Jordi Arbiol graduated in Physics at Universitat de Barcelona (UB) in 1997, where he also obtained his PhD (European Doctorate and PhD Extraordinary Award) in 2001 in the field of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) applied to nanostructured materials. He also worked as Assistant Professor at UB. In 2009 he was appointed as ICREA Professor and holds this position since then. From 2009 to 2015 he was Group Leader at Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, ICMAB-CSIC. He was the President of the Spanish Microscopy Society (SME) from 2017 to 2021, was Vice-President from 2013 to 2017 and from 2009 to 2021 he was Member of its Executive Board. In 2018 he was elected as Member of the Executive Board of the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy (IFSM) (2019-2026). Since 2015 he is the leader of the Group of Advanced Electron Nanoscopy at Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), CSIC and BIST. He is the Scientific Coordinator for the Materials Science Projects at the Joint Electron Microscopy Center at ALBA Synchrotron (JEMCA). He has been one of the founder members of e-DREAM. Since 2023 he is Associate Editor of Nano Letters (American Chemical Society). He received the FWO Commemorative Medal (Flanders Research Foundation) in 2021, the 2018 BIST IGNITE Award and was awarded with the EU40 Materials Prize 2014 (E-MRS),  2014 EMS Outstanding Paper Award and listed in the Top 40 under 40 Power List (2014) by The Analytical Scientist. With a scientific track record of more than 570 publications and more than 39,500 citations.

Adrian Bachtold is an academic researcher from ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences. The author has contributed to research in topics: Carbon nanotube & Graphene. The author has an hindex of 50, co-authored 133 publications. Previous affiliations of Adrian Bachtold include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory & Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology.

Prof. Sonia Conesa-Boj obtained her Ph.D. in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Barcelona (Spain) in 2011. Afterwards she moved to a postdoctoral research position at EPFL Lausanne, funded by a Marie-Heim Vogtlin personal fellowship awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. After a second postdoc in The Netherlands, in 2016 Dr. Conesa-Boj became Assistant Professor at the Department of Quantum Nanoscience and the Kavli Instiuture of Nanoscience at TU Delft, being promoted in 2020 and 2025 to Associate Professor and Full Professor respectively. The focus of her research is developing novel approaches for the growth and characterisation of low-dimensional nanoscale materials, from nanowires to van der Waals layered materials. She has demonstrated how the exploitation of state-of-the-art Transmission Electron Microscopy techniques provide a unique window to unravel the physical properties of novel nanomaterials. Dr. Sonia Conesa-Boj is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and her research has been supported, among others, by the award of an ERC Starting Grant, a NWO Vidi grant, and a Dutch "Top Kennis en Innovatie" Consortium grant.

Silvano De Franceschi is an expert in quantum nanoelectronics and experimental mesoscopic physics. He received his PhD in 1999 at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and, he currently works as research director at the Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble (IRIG). In 2005 he was awarded the Nicholas Kurti European Prize for his achievements in the field of quantum transport and, in particular, his works on the Kondo effect in quantum dots and on hybrid normal/superconductor nanostructures. His current research activity focuses on the development of silicon-based devices for quantum information processing. He is co-leading the Grenoble Quantum Silicon Group (http://quantumsilicon-grenoble.eu) and he is one of the three PIs in the ERC Synergy project QuCube

Luis Echegoyen was the Robert A. Welch Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas at El Paso from August 2010 until his retirement in 2021. He was President of the American Chemical Society in 2020 and was the Director of the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation from 2006 until 2010. He was simultaneously a Professor of Chemistry at Clemson University in South Carolina, where he maintained a research program with interests in fullerene electrochemistry, monolayer films, supramolecular chemistry, endohedral fullerene chemistry and electrochemistry; and carbon nanoonions He served as Chair for the Department of Chemistry at Clemson University from 2002-2006. Luis has published >530 articles, including 49 book chapters, and his current h index is 98 (Google Scholar, 2 February 2026). He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003 and was the recipient of many awards, including the 1996 Florida ACS Award, the 1997 University of Miami Provost Award for Excellence in Research, the 2007 Herty Medal Award from the ACS Georgia Section, the 2007 Clemson University Presidential Award for Excellence in Research, and the 2007 University of Puerto Rico Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was also selected as an ACS Fellow in 2011. He was selected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2019. Luis has >540 scientific invited lectures and presentations. He has delivered several named lectureships in places like Northwestern University, Georgia Tech., UC-Riverside and is a member of several international advisory boards, such as the Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces (PCOSS) Center at Xiamen University in China. He was the editor in chief of the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry, a Wiley publication, from 2010-8. Since May, 2023, he works at the Instituto Catalán de Investigación Química (ICIQ) where he is the International Chair for Academic Programs, acting as an ambassador for the institute, mainly focused in Latin America.

Aran Garcia-Lekue (Amorebieta, Bizkaia, 1975) holds a degree in Physical Sciences and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (European Doctorate, 2003) from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). She carried out postdoctoral research stays at the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom) and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley (United States). In 2007, she joined the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) as a Gipuzkoa Fellow, and in 2012 she became an Ikerbasque Researcher. Since 2015, she has been teaching in the Master’s Degree in Nanoscience at UPV/EHU. She maintains numerous international collaborations and has been a Mercator Fellow at the University of Kiel in Germany, as well as a visiting researcher at LBNL in Berkeley.

Luis M. Liz-Marzán is a PhD from the University of Santiago de Compostela and has been postdoc at the van't Hoff Laboratory (Utrecht University) and visiting professor at various institutions worldwide. After an extended academic career at the University of Vigo, in 2012 he joined the Basque Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), in San Sebastian, as Ikerbasque Research Professor and Scientific Director, a position he held until December 2021. Since 2015 he is also the PI of the CIC biomaGUNE node of the Biomedical Research Networking Center: Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (Ciber-BBN) and since 2022 he holds a part-time Chair at the University of Vigo. Liz-Marzán is recognized by his work on the application of colloid chemistry to the (nowadays crowded) field of nanoplasmonics.

José Ignacio (Nacho) Pascual is since 2012 an Ikerbasque Research Professor at CIC nanoGUNE. His research explores quantum phenomena at the atomic scale using scanning probe microscopies, with particular interest in unconventional superconductivity, molecular magnetism, and atomically precise graphene nanostructures. Nacho earned his PhD in Physical Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1998) and developed his career across leading research institutions including the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, ICMAB-CSIC, and the Freie Universität Berlin, where he was appointed Professor of Physics in 2008. He joined nanoGUNE in 2012 and currently leads a team of 12 researchers.

Artur M. Pinto graduated in Pharmaceutical Sciences, obtaining his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Faculty of Engineering - University of Porto (FEUP), visiting the University of Washington (USA). Afterward, Artur has been appointed as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, Chemical Engineering Department, the Netherlands. Following his Post-doc, Artur has been awarded a long-term Researcher position at LEPABE-FEUP. He is the Principal Investigator of 2 collaborative projects between FEUP, i3S (Institute for Research and Innovation in Health), and the University of Texas in Austin (USA), focused on developing new 2D-nanomaterials and adjusting their properties for biomedical applications, such as cancer phototherapy, immunotherapy, drug delivery, and 3D-printing for tissue regeneration.

Prof. Stephan Roche is a theoretician with more than 25 years’ experience in the study of transport theory in low-dimensional systems, including graphene, carbon nanotubes, semiconducting nanowires, organic materials and topological insulators. He has published more than 250 papers in journals such as Nature, Review of Modern Physics, Nature Physics, Nano Letters and Physical Review Letters and he is the co-author of the book titled “Introduction to Graphene-Based Nanomaterials: From Electronic Structure to Quantum Transport” (Cambridge University Press, 2020-second edition). He received the qualification to supervise PhD students from the Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble, France) in 2004, and since then he has supervised more than ten PhD students and about 25 postdoctoral researchers in France, Germany and Spain. In 2009 Prof. Roche was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award by the Alexander Von-Humboldt Foundation (Germany) and, since 2011, he has been actively involved in the European Graphene Flagship project as deputy leader of the Spintronics Work Package (WP). He is serving as leader of this WP since April 2020 and will continue until March 2023. He is also Division Leader of the Graphene Flagship.

Michael J. Sailor is Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego, Director of the UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (an NSF MRSEC), and Director of the UC San Diego Institute for Materials Discovery & Design. He holds Affiliate Appointments in the UCSD Bioengineering Department, the Nanoengineering Department, and the Materials Science and Engineering program. He was trained at Harvey Mudd College (BS Chemistry), Northwestern University (PhD Chemistry), Stanford (Post-doctoral), and Caltech (Postdoctoral). Other appointments include: Invited Professor, CNRS Institut Charles Gerhardt in Montpellier, France (2012); Visiting Professor, High Level Talent Program, Key Laboratory of Organosilicon Chemistry and Material Technology, Hangzhou Normal University, China (2018-2020); and Visiting Professor, Zhejiang University, China (2019- 2020). He has supervised more than 160 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students, he is the author of more than 260 peer-reviewed research publications, one book, and 39 issued patents. He has an H-Index (Google Scholar) of 101. He has founded or co-founded four companies, including Lisata Therapeutics (NASDAQ: LSTA). He also serves on the scientific advisory board of TruTags, inc, which developed a GMP process to manufacture medical grade porous silicon suitable for oral, injectable, or inhalation administration. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Vasilev Completed PhD in Max-Plank Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, Germany) in 2005. He is currently a Matthew Flinders Professor, NHMRC Leadership Fellow and the Director of the Biomedical Nanoengineering Laboratory in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University. His research interests are in developing innovative nanoengineered materials and coatings that benefit various medical applications and other areas. Professor Vasilev has attracted in excess of 25M dollars in research funding from competitive Government grants and Industry, published more than 330 papers, > 15,000 citation and H-index=68 (m-index>3). He has been awarded several prestigious Research Fellowships from ARC, NHMRC and the Humboldt Foundation, and other awards such as the John A. Brodie Medal from Engineered Australis for achievements in Chemical Engineering.

I graduated from Polytechnique school, Paris area, in 1995 (X92), did a master of theoretical physics at Ecole Normale Superieure Paris, and moved on to the group of J-L Pichard in Saclay for my PhD (1999). I spent two years as a postdoc in P. Brouwer's group in Cornell University, USA and was hired as a permanent researcher in CEA Saclay in 2002. In 2009, I moved to INAC, CEA Grenoble where I have remained since.