POLYMERMEET2021

Miqin Zhang, Ph.D., is Kyocera Chair Professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery, and Adjunct Professor in Departments of Radiology, Bioengineering, Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, UW School of Medicine, and an affiliated member of Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center. Dr. Zhang received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of California at Berkeley and joined the University of Washington as an Assistant Professor in 1999. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005 and to Professor in 2008. Prof. Zhang’s research focuses on several aspects of biomaterials and biodevice development, including: nanomaterials for controlled drug delivery, cancer diagnosis and therapy; biocompatible and biodegradable composite scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; and biosensors for anti-cancer drug screening and toxin detection. Prof. Zhang has published ~200 journal articles in high-impact materials, chemistry, and biomedical journals and holds 16 issued US patents. As a leading expert in nanomedicine and biomaterials she has been invited to write many review articles published in highly prestigious journals in the field. Her work is highly cited, with a total citation of 30826 and h-Index of 78 (Google Scholar) as of 12/18/2020. She is named in two categories (“Materials Science” and “Pharmacology & Toxicology”) as “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2014 and 2015, and in one category (“Pharmacology & Toxicology”) in 2016, 2017, 2018 by Thomson Reuters. Her research has received wide recognition from the scientific community and featured by national and international media (e.g., the MIT Reviews, the National Geographic News, King 5 News, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, Nature Nanotechnology, The Economist, UW Today, etc.). The title of my talk is: iron oxide theranostic nanoparticles for cancer imaging and targeted gene therapy

Prof Long Yu is currently Director of Sino-Singapore International Joint Research Institute, and Professor in South China University and Technology. He received his BE from South China University and Technology and PhD from Monash University.He had been studied and worked in Australiaduring 1988-2014. Prof L. Yu joints South China University of Technology and works as Team Leader of Guangdong Innovative &Entrepreneurial Research Team Programin 2014. He used to work in CSIRO, Australia as Principal Scientist for 18 years. Prof Yu has had more than 160 SCI papers published and citation time is more than10000 (h-index 51). He has been selected as a Fellow of Royal Australian Chemical Institutein 2002, and currently been pointed as Editorial Board of 8SCI journals. In the last 20 years, Prof Yu has been working on various polymeric materials from renewable resources. He has successfully developed and commercialized 8 products through spinning-off manuscript companies or transforming developed techniques to industries, including various starch-based materials and products, such as pure starch-based plastics and medicine capsules and loss field foam.

Professor Yves Gnanou is the Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs. Professor Gnanou joined KAUST from the ÉcolePolytechnique in Paris where he held the role of Vice President of Academic Affairs and of Research. Prior to that, he successively held the position of Professor and Director of the “Laboratoire de Chimie des PolymèresOrganiques” (LCPO) at Bordeaux University (France) and Head of the Chemistry Department at the headquarters of the “Centre National de la RechercheScientifique” (CNRS) in Paris. During his tenure in Bordeaux he was also Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida from 2002-2007 and a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA from 1989-1990. Professor Gnanou received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 1985 from the L. Pasteur University (Strasbourg). His research interests currently focus on the design of metal-free “green” catalysts for chain and step-growth polymerizations more particularly on the utilization of CO2 in polymer chemistry. In 2003 Professor Gnanou received the Langevin Prize and the Berthelot Medal from the French “”Academy of Sciences and in 2009 was elected as a Member of the French Academy of Agriculture. In 2011 he was awarded the Title of “Chevalier dansl’ordre des PalmesAcadémiques” and in 2013 hewasawarded the Titleof “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur”.

Prof. LA MANTIA Francesco Paolo Professor Emeritus of Polymer Technology, University of Palermo. Scientific activities: Rheological and mechanical properties of polymer systems; processability, characterization and compatibilization of polymer blends, nanocomposites, characterization and processability of liquid crystal polymers, biodegradable polymers; plastics recycling, plastics for agriculture. Author of about 360 scientific papers (Citations 10010, h = 51, Google Scholar; Citations 7235, h = 42, SCOPUS), four books on plastics recycling and two books on liquid crystal polymers, as well as several book chapters and a teaching book on polymers. Author of more than 200 communications at national and international conferences, about 100 technical papers and 12 patents. Several invited plenary lectures at National and International conferences. Coordination activities: Coordinator and Responsible of many National and International research projects, as well as collaborations with industries and public organizations. Chairman of several national and international conferences. Member of the Editorial Board of International Peer Reviewed Journals: Polymer Degradation and Stability, Polymers, Nanomaterials, Materials, Polyemr Recycling Former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Vice-Rector of the University of Palermo

Vladimir Torchilin got his M.S, Ph.D., and D.Sc. degrees from the Moscow State University and serves currently a University Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Northeastern University, Boston. He has published more than 450 original papers, more than 200 reviews and book chapters, wrote and edited 13 books, and holds more than 40 patents. Google Scholar shows more than 73,000 citations of his papers with H-index of 121. He is Editor-in-Chief of Current Drug Discovery Technologies, and Drug Delivery, Co-Editor of Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and on the Editorial Boards of many other journals. He received more than $30 M from the governmental and industrial sources in research funding. He has multiple honors and awards and in 2011, Times Higher Education ranked him number 2 among top world scientists in pharmacology for the period of 2000-2010.

Dr. Gao Liu is the Group Leader of the Applied Energy Materials Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, specialized in energy storage R&D. Dr. Liu has over 20 years of experience in developing materials and system engineering for electrical energy storage, and has led research projects for the U.S. Department of Energy and industry. Dr. Liu’s lab combines synthetic chemistry, composite engineering and electrochemistry to solve interdisciplinary problems in energy generation, storage and usage. The research team uses advanced diagnostics to understand fundamental and critical issues in energy systems, as well as synthetic techniques to develop new materials that improve overall system performance. The team’s on-going researches in battery and energy storage include Si materials and electrode, electrolytes and additives, and solid-state conductors. Besides energy storage research, the team also performs materials and engineering research in building resiliency, circular economy, and advanced manufacturing. Dr. has over 170 peer-reviewed publications and over 20 granted patents.

Dr. Arthur J. Nozik isa Research Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder;Sr. Research Fellow, Emeritusat the U.S DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); and Fellow of the CU-NREL Renewable & Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). Nozik has beenthe Associate Director of a joint Los Alamos National Lab/NREL Energy Frontier Research Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics. Nozik received his BChE from Cornell University in 1959 and his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Yale University in 1967. Dr. Nozik's research interests include size quantization and hot carrier effects in semiconductor quantum dots and quantum wells, including hot carrier solar cells and multiple exciton generation from a single photon, and Singlet Fission (SF). He has investigated the applications of unique quantum effects in nanostructures and SF in molecular chromophores foradvanced approaches for solar photon conversion to electricity and solar fuels; photogenerated carrier relaxation dynamics in various semiconductor nanostructures; photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor-molecule interfaces; photoelectrochemical energy conversion, photocatalysis; optical, magnetic and electrical properties of solids; and Mössbauer spectroscopy. He has published over 275papersand book chapters in these fieldswith greater than 44,700citations,written or edited 7 books, holds 11 U.S. patents, and has delivered over 380invited talks at universities, conferences, and symposia. He has received many awards in solar energy research including the Cross Medal of the Yale Graduate School, the Eni Award (from President of Italy); the Heinz Gerischer Award and the Research Award of the Electrochemical Society;theEsselen Award (at Harvard University) for Chemistry in the Public Interest from the American Chemical Society, the Research Award of the U.N. Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization, andthe Thomson Reuters(Clariyate Analytica) Highly Cited Researcher Designation in 2014 in Chemistry and in 2018 in Physics.Dr. Nozik has been a Senior Editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry for 12 years and has served on the editorial boards of many journals. A Special Festschrift Issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry honoring Dr. Nozik’s scientific career appeared in a December 2006 issue and a special Research Symposiumwas held in his honor at the University of Colorado in 2016. Dr. Nozik is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Society of Chemistry; he is also a member of the ACS, the ECS and the MRS.

Elias C. Aifantis is currently an Emeritus Professor of Mechanics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki/Greece and Michigan Technological University/USA, as well as Mercator fellow at Friedrich-Alexander University/Germany and a Distinguished Professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture/China. Formerly, he has also been a Distinguished Faculty Advisor at King Abdulaziz University/Saudi Arabia, Distinguished Visiting Expert at ITMO University/Russia and Southwest Jiaotong University/China, as well as MegaGrant Director at Togliatti State University /Russia. He has promoted highly interdisciplinary work in mechanics of materials by bringing into the field of solid mechanics ideas from diffusion theory, chemical reactions, and nonlinear physics. He has coined the terms dislocation patterning, material instabilities, gradient plasticity/elasticity, chemo/nanomechanics, and pioneered internal length gradient (ILG) theories in these fields. Currently, he is extending the ILG framework to revisit electromagnetism and Maxwell’s equations, as well as gravitation and Newton’s Law. He has published over 350 articles and received about 13,402 citations with 59 h-index (Scopus); 12,450 citations with 55 h-index (Web of Science); 20,580 citations with 70 h-index (Google Scholar). He is included in the ISI Web of knowledge list of the world’s most highly cited authors in engineering

MD, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. Previous positions were: Professor of Plant Biochemistry (Free University Berlin), Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics (Berlin), Biotechnology & Physical Chemistry (University of Applied Sciences, Südwestfalen, Campus Iserlohn), Guest and Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Ohio State University, University of Louisiana, Baton Rouge and Montpellier (France). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Institute of Physics (UK). Research interest: design of bio-inspired, smart multi-scale materials e.g. inelastic stability, lipids, cyclic peptides, and biologically active lipid A-phosphates in 2d and 3d colloidal dispersions & liquid crystals, synthetic & natural surfactants with antimicrobial & antiviral activities. The effect of different active lipid A-phosphate molecules & their interactions with antiviral, antimicrobial or natural occurring membranes on the dynamical and thermotropic phase behaviour are the main forces for their various but different biological activities e.g. various structural features: induced synchronous ordering between polar head groups & tails, number of tail groups & effective charges, and sub-diffusive behaviour. Crystallization processes and far-equilibrium materials including discrete time crystals (luminol & cationic surfactants) and crystal polymorphism.

Kruger D, Araujo M; Concrete Protection: A case-study based comparison of concrete corrosion protection methods using various polymeric coatings and treatments, 10th ICPIC International Conference on Polymers in Concrete, Madeira, February 2010. Bester J, Kruger D; Curing of concrete patch repairs: its effect on ultrasonic pulse velocity, 10thICPIC International Conference on Polymers in Concrete, Madeira, February 2010 Kruger D, Van der Westhuizen M; Development of an ultra-lightweight thin film concrete material, Key Engineering Materials, Vol 466, p131-139, Jan 2011, United Kingdom.

Dr. Richard J. Spontak is a Distinguished Professor and Alumni Distinguished Graduate and Undergraduate Professor in the Departments of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors/high distinction) from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983 and was later awarded the Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1988. He then pursued post-doctoral research in Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) and Condensed Matter Physics at the Institute for Energy Technology (Norway) before joining the Corporate Research Division of the Procter & Gamble Company in 1990. In 1992, he accepted a faculty position at North Carolina State University, where he supervises the Macromolecular Materials & Morphology Group. Since that time, Spontak has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 35 scholarly works as book chapters and invited monographs, and his work has been featured on 31 journal covers and cited over 14,000 times according to Google Scholar. Although active in a diverse range of disciplines, his primary research interests relate to the phase behavior and morphology/property development of nanostructured polymers, polymer nanocomposites and coatings, electron microscopy, and stimuli-responsive soft materials. In recognition of his fundamental and applied research endeavors, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards such as the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Achievement and Distinguished Engineering Research Awards, Alexander von Humboldt and Tewkesbury fellowships, the North Carolina State University Alumni Outstanding Research and Global Engagement Awards, the American Chemical Society (PMSE Division) Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science & Engineering, the German Society for Electron Microscopy Ernst Ruska Prize, the American Chemical Society (Rubber Division) Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) Colwyn Medal, the Norwegian University of Science & Technology Lars Onsager Medal, and the Society of Plastics Engineers International Award. An elected fellow of the American Physical Society, IOM3 and the Royal Society of Chemistry, he is or has been on the editorial advisory board of more than 20 international journals and holds editorial positions on 3 of them. He has been recognized as an Outstanding Scholar Alumnus and an Alumni Fellow by the Pennsylvania State University, and he is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and the North Carolina State University Research Leadership, Global Engagement and Outstanding Teaching Academies. Spontak is also a highly acclaimed educator and academic mentor. For his instructional effectiveness employing cooperative and active learning pedagogies in the classroom and his widespread efforts to promote interdisciplinary engineering design and undergraduate research, he has received college- and alumni-level Outstanding Teaching Awards, as well as the university-level Board of Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest institutional honor bestowed by the University of North Carolina system. He has also received an International Network for Engineering Education & Research Recognition Award and the American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Region Outstanding Mid-Career Teaching Award, and he has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist and an Erasmus Fellow. He resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife Josie and has two children, Danielle and Joshua.

Dr Li Wang is currently a lecturer in School of Engineering, University of Bolton. She has been working on a few research projects, involving material investigations, structure design and optimisations, data analysis, etc. She is also an EU grant supervisor. Before coming back to academia 2 years ago, she had been working at Unilever R&D. She joined Global Packaging Design Group in 2005 and had been leading the CAE team to support packaging projects across different categories globally. From 2012, she had been working as Design Engineering Leader for Food & Refreshment Category, working with different functions to apply engineering concept to packaging and product designs. She has gained extensive expertise in polymer materials, from pure research to their industrial realisation. Before Unilever, she also worked 4 years as research fellow at Solid Mechanics and Materials Group, School of Engineering Science at Oxford University. During her time there, she had involved various research projects across aerospace and automotive industries.

Prof. A. Mucci holdsa Master Degreein Chemistry anda PhD in Chemical Science at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.She was a researcher in Organic Chemistry from 1992 to 2002and has been Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry since 2002at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She works at the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She published more than 140 papers on international scientific journals and more than 120 communications at national and international meetings. Her research focuses on materials for energy applications; in particular,on semi-conductive organic materials (oligo- and polythiophenes) with applications in organic photovoltaics and in enhanced hydrogen production and on graphite-based conductive composites for bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells. She also studies complex biological or synthetic matrices applying nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and other techniques.

Eric Buhler currently holds a Full Professor position in soft condensed matter at Université de Paris (France). In 1996, he received his Ph.D. degree in physics at the University of Strasbourg investigating the structural and dynamical properties of wormlike micellesusing light, neutrons and X-rays scattering. Prof. E. Buhler subsequently obtained a postdoctoral position (1996-1998) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), where he studied the structural behavior of copolymers in supercritical carbon dioxide using scattering techniques. In 1998, he joined the University of Grenoble, France, where he obtained an Associate Professor position (1998-2006). He spent two years (2002-2004) at the French National Research Center (CNRS) of Montpellier (Charles Coulomb Institute) as a Visiting Professor. In 2006, he joined Université de Paris, where he is currently a Full Professor. His research focuses on the structure and dynamics of supramolecular materials, polyelectrolytes, nanoparticles complexes, and complex systems integrating molecular motors and nano-machines. He has published more than 80 research articles in peer review journals.

Marc MarescaiscurrentlyResearcher at the Aix-Marseille Université. He wasawardedhis PhD in Biochemistryfrom the Université Paul Cézanne (France, 2003), whereheworked on toxinscausing intestinal pathologies, includingmycotoxins. In 2003, hemoved to England to work on the bacteriaenteropathogenic E. coli in the laboratory of Brendan Keny. He thenmoved back to France to continue hiswork on mycotoxins, mainlydeoxynivelanol, studyingitseffects on humanhealth. He iscurrentlyworking at the Aix-Marseille Université, and hisresearchaims, in addition to studymycotoxinseffects on health, to identify and develop new moleculeswithantimicrobialproperties—natural, synthetic, and bio-inspired, including the onesproduced by micro-organisms

Carlo Santulli, laurea in chemical engineering (Roma-La Sapienza, 1991), PhD in materials science and technology (University of Liverpool, 2000), MSc in environmental decision making (Open University, 2004), laurea in arts (Roma-La Sapienza, 2001) is associate professor in Università degli Studi di Camerino since 2012. He lectures on waste management, materials science and environmental sustainability. His research interests are on composite materials, natural fibres and sustainable materials, waste management and upcycling. He has around 30 years experience in this field, working in Università di Roma - La Sapienza (1991-93 and 2006-2010), JRC Ispra (1994-1998), University of Nottingham (1999-2001), University of Reading (2001-2006) and Seconda Università di Napoli (2010-2012). He has been invited researcher and professor at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Ecole des Mines de Saint Etienne, Université de Rouen, Università di Bologna, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia and Bangalore University. He has published 197 journal papers, 22 book chapters, and 93 conference papers, with H-index 40 and i-10 index 104. He also acts in dissemination of environmental and sustainability themes in schools and other contexts in Italy.

Desired employment / Occupational field Teacher of chemistry and biology, didactic degree II order no. 1130 of July 23, 2018, issued on 24 September 2018 Work experience Dates July 2013 - March 2019 Occupation or position held Scientific researcher. Main activities and responsibilities Laboratory - Coordinative Chemistry. Synthesis of complex compounds. Name and address of employer At the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova. Address: str. Academiei, 3; MD-2028 Chisinau. Work experience Dates Occupation or position held Main activities and responsibilities Name and address of employer Education and training August 2014 - present Teacher of chemistry and biology Educational management, vocational training, training and education of students. Center of Excellence in Informatics and Information Technologies, Chisinau 48 Sarmizegetusa Street. Dates 01.11. 2014- present. Title of qualification awarded Doctoral School. Specialty - Inorganic Chemistry Principal subjects / occupational skills covered Synthesis and study of complex compounds of 3d metals Name and type of organisation providing education and training University of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, 3/2 Academiei street Chisinau, MD-2028, http://www.edu.asm.md Dates 2017-2018 Title of qualification awarded Retraining in biology Name and type of organisation providing education and training State University of Moldova Alexei Mateevici Street, 60 Chisinau, Republic of Moldova Dates 23.09.2017 -20.10.2017 Principal subjects / occupational skills covered Continuing education certificate no.000048916 CRP series. In the specialty of Chemistry and Biology Name and type of organisation providing education and training Institute of Continuing Education, Chisinau, bd. Decebal 139 Dates 2012 -13.06.2014 Title of qualification awarded Master in Educational Sciences Specialization - Contemporary chemistry and educational technologies. Nr. 614650340384 from 04/07/2014. Additional - specialization in ecological chemistry. Name and type of organisation providing education and training Tiraspol State University based in Chisinau, 26A Drumul Viilor Street. Dates 2009 -12.06.2012 Title of qualification awarded Bachelor of Science in Exact Sciences. Nr. 512411688966 from 05.07.2012 Name and type of organisation providing education and training Specialization - Chemistry Tiraspol State University based in Chisinau, 26A Drumul Viilor Street. Dates 2006-2009 Title of qualification awarded High School Diploma - Real Profile Name and type of organisation providing education and training Rezeni Theoretical High School, Ialoveni

Yanfei Xu joined the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department at University of Massachusetts Amherst as an assistant professor in 2019. She became an adjunct assistant professor in the Chemical Engineering Department in 2020 fall. Before joining UMASS, from 2013-2018, she was a postdoctoral associate in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was active in pursuit of turning polymer insulators into heat conductors. Before joining MIT, from 2011-2013, she passionately pursued GENIUS research funded by European Commission — printable organic electronics, and secured Marie-Curie Fellowships with major European institutions and companies, including the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Humboldt University, University of Cambridge, Italian National Research Council, Université de Strasbourg, and the headquarters of BASF SE. She received Ph.D. in Chemistry from Nankai University, where she was awarded “Top 100 Most Influential Scientific Researchers in P. R. China (among all fields)”.

Maria Rosaria Marsico is an Associate Professor in Structural Dynamics the University of Exeter, UK. She conducts research in earthquake engineering and structural dynamics and in particular in exploring innovative materials and technologies to mitigate seismic vibrations to structures.

Dr Joshua Depiver currently works at the School of Engineering and Technology, University of Derby. His research involves mechanical, electronics, and manufacturing engineering. His most recent project was 'Thermo-mechanical Reliability Studies of Lead-Free Solder Interconnects'. He has published several peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals

After receiving his Ph.D.from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Dr. Dekel managed 50 researchersto develophigh-temperature batteries in Rafael Ltd. In 2007 Dr. Dekel co-found CellEra Inc. (today POCellTech), where, as VPR&D, he led 15 researchers to develop theAEMFC technology. In 2015 he joined the Technion as an Assoc. Professor, where he currently leadsthe largest worldwide research group entirely devoted todeveloping the AEMFC technology. Prof. Dekel holds more than 100 patents and papers on battery and fuel cell technologies and managesabout $4M company and government research grants from Israel, Europe, and the USA.

Dr. MazharUl-Islam has completed PhD from Kyungpook Nationals University (South Korea) in chemical engineering. He worked in same institute as post doctorate fellow and contract professor for two years. He joined Dhofar University (Oman) as assistant professor in 2015 and currently working in same institute as Associate professor. His research areas include biopolymers, biofuels and nano-biopolymer composites development for environmental and medical applications. He has published more than 80 SCI Journal papers and participated in 70 plus international conferences as speaker. Besides he has filed several international patents and contributed chapters to few books of international publishers. In recognition of research activities, he has been included in Top 2% most influential scientist of the world; list published by Stanford university 2020.

Antonio Greco is an Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Technology at the University of Lecce Didactic activity at the Engineering faculty teaching courses on Materials Science and Technology and Composite and Nanocomposite materials Main research activities: Polymer processing, thermal analysis of polymeric materials, kinetics of reaction and transition, stereolithography, polymer processing simulation Author of about 100 papers on international journals.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Francisco Javier DeiveHervahas two degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the Universities of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela (Spain), respectively. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2007 at the University of Vigo after defending his thesis focused on the isolation, characterization and production of industrially relevant enzymes from extremophilic microorganisms. He carried out international stays in research centers of Germany, Portugal and Mexico. In general, he has participated in about 30 research projects (more than 2.0 million €), at an international, national and regional level. His 90 articles in top-ranked journals, 6 book chapters (h Index =23) and participation in conferences (in the form of oral, invited and plenary presentations)are set within the areas of antioxidants extraction, development of bioprocesses with lower environmental impact and contaminants remediation. He has supervised 2 postdoctoral researchers, 6 PhD and 20 MSc students. He is currently Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Chemistry, and he participates in the Evaluation Boards of different research agencies (e.g. Austria, Romania,Chile, Argentina, Spain, etc.).

Alessandro Arcovito holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a PhD. in Biophysics; he is currently associate Professor in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome. He is coordinating a research laboratory of Advanced Spectroscopy Applied to Biomolecules and Molecular Drug Design. His research is mainly focused on the synthesis and characterization of novel nano-biomaterials for therapeutic use. He has setup a biotechnological platform for the synthesis of functionalized virus-like particles to be used as a new powerful drug against biofilm-growing bacteria. Moreover, he has been involved in the study of human Ferritin based nanoparticles for selected drug delivery. In this field he also has a patent for the following invention: “Ferritin variants with increased stability, complexation ability and transferrin receptoraffinity”, number 20164053.9 -1118. This patent was acquired by Cellis AG. Moreover he is also involved in the modeling of protein nanocarriers by means of virtual screening, docking and molecular dynamics.