SPEAKERS

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Luisa De Cola

Full Professor at the University of Milano and Director of the Materials for Health 
Laboratory at the Istituto di ricerche farmacologiche Mario Negri
- Milan, Italy -

Luisa De Cola is since November 2020 Professor at the University of Milan and head of the unit Materials for Health at the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, IRCCS, Italy. She is also part time scientist at the INT-KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany. 
She was born in Messina, Italy, where she studied chemistry. After a post-doc in USA she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna (1990). In 1998 she was appointed Full Professor at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In 2004 she moved to the University of Muenster, Germany. In 2012 she has been appointed Axa Chair of Supramolecular and Bio-Material Chemistry, at the University of Strasbourg. She is recipients of several awards, the most recent being the Izatt–Christensen Award in Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (2019), the gold Medal Natta (2020). She has been Nominated “Chevalier de la Légion d’ Honneur” by the President of the French Republic, François Hollande, and she is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, of the Accademia dei Lincei and fellow of the American Institute For Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). 
Her main interests are luminescent and electroluminescent systems and their assemblies, and nano- and porous structures for biomedical applications.
She is the editor in chief of Chemistry Europe. 
Her main interests are labels for diagnostics, and nano- and porous structures for biomedical applications. 
She has published 400 papers, filed 40 patents and has a h index of 85. 

More information at https://www.decolalab.com.

Jean Pierre Majoral

Directeur de Recherche CNRS Emerite - Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination
- France - 

Dr. Majoral's career at CNRS progressed from Attaché de Recherche (1972) to the esteemed role of Directeur de Recherche Classe Exceptionnelle (1997), concluding with the title of Directeur de Recherche CNRS Emerite (2007-). 
Noteworthy positions include Vice-Director of Laboratoire Chimie de Coordination, Toulouse (1998-2002), and Co-Director of a French Polish joint International Laboratory (LEA 1999 – 2007). 
He served as the Editor in Chief of the New Journal of Chemistry from 2005 to 2009. 
Dr. Majoral has made substantial contributions outside academia, co-founding and directing Dendris since 2009. 
He served as a consultant for Biodendrimer International Company in 2011 and as the Director of the Department of “Dendrimers, design, and applications” at INANOTECH-MASCIR Institute, Rabat (Morocco) from 2010 to 2012. 
He is also an Advisory Professor at Donghua University (Shanghai, China) and a founder member of the Sino-French Network on Theranostics and Medicinal Chemistry (SF-NTMC), where he currently holds a scientific advisory role. 
Throughout his career, Dr. Majoral has supervised an impressive group of 70 PhDs and 30 postdocs, contributing significantly to the development of young researchers in the field. 
Dr. Majoral's primary research interests lie in the design and development of first-in-class dendrimers for therapeutic applications, material sciences, and catalysis. 
His overarching goal is to open new directions in nanomedicine, specifically focusing on fighting challenging diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, and inflammation. 
Dr. Majoral's outstanding contributions have earned him prestigious awards, including the Award of the French Chemical Society, Division "Coordination Chemistry" in 1990, the "Prix Jecker" Award of the French Academy of Sciences in 1993, and the Nanqiang Lecture Award in China in 2007.
His commitment to the field is further recognized with the Amigo Medal from Lodz University, Poland in 2019. 
He is the author of over 741 papers, 49 patents, 7 books, and 28 book chapters. His work has garnered significant attention, accumulating over 24,500 citations and achieving an impressive h index of 83 as of 2022.

Virgil Percec

(member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences)
P. Roy Vagelos Chair and Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania
- USA -

Dr. Virgil Percec's distinguished career spans from his early academic pursuits to his esteemed position as the P. Roy Vagelos Chair and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. 
He earned his Ph.D. from the esteemed "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry and has since garnered extensive experience in the field. Along this path, he has held various academic appointments, including visiting professorships at esteemed institutions worldwide such as the University of Freiburg and the University of Akron. 
Throughout his career, Dr. Percec has held various academic positions, including notable roles such as Advisory Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Honorary Professor at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanoscience. Percec’s current science activities cover organic and macromolecular synthesis, supramolecular chemistry, self-assembly, biological mimics, complex systems, biological membranes, origins, amplification and transfer of chirality, supramolecular chirality, liquid crystals, supramolecular electronics, nanoscience, and other cross-disciplinary research fields.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Percec has made significant contributions to scientific publishing, serving as an editor for prominent journals such as the Journal of Polymer Science and Chemical Reviews. Beyond academia, Dr. Percec's impact extends to industry, where he has served as a consultant for leading chemical companies, including DuPont, Bayer, and British Petroleum. 
In recognition of his groundbreaking research, Dr. Percec has received numerous awards and honors, including prestigious accolades such as the American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry and the Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists. 
His extensive list of achievements includes delivering over 1.283 plenary and invited lectures, showcasing his expertise and influence on the global stage. With over 815 refereed publications, 20 edited books, 80 patents, and an extensive record of plenary and invited lectures, Dr. Percec's scholarly impact is undeniable. His work has garnered widespread acclaim, with over 61.200 citations and an impressive h-index of 129, solidifying his legacy as a leading figure in the field of chemistry.

João F. Mano

Full Professor at the Chemistry Department of University of Aveiro
- Portugal -

João F. Mano is a Full Professor at the Chemistry Department of University of Aveiro, Portugal, and vice-director of the Associate Laboratory CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, where he is directing the COMPASS Research Group (http://compass.web.ua.pt/). 
He has also an appointment as Invited Professor (classe exceptionelle, since 2014) at University of Lorraine (France), Visiting Professor in KAIST (South Korea) - 2019 and Adjunct Professor at Ajou University (South Korea) since 2020. 
He is the director of the doctoral program on Biotechnology at University of Aveiro. 
His research focuses on the application of advanced biomaterials and cells to advance multidisciplinary concepts in the field of regenerative and personalized medicine.  Specifically, he utilizes biomimetic and nano/micro-technology approaches to develop polymer-based biomaterials and surfaces for the creation of biomedical devices with enhanced structural and multi-functional properties. 
He also engineers microenvironments to regulate cell behavior and organization, with the goal of clinically applying these technologies in advanced therapies and drug screening, or in the bioengineering of disease models. 
He is the Editor-in-Chief of Materials Today Bio (Elsevier). 
He has been coordinating or involved in many national and European research projects, including 2 Advanced Grants and 3 Proof-of-Concept Grants from the European Research Council. 
João F. Mano has received different honours and awards, including two honoris causa doctorates (Univ. of Lorraine and Univ. Utrecht), the George Winter Award 2020 from the European Society for Biomaterials and he was elected fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (FEurASc), Biomaterials Science & Engineering (FBSE) and American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (FAIMBE).

Sébastien Lecommandoux

Professor at University of Bordeaux, and Director of the LCPO-CNRS
- France -

Sébastien Lecommandoux received his Ph.D. (1996) in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bordeaux. 
After a postdoctoral experience at the University of Illinois (UIUC, USA) in the group of Prof. Samuel I. Stupp, he started his academic career at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques as Associate Professor in 1998 and was promoted to Full Professor at Bordeaux INP in 2005. 
He is currently Director of the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO-CNRS) and is leading the group “Polymers Self-Assembly and Life Sciences”.
His research interests include the design of bio-inspired polymers for biomaterials and pharmaceutical develoment, especially based on polypeptide, proteins and polysaccharide-based block copolymers self-assembly, the design of polymersomes for drug-delivery and theranostic, as well as biomimetic approaches toward design of synthetic viruses and artificial cells. 
He published over 220 publications in international journal, 6 book chapters and 12 patents (3 being licenced), with over 18000 citations (h-factor 67, Google Scholar). 
He is also co-director of the joint laboratory LCPO-L'OREAL. 
Sébastien Lecommandoux is recipient of the CNRS bronze medal (2004), Institut Universitaire de France Junior Chair (IUF 2007), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry RSC (2017), Seqens Award of the French Academy of Science (2019), Member of the Academia Europaea (2020), XingDa Lectureship Award from Peking University (2021). 
He has been Editor-in-Chief of Biomacromolecules (ACS) since 2020 after serving as Associate Editor since 2013. 
He is also in the Editorial Advisory Board of several international journals, including Bioconjugate Chemistry (ACS), Polymer Chemistry (RSC) and Biomaterials Science (RSC).

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