Invited speakers

Chiara Bisio,  Department of Sciences and Technological Innovation, Università del Piemonte Orientale (Italy) title and bio forthcoming

Jiří Čejka, Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry; Faculty of Science Charles University (Czech Republic)  title and bio forthcoming

Margarita Darder "Layered clays as versatile platforms for advanced functional hybrid and bionanocomposite materials"

Margarita Darder is currently a Senior Scientist at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid, belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She graduated in Chemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in 1995 and received her PhD from the same University in 2000. In 2001, she joined Prof. Ruiz-Hitzky’s team at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (CSIC) as a postdoctoral Fellow. She has also held post-doctoral positions at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de Paris and at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona-Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica (CSIC). Later, she joined the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Materials (IMDEA-Materials) as a Ramón y Cajal researcher, and in 2010 she got a Tenured Scientist position at ICMM-CSIC. Her research activities focus on the development of nanostructured hybrid and bio-hybrid materials for application in environmental remediation, biomedical and energy purposes, based mainly on components obtained from natural resources, including clay minerals and biopolymers. She has authored around 120 articles in international journals and 14 book chapters, and has co-authored 5 patents, two of them extended to PCT. She has supervised 6 PhD thesis and 10 Master degrees, as well as around 25 undergraduate students, and participates in numerous science outreach activities to foster an interest in science from an early age.

Jovana Milic “Dynamic control of hybrid layered materials in energy conversion: from photovoltaics to neuromorphics" 

Jovana V. Milić has been an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Turku in Finland since September 2024. She obtained her Dr.Sc. Degree in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich in Switzerland in 2017. She then worked as a Scientist in the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL with Prof. Michael Graetzel and as an Assistant Professor at the Adolphe Merkle Institute of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Her research is centered around bioinspired stimuli-responsive (supra)molecular materials for energy conversion, with a particular interest in photovoltaics and neuromorphic computing for smart and sustainable (nano)technologies

Gian-Marco Rignanes, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN), UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) title and bio forthcoming

Shunsuke Sasaki, "Designing Layered Materials via Chalcogen Redox"

Shunsuke Sasaki has been a CNRS Research Scientist (CRCN) at the Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel (IMN) of Nantes Université in France since 2022. He obtained his Doctor of Engineering degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2017, followed by postdoctoral research at Nantes Université and the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of chalcogenides, mixed-anion compounds, and layered materials, with a particular interest in topochemical transformations and anionic redox chemistry for the development of novel functional materials. He has authored over 35 peer‑reviewed publications, holds an international patent, and leads several national and international research projects, including ANR and PHC programs. His work has been recognized through distinctions such as the ACS Rising Stars in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry (2023), and he contributes actively to teaching and international collaboration.

Christine Taviot Gueho, Institut de Chimie de Clermont Ferrand (ICCF), Université de Clermont-Ferrand (France) title and bio forthcoming