundred Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era".

Professor Seeram Ramakrishna

He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Cambridge University, and was trained in General Management at Harvard University. He was born in India and grew up academically in Japan and Singapore. He is a Fellow of major professional engineering societies in Asia, Europe and USA. He is also a Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, and ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology. He holds Changjiang Professorship in China. He lectures widely on science & engineering of nanofibers, and also on the global trends of science, innovation, and universities. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge, he is ranked 71st in the world in Materials Science by Essential Science Indicators.

Keynote Lecturers

Professor Lia Addadi

Prof. Addadi is with the Department of Structural Biology, and Dean of the Feinberg Graduate School, at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Born in Padova, Italy, she obtained her M.Sc. degree in organic chemistry at the Università degli Studi di Padova and earned a Ph.D. in structural chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1979. After conducting postdoctoral studies at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at Harvard University, she joined the faculty of Weizmann’s Department of Structural Chemistry (now, the Department of Structural Biology) in 1982. She was appointed associate professor in 1988 and full professor in 1993. Prof. Addadi served as Head of the Department of Structural Biology from 1994 to 2001 and as Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry from 2001 to 2004. In 2008 she became Dean of the Feinberg Graduate School. Professor Addadi pursues a broad range of research interests that relate to crystals and biological interfaces. She studies mineralization in biological systems, with a particular interest in crystallizations that have either a physiological function or are related to disease in a wide variety of organisms, including humans. She has investigated biological processes such as molecular recognition, cell adhesion and the interactions of antibodies with structured surfaces. Her work may further improve the understanding of such disorders as osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, kidney stones and arthritis, as well as of amyloid-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Her research on biomineralization, undertaken in conjunction with departmental colleague Prof. Steve Weiner, may also lead to the development of new ways to produce composite materials for advanced technologies, as well as mechanical, optical or electronic devices. Professor Addadi is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including the Prelog Medal in Stereochemistry from the Federal Polytechnic Institute (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, and the Spiers Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Doron Aurbach

Prof. Aurbach is a full Professor at the Department of Chemistry and a senate member at Bar Ilan University (BIU), Ramat Gan, Israel, since 1996. He chaired the chemistry department at BIU during 2001-2005. He is Associate Editor of the journals Electrochemical and Solid State Letters and Journal of Solid-State Electrochemistry. He founded the electrochemistry group of BIU at the end of 1985. The group includes 30 researchers (one of the largest research groups in Israel) and works in the following fields: Li ion batteries (new cathodes, anodes, electrolyte solutions, electrodes-solution interactions, practical systems, electric vehicle applications), rechargeable magnesium batteries, electronically conducting polymers, super capacitors, engineering of new carbonaceous materials, sensors and water desalination. The group currently collaborates with several prominent research groups in Europe and the US, and with several commercial companies in Israel and abroad. Prof. Aurbach published so far about 330 journals papers (electrochemistry, physical chemistry, materials and surface science), a book ("Nonaqueous Electrochemistry" by Marcel Dekker NY, 1999 ), 12 book chapters, 12 patents and more than 250 extended abstracts related to international meetings. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

Professor Uri Banin

Prof. Banin is with the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU). He received his B.Sc. degree in Physics and Chemistry from HU in 1989, graduating with honors, and completed his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at HU in 1994, working on femtochemistry (with distinction). He then moved to the University of California at Berkeley to work for three years with Professor Paul Alivisatos as a postdoctoral fellow, studying the chemistry and physics of semiconductor nanocrystals. Dr. Banin joined the faculty at HU in 1997, became an Associate Professor in 2001 and full professor in 2005. Prof. Banin is the founding director of the Harvey M. Kreuger center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at HU (founded in 2001). He presently directs the five-year nanoscience initiative at the HU, in the framework of the Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative (INNI). He also serves on the University’s Executive Committee. He served as a member of the board of Yissum (technology transfer company of HU), served on the scientific advisory board of Nanosys, and served on the editorial board of the journal Nanotechnology. Banin was a member of the Maidan Committee on nanotechnology in Israel (2002). His distinctions include the Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship (1994-1995), and a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship (1994-1996). He was awarded the Alon fellowship for young faculty from the Israeli Board of Higher Education (1997-2000), received the Yoram Ben-Porat prize from The HU (2000), was awarded the Israel Chemical Society prize for a young scientist (2001), and is a recipient of the Michael Bruno Memorial Award (2007-2010). Prof. Banin's research focuses on nanoscience and nanotechnology of nanocrystals. He has authored over 110 scientific publications in this field that have been extensively cited (over 5000 citations), and impacted various areas of science and technology of nanocrystals.

Professor Hugh Alan Bruck

Prof. Bruck received his Ph.D. in Materials Science with a minor in Applied Mechanics from the California Institute of Technology in 1994. After serving as a research associate at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and a research assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland (UMD). He has compiled 49 journal publications, as well as 55 conference proceedings and 5 book chapters on materials processing and characterization involving Digital Image Correlation, interferometry, Scanning Probe Microscopy, Bulk Metallic Glasses, Functionally Graded Materials, energetic materials, smart materials, polymer nanocomposites, and combinatorial materials science. He has received many awards and honors, including ASME Fellow, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Scholar Award, A.J. Durelli Outstanding Innovative Young Researcher Award, etc. He is an Associate Editor of Experimental Mechanics.

Professor Tim Burstein

Prof. Burstein is a graduate of the University of Auckland in New Zealand where he received his PhD. Degree, and of the University of Cambridge. He has worked in the University of Auckland and at Imperial College, London, before moving to the University of Cambridge, where he is now Professor of Materials Chemistry and Corrosion. Professor Burstein’s interests are in the electrochemistry of interfacial processes, in fuel cells, and in the corrosion and passivation of metals and alloys: he has published extensively in these areas. His current target in fuel cell research is the development of non-noble, long-life electrocatalysts, an issue which draws of an understanding of passivity of base material, as well as of the elusive processes of electrocatalysis. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and an Honorary Life Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion. He has received awards from the Electrochemical Society, from the Institute of Corrosion, and from the University of Cambridge, the last of these for excellence in teaching, for which he is passionate. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Corrosion Science.

Professor Yuval Golan

Prof. Golan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He did his undergraduate studies at the School of Chemistry, Tel-Aviv University, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the Department of Materials and Interfaces, The Weizmann Institute of Science. He was a postdoc at UC Santa Barbara with Professors Jacob Israelachvili and Jim Speck, until joining the faculty of BGU in 1999. The aim of his research is to identify and understand the chemical and physical interactions and interfacial processes that govern the formation of thin films and two- and three-dimensional assemblies of nanoparticles. This includes direct solution deposition of semiconductor thin films on single-crystal substrates and on ultrathin organic film templates, as well as surfactant-controlled chemical synthesis of nanoparticles of different size, shape and composition and their assembly into ordered super-crystalline films. Prof. Golan is currently Chairman of Undergraduate Studies in his Department, and has authored 80 publications in peer-reviewed international journals.

Doctor Yael Hanein

Dr. Hanein received B.Sc. degree in Physics from Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. In 2003 she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Electrical Engineering Department and a Research Associate position at the Physics Department at the University of Washington, Seattle, and joined the faculty of Tel-Aviv University. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Electrical Engineering. Dr. Hanein’s research activity concerns with the development of electronic nano devices, in particular devices designed to interface with brain cells and to record their activity. These devices have far-reaching applications in the realm of understanding brain disorders, the effect of drugs on the brain, and the possibility to build implantable electronic brain chips.

Professor Wayne D. Kaplan

Prof. Kaplan is a professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. His main focus of research is on the correlation of interface atomistic structure and chemistry with interface dependent properties. Towards this goal, Kaplan’s group measures the solid-solid and solid-liquid interface energy between metals and non-metals, and conducts detailed microstructural studies of the same interfaces using advanced electron microscopy techniques. This includes aberration corrected and in-situ high temperature transmission electron microscopy of solid-liquid interfaces. Results are incorporated into the design of interfaces to control microstructural evolution, and the (lack of) stability of thin films. Prof. Kaplan is the Academic Coordinator of the Electron Microscopy Center at the Technion, the author of over 80 publications in reviewed and archived international journals, an Editor for the Journal of Materials Science, and the author (with David Brandon) of two textbooks.

Doctor Amit Kohn

Dr. Kohn is a RAEng Research Fellow at the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, where he is a member of the Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Group. His research focuses on understanding how the structure of magnetic and electronic materials determine the magneto-transport properties of information storage devices. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Professor Gil Markovich

Prof. Markovich heads a research group focusing on the chemistry and physics of colloidal nanocrystals at the School of Chemistry, Tel-Aviv University (TAU), since 1998. He received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Chemistry at TAU, and conducted his postdoctoral work in the department of Chemistry at UCLA, with Prof. Jim Heath. His major research interests include magnetic and magneto-transport properties of metal oxide nanocrystals, nano-ferroelectricity, solution deposition methods for producing metal nanowire films, and chiroptical properties of metal nanoparticles.

Professor Timothy K. Minton

Prof. Minton is with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana State University. He is also a Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Prof. Minton earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1986. Following two post-doctoral positions, at the University of Illinois and at The University of Zürich, Switzerland, he became a Member of Technical Staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA in 1989. In 1996, Prof. Minton moved to Montana State University, where he has built a program in molecular beam reaction dynamics. Specifically, crossed-beams and beam-surface scattering methods are used to study energy transfer and reaction dynamics at hyperthermal energies, with applications to materials and low Earth orbit chemistry. Prof. Minton is particularly well known for his research on reaction dynamics involving hyperthermal atomic-oxygen, which is produced with a unique laser-detonation beam source. In addition to fundamental studies of atomic-oxygen reaction dynamics, Prof. Minton actively participates in applied laboratory and space experiments to probe the durability of materials in space environments and to develop new and more durable materials for use on spacecraft.

Professor Tetsuya Osaka

Prof. Osaka is with the Department of Applied Chemistry, and Director of Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. He is current President of the Magnetics Society of Japan, after serving as President of the Electrochemical Society of Japan. His recent work is focused on a newly “electrochemical nanotechnology”, including electro- and electroless-deposition, electronic packaging materials, magnetic storage and energy storage devices, and chemical- and bio-sensors. He has contributed as an author and/or editor of more than 65 books and published more than 700 original and review papers in these fields. His technical contributions have been recognized by many awards, including Prizes for Science and Technology in Development Category of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Pergamon's Electrochimica Acta Gold Medal of ISE, Research Award of the Electrodeposition Division of the Electrochemical Society, etc. He is a Fellow of IEE, ECS, IUPAC and ISE. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge, he is ranked as a Highly Cited Researcher under the category of Materials Science.

Prof. Enzo Palmieri

Prof. Palmieri is the Head of the Superconductivity and Surface Treatment Laboratory at Legnaro National Laboratories of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy). He is also Director of the Master on Surface Treatments for Industrial Applications at the University of Padua. Trained at CERN, magna cum laude in Physics at Naples University, since 25 years he has been working in the field of Superconducting Cavity Technology, giving surprisingly new contributions to research in the field, by attacking the problem of cost reduction, as for instance: the invention of an original technique for fabricating seamless cavities; the realization of Niobium sputtered quarter wave resonators; the proposal of hydrofluoric-free solutions for electropolishing Niobium; the application of atmospheric plasmas to the curing of superconducting resonators, and several others issues on the study of A15 materials for cavity fabrication. He has contributed over 250 scientific publications and 3 patents, supervised more than 60 Ph.D. and M.Sc. theses. He is listed as an expert by the Italian Ministry of Research. During the last 10 years, he has been driving a research group that is also particularly active in technology transfer of the high-tech know-how developed in the field of superconducting cavities to industrial entities in the field of thin films and surface treatments.

Professor Thilo Rehren

Prof. Rehren received his Ph.D. in Vulcanology and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Materials at Oxford University. He then joined the newly-founded Institute fuer Archaeometallurgy in the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum in Bochum as a research scientist. There he worked on a variety of materials and projects, focusing on crucible technology, brass making and silver refining, and expanding into the study of ancient glass, especially in Late Bronze Age Egypt. In 1999 he was appointed to the new Chair for Archaeological Materials and Technologies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology in London. His interests continue to cover technical ceramics, metal production, and glass making. More recently, he was appointed executive director of the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology, a joint venture between UCL and Peking University. He is also the Editor of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Professor Gil Rosenman

Professor Rosenman is Professor of Electrical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University. His major scientific contribution is related to physics of ferroelectrics where he found a new type of electron emission and developed new physics and technology of ferroelectric domain engineering for nonlinear optics. Another development of his is electron-induced surface modification, an invention which can be explored in many technologies and bio-medical applications. Recently, he started new research in the field of bio-inspired nanostructural materials, where newly found physical phenomena such quantum confinement, piezoelectric effect, etc. promise new exciting applications in nanotechnology.

Professor T.E. (Ed) Schlesinger

Prof. Schlesinger is the Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). He is also the Director of the DARPA MISCIC Center at CMU. Previously, he was the Director of the Data Storage Systems Center and was the founding Co-Director of the General Motors Collaborative Research Laboratory at CMU. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1985. His research interests are in the areas of solid-state electronic and optical devices, nanotechnology, and information storage systems. He has received numerous awards and honors, including Fellow of the SPIE, the Carnegie Institute of Technology George Tallman Ladd Award for research, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and R&D 100 Awards for his work on nuclear detectors and electro-optic device technology, the Carnegie Science Center "Scientist" award and the Benjamin Richard Teare Award for Teaching from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He has published over 250 archival journal publications and invited and contributed conference presentations and holds 10 patents.

Professor Bruno Scrosati

Prof. Scrosati is Full Professor of Electrochemistry at the University of Rome. In 1996 he received the title of Doctor in Science "honoris causa" from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and in 2008 the honorary doctor degree from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. In 1997 he received the Research Award from the Battery Division of the Electrochemical Society. In 2004 he won the XVI Edition of the Italgas Prize, Science and Environment. He was Vice-President and President of the International Society of Solid State Ionics (1988-1991), President of the Italian Chemical Society (1996-1998), and President of the Electrochemical Society (2003-2004). He is an IUPAC Fellow and a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and of the International Society of Electrochemistry. He is European Editor of the Journal of Power Sources, and a member of the Editorial Boards of seven international journals, including Solid State Ionics and Journal of Applied Electrochemistry. He has authored more than 400 scientific publications, 30 books and chapters in books, and 19 patents.

Professor David N. Seidman

Prof. Seidman received his Ph.D. degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his B.S. and M.S. degrees from New York University. He is currently a Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; prior to that he was a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Seidman is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, ASM International, and TMS. He is a recipient of a Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal (TMS), an Albert Sauveur Achievement Award (ASM International), an Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung Prize, a Max Planck Research Prize of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung awarded jointly with the late Prof. Dr. Peter Haasen, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow (1972-73 and 1980-81), chair of a Physical Metallurgy Gordon Conference (1982), and the MRS’s David Turnbull Lecturer Award (2008). A MITRE evaluative study of Materials Research Laboratory Programs (MTR 7764) rated his research program for the years 1968-1977 among the top twenty most highly rated major achievements sponsored by the National Science Foundation in the area of materials science. He was a visiting professor at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Tel-Aviv University, Hebrew University, Centre d'Etude Nucléaires de Grenoble, Centre National d'Etudes des Telecommunication, Meylan, Institut für Metallphysik der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires de Saclay. He was Editor-in-Chief, Special Editions Editor, and a member of the Editorial Board of Interface Science, and is a member of the Editorial Board of MRS Bulletin, and a past President of International Field-Emission Society (2000-2002). He is the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography. In February 2009 he was honored at a special symposium of the TMS meeting in San Francisco. He has been chosen for the prestigious TMS Institute of Metals Lecture and the Robert Franklin Mehl Award for 2011, to be awarded at the 140th TMS meeting in San Diego, California.

Professor Dan Shechtman

Dan Shechtman is a Technion Distinguished Professor and a Professor at Iowa State University. A materials engineer by education, he received his degrees at the Technion and joined the Technion faculty in 1975. His research focuses on structural phenomena and properties of various materials, and over the years he studied a variety of materials, including titanium aluminides, multilayered structures, CVD diamond, magnesium alloys, and rapidly solidified metallic alloys. It is rapid solidification that enabled his 1982 discovery of quasi-periodic materials (Quasicrystals) by transmission electron microscopy. In 1984 he and his colleagues brought the new atomic order to the forefront of Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry and Crystallography. His current studies are focused on development of magnesium alloys for a variety of applications and the study of deformation mechanisms in ductile intermetallic compounds. Prof. Shechtman is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, where he served as the head of the Science Division. He is also a member of the US Academy of Engineering and the European Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is a recipient of many international prizes, including the 1998 Israel Prize in Physics, the 1999 Wolf Prize in Physics, the 2000 Aminoff Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the 2002 EMET Prize in Physics, and the 2008 EMRS Award.

Professor Reshef Tenne

Prof. Tenne received his Ph.D. degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He then spent three years at the Battelle Institute (Geneva, Switzerland). In 1979, he joined the staff of the Weizmann Institute and was promoted to Full Professor in 1995. Prof. Tenne’s research interests focus on the synthesis, characterization and applications of novel inorganic nanomaterials known as Inorganic Fullerene-like structures and inorganic nanotubes. These nanostructures were discovered in his laboratory in 1992 and form a new and ever expanding class of materials. He is the co-founder of the company "NanoMaterials". Successful commercialization of products based on his technology, under the brand-name “NanoLub”, have started in
2008 with sales increasing dramatically in the last few months. Prof. Tenne published some 250 original papers and about 40 invited chapters in books and review articles. He delivered some 170 invited talks in international and national conferences and meetings. He serves in numerous national and international capacities. He was the Head of the Department of Materials and Interfaces of the Weizmann Institute, and the Director of the Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Minerva Center for Supramolecular Architecture, the Director of the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Nanoscale Science, and holds the Drake Family Chair of Nanotechnolgy. He seats in the boards of numerous international journals and serves as referee to Nature, Science and numerous other journals. He became Fellow of the World Technology Network in 2003 and was awarded the Kolthoff Prize of Chemistry of the Technion (2005); the Materials Research Society (MRS) Medal (2005); the Rafael Prize of the Israel Vacuum Society (2005); the Landau Prize for nanotechnology by the Israeli Lottery (2006). He was also elected as MRS class of inaugural Fellows (2008) and the Israel Chemical Society Excellence Award (2008).

Professor Dr. Stan Veprek

Prof. Veprek began his work on the deposition of thin films by means of plasma CVD 43 years ago at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Science. His first major result was the deposition of nanocrystalline silicon by means of chemical transport in plasma. In 1972 he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Zurich. He became involved in the research of the plasma-wall interactions in devices for controlled nuclear fusion and developed the in-situ "boronization" by means of plasma CVD, which strongly reduced the plasma impurities and found application in several large fusion devices around the world. Together with the Swiss National Museum, he developed a new plasma-chemical method for the restoration and conservation of archeological metallic artifacts. In 1988 he was appointed Full Professor and Director of the Institute for Chemistry of Inorganic Materials at the Technical University of Munich. Here, the design principle for superhard nanocomposites with hardness exceeding 100 GPa was born. His latest work focuses on the understanding of the formation of the superhard nanocomposites by spinodal phase segregation and of their mechanical properties by means of first-principle DFT calculations. Stan has published about 365 papers and several book chapters. He is Co-Editor of Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing. He received, among other prestigious awards, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h.c.) from the Masaryk University Brno and the Thornton Award of the America Vacuum Society. According to the ISI Web of Knowledge, he is ranked 262nd in the world in Materials Science by Essential Science Indicators.

Professor Andrzej Zieliński

Prof. Zieliński is a Full Professor, Chairman of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Vice-President for International Cooperation and European Programs at the Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland. He is also a leader of the Functional Materials and Nanotechnologies domain at the Center for Advanced Technologies Pomerania, member of the Committee for Materials Science and Committee for Metallurgy, Polish Academy of Sciences, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Advances in Materials Science. His research is mainly focused on hydrogen degradation of materials and on development of bioactive Ti alloys. He has contributed so far about 300 original and review papers and 7 books.