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The International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces

Conference Speakers

Conference Chairs

Prof. Dongfeng Diao

Shenzhen University, China

Prof Dongfeng Diao received the B.S. degree in mechanical Engineering from Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (China) in 1983 and the M.S. degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (China) in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in Coating tribology from Tohoku University(Japan) in 1992.  He used to work in Shizuoka University(Japan) as an Associated Professor in 1995-2001 and in Xian Jiaotong Univeristy(China) as a professor in 2002-2012. He was appointed as the distinguished professor of Shenzhen University(China) from 2012. Over the past fifteen years, Diao’s research has been at the ECR-plasma Sputtering Carbon Film’s Science and Technology. The significance of the previous discoveries by Diao is reflected by more than 200 publications in various archival journals(Nanoscale, Carbon, Acta Materialia, Applied Physics Letters, ASME-Journal of Tribology, etc), conference proceedings and 23 patents, the best paper has been cited 161 times, and graduation of 10 PhD and 39 MS students. He is the Editoral Board of Journal of Lubrication Science and the associated editor of Friction.

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Prof. Albano Cavaleiro

University of Coimbra, Portugal

Albano Cavaleiro is Full Professor in the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In 1990, he received a Ph.D. from the same University on the field of Mechanical Engineering, with a thesis on the surface modification of materials by the sputtering deposition of thin coatings. Presently, he is head of the research group “Surface Engineering Group” of Centre for Mechanical Engineering of the University of Coimbra and head of the Laboratory of Tests Wear & Materials at Instituto Pedro Nunes.

 

His field of research and publications is related with the degradation and protection of materials, in the following fields: Materials and Surface Engineering, Structural transformations, Deposition and characterization of thin films, Tribology, Nanocrystalline and nanocomposite materials, Electrolytes for fuel cells, Biomaterials; Hard coatings, Mechanical characterization of thin films (depth sensing indentation), Corrosion and oxidation behaviour of thin coatings, Self-lubricating coatings.

 

He participated in more than 30 research projects from which he was scientific responsible in more than 20. He was invited for talks in about 30 international conferences. He supervises(d) 14 PhD students and have an extensive evaluating activity for national and international research agencies. He published more than 250 papers from which about 220 in international journals of SCI. He belongs to the executive committee of the Portuguese Materials Society since 2010. In 2013 he acted as Co-chair for EUROMAT, held in Seville.

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Dr. Quanshun Luo

Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom

Dr. Luo is a member of the core consultancy team. He has expertise in materials characterization, chemical analysis, tribology, and mechanical testing, and many years of industrial experiences in casting, metal thermal processing, surface engineering, and machining.

 

Dr. Luo has research collaborations worldwide with universities and materials manufacturers, including Southampton University, Henan University of Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology (Visiting Professor, China), Guangdong University of Technology, Pusan University (Korea), South-Western Research Institute (USA), Miba Teer Coatings Ltd, Doosan Power Systems (UK),Chromalloy (UK) Ltd, Tinsley Bridge Group, and many SME companies.

 

He has been editorial board member and reviewer of scientific journals, and keynote speaker and session chair in international conferences.

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Keynote Speakers

Prof. Norbert Koch

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Norbert Koch studied technical physics at the Technische Universität Graz (Austria), where he also received a doctorate in solid state physics in 2000. He spent the following two years as postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and worked on organic/metal interfaces and covalently surface-bound self-assembled monolayers. After moving to Berlin in 2003, he started building his own group, and contributed to the fundamental understanding of interfaces of organic semiconductors with inorganic materials and devising methods to optimize interface electronic properties. Since 2009 he is professor at the Department of Physics of Humboldt-Universität, and since 2010 leads a Joint Research Group at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. More recently, doping of organic semiconductors, and interfacial phenomena with perovskites and 2D materials became part of his research agenda.

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Prof. Alessandro Lavacchi

ICCOM, CNR, Firenze, Italy

Dr. Alessandro Lavacchi is the Editor-in-Chief of "Coatings", an international journal devoted to the material science and the application of thick and thin films. Dr. Lavacchi is a Research Scientist at the Istituto di Chimica dei Composti OrganoMetallici, Italian National Research Council (ICCOM-CNR). His research has been devoted to electrochemistry and the material science of surfaces and coatings. In the latest years his activity has been mainly focused on the development of catalytic nano-structured materials with a special emphasis on their application to the exploitation of biomass derived products in electrochemical devices. In this context he has contributed to the development of "facile" methods for the synthesis of platinum-free electrocatalysts for application in fuel cells, electrolyzers and raw chemical electro-synthesis. The activity resulted in the co-authorship of more than 50 papers in leading international journals and the monograph “Nanotechnology in Electrocatalysis for Energy” edited by Springer.

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Prof. Dongfeng Diao

Shenzhen University, China

Prof Dongfeng Diao received the B.S. degree in mechanical Engineering from Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (China) in 1983 and the M.S. degree from Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (China) in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in Coating tribology from Tohoku University(Japan) in 1992.  He used to work in Shizuoka University(Japan) as an Associated Professor in 1995-2001 and in Xian Jiaotong Univeristy(China) as a professor in 2002-2012. He was appointed as the distinguished professor of Shenzhen University(China) from 2012. Over the past fifteen years, Diao’s research has been at the ECR-plasma Sputtering Carbon Film’s Science and Technology. The significance of the previous discoveries by Diao is reflected by more than 200 publications in various archival journals(Nanoscale, Carbon, Acta Materialia, Applied Physics Letters, ASME-Journal of Tribology, etc), conference proceedings and 23 patents, the best paper has been cited 161 times, and graduation of 10 PhD and 39 MS students. He is the Editoral Board of Journal of Lubrication Science and the associated editor of Friction.

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Prof. Albano Cavaleiro

University of Coimbra, Portugal

Albano Cavaleiro is Full Professor in the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In 1990, he received a Ph.D. from the same University on the field of Mechanical Engineering, with a thesis on the surface modification of materials by the sputtering deposition of thin coatings. Presently, he is head of the research group “Surface Engineering Group” of Centre for Mechanical Engineering of the University of Coimbra and head of the Laboratory of Tests Wear & Materials at Instituto Pedro Nunes.

 

His field of research and publications is related with the degradation and protection of materials, in the following fields: Materials and Surface Engineering, Structural transformations, Deposition and characterization of thin films, Tribology, Nanocrystalline and nanocomposite materials, Electrolytes for fuel cells, Biomaterials; Hard coatings, Mechanical characterization of thin films (depth sensing indentation), Corrosion and oxidation behaviour of thin coatings, Self-lubricating coatings.

 

He participated in more than 30 research projects from which he was scientific responsible in more than 20. He was invited for talks in about 30 international conferences. He supervises(d) 14 PhD students and have an extensive evaluating activity for national and international research agencies. He published more than 250 papers from which about 220 in international journals of SCI. He belongs to the executive committee of the Portuguese Materials Society since 2010. In 2013 he acted as Co-chair for EUROMAT, held in Seville.

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Prof. Daniele Dini

Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Professor Daniele Dini FREng holds a Chair in Tribology at Imperial College London is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the IMechE, the Institute of Physics, and the STLE. He is internationally recognised as a leader in the development and application of computational methods for studying applied mechanics and tribological problems.  His group is at the forefront of the development of multiscale and multidisciplinary high-fidelity approaches that capture the physics of critical interfaces, from the underlying molecular scale to the macroscale seen by engineer as performance, e.g. energy efficiency and reliability.

Prior to joining Imperial College in 2006, Professor Dini studied for a D.Phil. in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford (2004). During his PhD and postdoctoral career, Professor Dini worked with Rolls-Royce on projects associated with the design of aero-engines and made important contributions to contact mechanics and fretting problems as well as the development of modelling techniques to capture microstructural damage in polycrystalline materials. This practical application of his work has helped build links between the tribology and aerospace communities.  His early work led to the award of the Tribology Trust Bronze Medal in 2004 and the Thomas Bernard Hall Prize for the best paper in the IMechE Proceedings Part C in 2008 and again in 2010. Professor Dini’s research on contact modelling was honoured by the ASME K.L. Johnson Award in 2012.

More recently, Professor Dini has made very significant contributions to our ability to model and understand fluid film lubrication and the origins of friction.  During the last 10 years he has extended his research from the macro-scale into atomistic and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to study solid/solid and solid/liquid interfaces, friction fundamentals and MD-continuum coupling techniques.  Recently he has employed reactive force field MD to study the influence of molecular structure on the chemo-mechanical behaviour of antiwear additives in contacts.  He has also developed new solutions and functional materials in the biomedical field in collaboration with medical doctors. These scientific breakthroughs have also been recognised by the IMechE Donald Julius Groen Prize in 2018 and the prestigious Peter Jost Tribology Award in 2021. His group performs fundamental research, while successfully supporting the application of tribology in industry, the strong links with industrial partners have led to the Imperial College President’s Award and Medal for Excellence in External Collaboration and Partnerships (2017). He has written more than 250 journal articles and has delivered more than 50 invited and keynote/plenary talks to discuss his innovative research in the last 10 years.

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Dr. Syahrullail Bin Samion

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

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Dr. David Ruch

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Luxembourg

Dr. Ruch got his Ph.D. diploma in France in 2002. Since 2005, he had the opportunity to lead groups mainly active on developing innovative  functional materials especially in the field of polymers and polymer-based composites and since 2015, he is leading a research group within Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology fully dedicated to surface and interface engineering. He published about 200 technical papers and had the opportunity to give more than 40 oral presentations. His fields of interest spans from interface and surface engineering as well as advanced characterization of materials properties up to  (nano)composites processing. He is actively involved in several projects whose aim is to develop multifunctional polymer composites to address specific applications. Throughout his career, he has attracted more than 10 Mio€ of research funding. Ongoing research projects are focused on developing Nanostructured coatings for one one hand to improve interfacial adhesion between symmetric or disymmetric materials and on the other hand to develop innovative multi-functional thin films.

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Prof. Xu Deng

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

Dr. Xu Deng received his PhD in 2013 from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany, under the advisement of Prof. Hans-Jürgen Butt. Between 2013 and 2014 he performed postdoctoral research at the same group. In 2014, Dr. Deng served as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, work with Prof. Robert O. Ritchie on the subject of innovative bioinspired materials. In 2015, He has received the Thousand Young Talents Award from the Chinese Government, which is the most prestigious Chinese National Program for recruiting global experts and Dr. Deng was appointed as a professor at Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Dr. Deng won the Chinese Government Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad Award in 2012, Best Paper Award in the 25th European Colloid and Interface Society Conference (2011). In 2017, He was pointed by the president of Max Planck Institute as the head of Max Planck Partner Group at UESTC. Dr.Deng is interested understanding of wetting dynamics of structured surfaces, creating new super-wettability materials and investigate their wetting kinetics. He has published more than 23 refereed journal articles in the leading journals such as Science, Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed, Advanced Materials, PNAS, etc.

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Dr. Ronghua Wei

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Since joining SwRI in 2001, Dr. Wei takes the responsibility of leading a research group in conducting research on plasma surface engineering and developing new technologies for the US government and industries worldwide. His research is focused on plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering (PEMS) and plasma immersion ion implantation & deposition (PIII&D) and high intensity plasma ion nitriding (HIPIN). At SwRI he has developed a new PEMS technology, by which ultra thick (500µm), ultra hard (>40GPa) nanocomposite coatings been accomplished. These coatings exhibit very high erosion resistance, about 7-10 times better than the state-of-the-art nitride coatings against sand erosion. These coatings show a great potential for protecting aero engine blades, steam turbine blades and components for petroleum-natural gas exploration and production. The PEMS technology won the R&D100 Award in 2009. SwRI has already signed licensing agreements with a number of commercial companies. The technology can be used for various industries including the aerospace, oil/petroleum, power generation and automotive. Dr. Wei has also developed a diamond-like carbon coating technology to deposit erosion/corrosion/abrasion resistant and hydrophobic coatings on the inner surface of long tubes (80ft long, the longest pipe ever deposited). This technology has led to a series of successful projects from a few oil/gas companies.

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Prof. Tomas Polcar

n-CATS, University of Southampton, UK

Professor Tomas Polcar is a Professor of Materials Science and Tribology at Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton. Tomas graduated in 2000 in Engineering with a Master thesis focused on the design of a hot-water boiler burning green wood with a nominal power of 10 MW. Then he completely switched the scale from meters to nanometers when studying for a PhD in Mathematical and Physical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague; the thesis was on the high temperature tribology of protective coatings. After finishing PhD in 2005, he moved to the University of Coimbra, Portugal, as postdoctoral researcher. In 2008, Tomas returned back to CTU in Prague as a lecturer. He launched Advanced Materials Group in 2008 being promoted to associate professor (2012) and full professor (2015) in applied physics. Tomas moved to Southampton as Lecturer in Coatings and Nanotribology in 2011 and was promoted to associate professor in 2014.

 

Tomas has extensive funding track record from bodies in the Czech Republic (GAAV,GACR, MPO), Portugal (FCT), UK (TSB, EPSRC, DSTL, Innovate UK). He was successful with European bids (FP7: Radinterfaces 2011-2014; HardAlt 2013-2016, AgriSenSact (2014-2016) and now he runs two H2020 projects (MSCA ITN project Solution, coordinator, and FET Open project Icarus). His research covers large area of surface engineering, particularly design, deposition and characterisation of thin films, radiation damage, nanoscale mechanical properties and interface phenomena. He pioneers novel self-lubricant coatings with self-adaptive nanostructure and high temperature tribology of thin films. His total funding portfolio is over £6m and he has number of industrial collaborators.

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Prof. Sandra Carvalho

University of Coimbra, Portugal

Sandra Carvalho (F) is Full Professor at University of Coimbra. She was Vice-Director of Physics Department (University of Minho) between 2011 – 2013 and 2015-2016. She received her B.A.Sc. Physics and Chemistry at the University of Minho, Portugal in 1994, where she obtained also her PhD degree in Physics in 2004, with a work carried out in Portugal, France, Netherlands and Germany, in the field of hard PVD coatings. Presently, she is Coordinator of the Research Surface Modification and Functionalization Group within Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes (CEMMPRE) and Centre of Physics from Universities of Minho and Porto (CFUM-UP). Her research activity is focused on the development of new decorative, protective and functional coatings for many different parts and components made of metals, plastics, glass, textiles, leathers, and other materials. She is deeply involved in innovative nanoscale coating architectures for functional and smart surfaces such as flexible devices and bio-sensors, low friction and wear nanostructured coatings, nanostructured materials with barrier and antimicrobial properties, nanoparticles and 3D nanostructures. She is head of the Laboratory of Corrosion and Electrochemical studies. She participated in more than 36 projects at National and European levels, 26 of them as coordinator. She supervised/co-supervised 9 Post Docs, 14 PhD students (10 concluded) and 44 MSc (37 concluded).  She has 3 submitted patents, more than 125 papers published in international ISI journals, 3 book chapters, and more than 2300 citations, h-index 27, (scopus). She is member from European Joint Committee on Plasma and Ion Surface Engineering and member from Executive Committee of Advanced Surface Engineering Division (ASED) of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). She is Vice-President from Portuguese Materials Society. She acted as Advisory board of PSE2014 held in Germany, as Scientific Committee of PSE2016, PSE2018, PSE2020, PSE2022 that were held in Germany, and participated as member of organizing committee of national and international conferences. She will be chairwoman from Junior Euromat 2022. She is editor of Materials (MDPI) Journal.

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Dr. Shuncai Wang

nCATS, University of Southampton, UK

Dr. Shuncai Wang is Lecturer within Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton. Dr Shuncai Wang is Lecturer of national Centre for Advanced Tribology, Academic Lead and Manager of the University Science and Engineering Electron Microscopy Centre in Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton. Dr Wang received a BSc in Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MSc in Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials and PhD at University of Birmingham. He joined the Engineering Materials and Surface Engineering Research Group at the University of Southampton in 2001. He has the interdisciplinary research among materials, engineering and chemistry. His research interests currently centre on developing surface coatings for a wide range of engineering applications and using advanced characterisation techniques (e.g. electron microscopy) to understand and improve the mechanical and tribological properties. He has published over 100 peer-viewed journal papers and been invited as a referee for more than 20 international journals. In Google Scholar has he has an h-index of 27, i10-index 95 and citations over 400.

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Dr. Giovanni Ramírez

Bruker Nano Surfaces, California, USA

Dr Ramirez has extensive knowledge in materials science and mechanical engineering in general, and more specifically in surface engineering, coatings/thin films, tribology and lubrication, and corrosion. He get involved in numerous research projects dealing with development and characterization of thin films/coatings for different applications. He participates in research activities that are both basic and applied in nature, and directed toward reducing energy consumption and understanding of the underlying fundamental mechanisms involved in the wear and friction behavior of many types of coatings and lubricants. He has contributed to large project reports, key scientific publications (including one in Nature Journal), and proposal preparation. His areas of interest/expertise are high performance tribological coatings, nanolubrication, thin film deposition, super hard coatings, nanocomposite materials, corrosion resistance coatings, and biocompatible materials.

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Prof. Feng Huang

Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Division of Surface Engineering & Remanufacturing

CAS Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE)

Research Group: http://english.nimte.cas.cn/rh/rd/sf/sf_research_interests

 

Research Interests:

Advanced coatings/films, advanced coating technologies, structural characterization, nanoscale mechanical testing, etc.

 

Education

Ph.D:   University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL, USA)        2003

M.S:     Beijing University of Technology                             1998

B.S:      Anhui University of Technology                              1993

 

Industrial Experience

2008-2009:  Western Digital Corp (Fremont, CA, USA)

2006-2008:  Intevac, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA, USA)

2005-2006:  Maxtor, Inc. (San Jose, CA, USA)

1993-1995:  Baoshan Iron & Steel Corp. (Baoshan, Shanghai, China)

 

Selected Publications (of Total 22 publications)

  • F. Huang and M. L. Weaver, Journal of Applied Physics, 100:093523 (2006).
  • F. Huang and M. L. Weaver, Journal of Applied Physics, 98:073505 (2005).
  • X. Li, F. Huang, M. Curry, S. C. Street, and M. L. Weaver, Tribology Letters, 19:273 (2005).
  • J. Shi, F. Huang, M. L. Weaver, and T. M. Klein, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, 23:452 (2005).
  • X. Li, F. Huang, M. Curry, S. C. Street, and M. L. Weaver, Thin Solid Films, 473:164 (2005).
  •  J. F. Sullivan, F. Huang, J. A. Barnard, and M. L. Weaver, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, 23:78-84 (2005).
  • F. Huang, J. A. Barnard, and M. L. Weaver, Surface and Coatings Technology, 155:146 (2002).
  • F. Huang, W. J. Liu, J. P. Sullivan, J. A. Barnard, and M. L. Weaver, Journal of Materials Research, 17:805 (2002).
  • F. Huang, J. A. Barnard, and M. L. Weaver, Journal of Materials Research, 16:945 (2001).
  • F. Huang, G. Wei, J. A. Barnard, and M. L. Weaver, Surface and Coatings Technology, 146:391 (2001).

 

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