Dr. Vo-Dinh is R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and Director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke University. After high school in Vietnam, he pursued studies in Europe, receiving a B.S. in physics at EPFL-Lausanne, Switzerland (1970) and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at ETH-Zurich, Switzerland (1975). Before joining Duke University in 2006, he was Director of the Center for Advanced Biomedical Photonics and a Corporate Fellow, one of the highest honors for distinguished scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). His main research goal is focused on developing advanced technologies to protect the environment and human health. His research has centered on the development, integration, and application of nanophotonics, biophotonics, molecular spectroscopy, molecular biology, and nanotechnology for medical diagnostics and treatment, photoimmunotherapy, precision medicine, and global health.
Dr. Vo-Dinh has received seven R&D 100 Awards for Most Significant Advance in Research and Development; the Gold Medal Award, Society for Applied Spectroscopy (1988); the Languedoc-Roussillon Award (France) (1989); the Scientist of the Year Award, ORNL (1992); the Thomas Jefferson Award, Martin Marietta Corporation (1992); two Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer, Federal Laboratory Consortium (1995, 1986); the Lockheed Martin Technology Commercialization Award (1998); the Distinguished Inventors Award, UT-Battelle (2003); the Distinguished Scientist of the Year Award, ORNL (2003); the Exceptional Services Award, U.S. Department of Energy (1997); the Award for Spectrochemical Analysis, American Chemical Society (2011); the Sir George Stokes Award, Royal Society of Chemistry, United Kingdom (2019); and the SPIE’s President Award, SPIE The International Society for Optics and Photonics (2022). He has authored over 500 publications, is a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and holds over 65 patents.
Marco Piumetti graduated in Chemical Engineering and obtained his European PhD in Materials Science and Technology from the Politecnico di Torino. He trained at several academic institutions, including the Laboratoire de réactivité de surface - Sorbonne Université. Currently holding the position of appointed professor at the Politecnico di Torino, He teaches courses in Industrial Biochemistry Sustainable Engineering, Catalysis and Biocatalysis for undergraduate and graduate (PhD) students. His research activities are conducted within the Catalytic Reaction Engineering for Sustainable Engineering (CREST) group of the Department of Applied Science and Technology (DISAT). They encompass several aspects of heterogeneous catalysis and biocatalysis aimed at addressing health and environmental issues.
Ulla Vogel is professor at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark and at the Technical University of Denmark. She is European Registered Toxicologist and Honorary Doctor at Lund University, Sweden. Her research is focused on nanoparticle toxicity with focus on cancer and cardiovascular disease. She was PI of Danish Centre for Nanosafety 1 and 2 and currently PI of FFIKA and FFIKA2. She acts as advisor to the Danish Working Environment Authority and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Alberto Bianco received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Padova (Italy). As a visiting scientist, he worked at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), the University of Tübingen (Germany), as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, the University of Padova and Kyoto University (Japan) in 2019. He is currently First Class Research Director at the CNRS in Strasbourg. His research interests focus on the design of multifunctional carbon-based nanomaterials for therapy, diagnostics and imaging. He has published more than 300 articles in high-impact international journals, for a total of over 41,500 citations and a h-index of 84 (Google Scholar). He was included in the 2015 and 2016 Thomson Reuters list of the top 200 most cited chemists. He has been elected Fellow of the European Academy of Science in 2017 and of the Academia Europaea in 2020. In 2019 he obtained the CNRS Silver Medal. Since 2011 he is Editor of the journal CARBON.
Josep Samitier Martí is director of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Barcelona (Spain). Full professor at the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Physics of the University of Barcelona (UB). Background in Physics (M.S. Degree in Physics, University of Barcelona and Ph.D. in Physics, University of Barcelona). Group leader of the Nanobioengineering group at IBEC and group leader in the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBERBBN).His main research areas are Biosensors, Microfluidics and Organ-on-chip.
Prof. Samitier has participated in and coordinated several European and national projects related to integrated microsystems and more recently to Nanobiotechnology devices. He has published more than 350 scientific articles, has directed 39 doctoral theses and is co-inventor of 6 licensed patents. He was deputy director of CIBER-BBN, vice-rector for International Policy at the University of Barcelona (UB), vice-rector for Innovation at the UB, acting rector of the UB, Spanish delegate to the Working Group on Biotechnology (OECD), director of the "Health Campus of Excellence" HUBc (UB), coordinator of the Master in Biomedical Engineering (UB-UPC)and founder member of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in Health (EIT-HEALTH).
Currently, he is coordinator of the Spanish Nanomedicine Platform (NanomedSpain), scientific coordinator at national level of the Complementary Plan for Biotechnology Applied to Healthcare, which is boosted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain together with 7 autonomous communities on new tools for precision medicine, president of the Catalan Association of Research Centres (Associació Catalana d'Entitats de Recerca - ACER) and a full member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).
He was awarded the City of Barcelona prize in the Technological Innovation category in 2003 and the Narcís Monturiol medal in 2020
Elisabetta Esposito is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology (CHIM09) at the University of Ferrara (Italy). She achieved her University Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Ferrara, Italy in 1991. From 1993 to 1997 she trained a PhD internship on Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology of the Department of Pharmaceutical Science, at the Ferrara University, reaching her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1997, discussing the thesis "Microparticulate and semisolid systems for controlled release of drugs" at the University of Pavia. From 1998 to 2018 she continued her research activity at the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, University of Ferrara with 8 fellowships. In 2017 she obtained the qualification of Full Professor in the competition sector 03/D2, Technology, Socioeconomics and Medicine Regulations BANDO D.D. 1532/2016, participating at the National Scientific Qualification Competition.
From October 2018 to September 2021 she was Researcher in Pharmaceutical Technology, Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Ferrara.
From October 2021 she is Associate Professor in Pharmaceutical Technology, Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Ferrara sector 03/D2 DRUG TECHNOLOGY, SOCIOECONOMICS AND REGULATIONS – CHIM/09 PHARMACEUTICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF CHEMISTRY.
Elisabetta Esposito is Member of the SITELF society, of the “Cosmetology Centre” of the University of Ferrara and of the PhD board for the “Doctorate in Chemical Sciences” at the University of Ferrara.
Her research activity in general concerns nanosystems for the controlled release of molecules with biological activity. The main research topics are the production and characterization of ethosomes for topical delivery of natural drugs, the production of nano-and microspheres based on completely biocompatible materials, the production and characterization of semisolid smart dosage form.
Elisabetta Esposito has published 145 articles in peer reviewed international scientific journals, 140 of them indexed on Scopus (ID: 7102536463), 76 congress contributions and 12 publications in books.
h index 38. ORCID: 0000-0002-8416-3629.
In 2023 Elisabetta Esposito won the national Italian grant PRIN with the project “Ethosomes for transdermal delivery of phytocompounds as tools to prevent skin damage” as Principal Investigator.
She is lecturer of the “Pharmaceutical Technology" course, Degrees in Medical Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Italy.
Member of the editorial board of “Antioxidants”, “Life”, “Cosmetics”, and “Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology”.
Guest Editors of the Special Issues: “Bioactive Molecules from Vegetable Sources for the Treatment of Cutaneous Pathologies and Disorders – Parts 1 and 2” in Current Pharmaceutical Design (2019); “Nanostructures for Antioxidant Delivery” in Antioxidants (2020-2021); “Polyphenolic Compounds and Their Nanoformulation, Metabolism and Impact on Human Health", in Life Journal; “Novel delivery Systems for Dermocosmetics Applications” in Cosmetics (2023-2024).
She is Reviewer for many indexed journals.
Yen Nee Tan is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Newcastle University. She is also the Principal Investigator of Biosensors and Nanomaterials at the Newcastle Research & Innovation Institute (NewRIIS) and Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR. She obtained her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and National University of Singapore (NUS) under the Singapore-MIT Alliance Scholarship. Her current research focuses on the development of multifunctional nanomaterials inspired by Nature for the innovations in chemical/biological analysis and nanomedicine. She has published and served as the editor/editorial board members of several prestigious journals (e.g., ACS Nano, Nanoscale, JACS, etc.) and books (e.g., Springer Nature, ACS book). She holds 18 patents with 3 licenses on Nanosensor technologies for medical diagnostic, drug discovery, food safety and environmental applications. Her recent work on nanotheranostics has been selected as hot papers in RSC and Wiley journals, and featured in the Science news of The Straits Times, Singapore. She has contributed in the organisation of many sessions/conferences and actively promote women in science and engineering. She is the ASEAN scholar and the recipient of more than 15 international scientific awards, including Nano-Micro Science Innovation Award (Korea, 2018), IAAM Scientist Medal (Sweden, 2018), Young Giants of NanoScience (Hong Kong, 2016), ACCS Chemical Sensors Award (Malaysia, 2015), L’Oreal for Women in Science Fellowship (Top 3 Singapore, 2013), AsiaNANO Young Researcher Award (Japan, 2010), etc.
Research Interests :