Speakers

Giovanni Emanuele Corazza is a Full Professor and Member of the Board of Directors at the Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, President of the Cineca consortium, founder of the Marconi Institute for Creativity, President of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi, Member of the Marconi Society Board of Directors, and Member of the Partnership Board of the 5G Infrastructure Association. He was Head of the Department of Electronics, Computer Science and Systems (DEIS) in the years 2009-2012, Chairman of the School for Telecommunications in the years 2000-2003, Chairman of the Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems Task Force (ASMS‑TF), Founder and Chairman of the Integral Satcom Initiative (ISI), a European Technology Platform devoted to Satellite Communications, Member of the Board of the 5G Infrastructure Association and Vice-Chairman of the NetWorld2020 European Technology Platform in the years 2013-2016. In the years 1997-2012, he has served as Editor for Communication Theory and Spread Spectrum for the IEEE Transactions on Communications. He is author of more than 300 papers, and received the Marconi International Fellowship Young Scientist Award in 1995, the IEEE 2009 Satellite Communications Distinguished Service Award, the 2013 Newcomer# Best Paper Award, the 2002 IEEE VTS Best System Paper Award, the Best Paper Award at IEEE ISSSTA’98, at IEEE ICT2001, and at ISWCS 2005. His research interests are in creativity and innovation, 5G systems, navigation and positioning. Check out his interesting TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEusrD8g-dM

Vincenzo Balzani is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is a fellow of several academies including the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the European Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is one of the most cited chemists of the world, with more than 35000 citations and h-index 101. Recent Awards: Honor Professor, East China University of Science and Technology of Shanghai, 2009; Blaise Pascal Medal, European Academy of Sciences, 2009; Nature jh for Mentoring in Science, 2013; Archiginnasio d’oro, Città di Bologna, 2016; Grand Prix de la Maison de la Chimie (France) 2016; Leonardo da Vinci Award, European Academy of Sciences, 2017; N.J. Turro Award, Inter-American Photochemical Society, 2017.
His scientific activity is documented by more than 600 papers in the fields of Photochemistry, Photophysics, Solar energy conversion, Supramolecular chemistry, and Molecular devices and machines, the field awarded with the Nobel Prize in chemistry 2016. 

Marco Piccinini is VCM & OCD Research Manager at INOVYN (Vinyl Chloride Monomer & Organic Chlorine Derivatives). He received his PhD from University of Cardiff with an industrial sponsored thesis on the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide using Au-Pd catalysts under the supervision of Prof. FSR Graham Hutchings. He joined Solvay in 2011 as VCM Researcher and worked on several projects mainly in the field of catalysis and petrochemicals. In 2014, he became part of the newly created JV INOVYN (Solvay-INEOS, currently fully owned by INEOS) as research manager and, at the same time, extending his activities to other organic chlorinated compounds such as epichlorhydrine and allyl chloride. He is inventor of more than 15 patents and co-author of more than 20 scientific papers.

Simone Ferriani is a Professor of Economics and Business Management at the Department of Business Science at the University of Bologna and Honorary Professor at Cass Business School (City University London). His interests in research include management, the importance of organisational performance and creativity.

Guilhem Velve Casquillas is a former physics researcher passionate about entrepreneurship. He is a founding partner of ELVESYS SAS, Black Hole Lab SAS , E-Brumair SAS, LongLongLife SAS and Darwin Microfluidics SAS .

Guilhem Velve Casquillas is in charge of ELVESYS management as well as the support of the sisters companies arising from ELVESYS. Inside of ELVESYS, he is also in charge of the R&D on the scientific projects with strong potential of creation of new companies. Notably, he’s PhD thesis enabled the development of the world fastest pathogenic detection system (FASTGENE technology). In 2014, this FASTGENE project won the Worldwide 2030 Innovation Contest organized by the French government.

Guilhem is a member of « Réseau Entreprendre” (Undertake Network) and also gives voluntary entrepreneurship lessons inside research institutes in order to help young scientists create their enterprise.

ELVESYS SAS is part of the PHOTOTRAIN progect.

Leonardo Setti, University of Bologna, Dept. of Industrial Chemistry, is a scientist with a leading scientific excellence in the topic at national and EU level.

Main field: supramolecular chemistry, immobilization of enzymes and microorganisms in food technology, environmental and industrial applications.

Specific experiences on the development of new biocatalytic applications for the developmento of new products capable to satisfy the sustainability of industrial processes as well as the integrated product policies required by the Green Public Procurement. The research was essentially focalized to valorize industrial processes in terms of chemistry and energy as well.

Since 2003, his researches are focused on the technologies for the energy production from renewable resources and in particular on direct solar technologies  such as the development of new plastic photovoltaic devices transforming the solar energy in electric energy and non-direct solar  technologies such as the development of new bioelectrodes for the realization of biofuel cell transforming agro-industrial wastes in electric energy.

Recently, he has developed new model of Integrated System for the Energy Management to be applied in the local energetic planning for the realization of an energetic net by a distributed power microgeneration.

In July 2012, he became Chairman of AGEN.TER. (Territorial Agency fo Sustainable Food, Agro-Environment and Energy), which combines the expertise of the association Environment Agricoltural Center (AAC), founded in Crevalcore by Giorgio Celli in 1988, and the association Disclosure Agricoltural Center (CDA), founded in 1976, which publishes the magazine "Il Divulgatore". The agency, whose founding members are the Province of Bologna, the cities of Terre d'Acqua, Confagricoltura Bologna, the Italian Confederation of Farmers of Bologna and the Consortium of Bonifica renana, will help to enhance the synergies between the public and private sectors in agriculture and the environment with the prospect of new fields of intervention such as that of food and renewable energies

He is a member of the Directive Counsil of the Ordine dei Chimici di Bologna e Ravenna.

He is a member of the working group on Solar Energy for the Energy Commission of the Accademia dei Lincei.

Alessandra Quadrelli is a CNRS researcher and the chairwoman of the Sustainability Chair of Chemical, Physics and Electronic Engineering School CPE Lyon since 2009, subsidized DOW France. In this context she organizes the “CO2 Forum “. She also coordinate the SINCHEM team in Lyon. (SINCHEM: Sustainable Industrial Chemistry” Erasmus Mundus Doctoral Programme (2013-2018), led by the University of Bologna).

As a CNRS researcher since 2002, Alessandra is active in the field of organometallic chemistry applied to novel functional materials. Her research interests in C2P2 laboratory (CNRS / CPE Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) have focused on gaining molecular understanding of the interaction between organometallic precursors and solid surfaces, such as silica and more recently, metal organic frameworks, in route to N2 activation, heterogeneous catalysts and other active phases. She teaches undergraduate and graduate inorganic and organometallic chemistry courses at CPE Lyon and in University of Lyon.

Prof. Melchiorre studied Chemistry at the University of Bologna, where he graduated in 1999. He received his PhD in Chemistry in 2003 at Bologna University working in the area of asymmetric catalysis, under the direction of Professor Achille Umani-Ronchi and the supervision of Professor Pier Giorgio Cozzi. In 2002, he spent a period in Denmark working with Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen at the “Center for Catalysis”, Århus University, where his studies centered on asymmetric organocatalysis. In 2003, Paolo worked as a postdoctoral associate with Professor Giuseppe Bartoli, at the Industrial Chemistry Faculty of the Bologna University.

In October 2007 he took a permanent position as an Assistant Professor at Bologna University. In September 2009 Paolo joined the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona as an ICREA (Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies) Professor and ICIQ Group Leader.

Paolo has received the “G. Ciamician” Medal, awarded by the Italian Chemical Society (2007), and the Thieme Journal Prize (2009), and a JSPS Fellowship under the FY2013 Program for Research in Japan. He was also nominated Liebig Lecturer 2008 by the Organic Division of the German Chemical Society.

He was featured in the “Author Profile section” of Angewandte Chemie (ACIE 2009, 48, 3389). From 2013, Paolo is a member of the Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis (Wiley) Academic Advisory Board and of the International Advisory Board of ChemCatChem (Wiley).

In 2011, Paolo has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to carry out the 5-year project “ORGA-NAUT: Exploring Chemical Reactivity with Organocatalysis”, while in 2016 he has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to carry out the 5-year project “CATA-LUX: Light-Driven Asymmetric Organocatalysis”, both funded by the European Research Council. He has authored more than 100 publications in international scientific journals. His papers have received more than 6500 citations.

A Board Member of Govenors at Politecnico di Torino, Guido Saracco...

Leonardo Palmisano is Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Palermo. His main field of interest is heterogeneous photocatalysis and he is author of ca. 300 papers published in international journals and books and oral or poster communications in National and International Conferences (h index 61, citations 13496, SCOPUS 2017). He has been invited as Visiting Researcher (Bradford University, UK), Visiting Professor (Hokkaido University, Japan) or Lecturer in many Universities all over the world. He is also the co-author of the didactic book 'Fondamenti di Chimica’ published in Italy by Edises and in Spain by Ariel Ciencia.

Currently Prof. Roda is Associate Professor within the Department of Chemical and Mining Engineering and Environmental Technologies (presently Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, DICAM) of the University of Bologna. A list of the various courses for the Chemical Engineering Degree, that he taught or is teaching,  includes : "Chemical Processes and Plants, Part II" and "Plants and Processes for the Food Industry", "Chemical Reactor Engineering", "Engineering of Separation Processes", "Photocatalytic Processes and Environmental Applications".

He is the coauthor of the plan for the treatment of the waste waters from olive oil mills produced in Liguria region (1988-1990).

He has been the main researcher for the modeling, chemical characterization and gas effluent treatment line in the National Program for Environmental Research Theme n.15. ref. 149115 - 12611374, Sub-theme 1 (In-Situ Vitrification of Contaminated Soils) funded of the Italian Ministry of University and Research.

The research is carried out through a chemical engineering approach in different fields, such as radiant energy transport, photocatalysis, ozonation, water detoxification and green chemistry. The focus for all these subjects is on the "process intensification", which is usually obtained through the coupling of reaction and separation or different "Advanced Oxidation Technologies". The aim of process intensification is a substantial enhancement of the yield and of the exploitation of the primary resources. In other words, sustainability is the actual goal, as it is nowadays required for the development of the chemical industries. The results can be applied in the field of sustainability and green chemistry.

He published several articles on international scientific journals, mostly in the field of photocatalysis. On this subject, the attention is on the coupling of photocatalysis with membrane separation processes for water purification and green synthesis, on the proper design of photocatalytic reactors and on the correct kinetic analysis of this type of reactions.

Timothy Noël, born 1982 in Aalst (Belgium), received in 2004 his MSc degree (Industrial Chemical Engineering) from the KaHo Sint-Lieven in Ghent. He then moved to Ghent University to obtain a PhD at the Laboratory for Organic and Bioorganic Synthesis under the supervision of Professor Johan Van der Eycken (2005-2009). The title of his PhD manuscript is “Synthesis and application of chiral dienes and chiral imidates for asymmetric transition metal catalysis”. Next, he moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Stephen L. Buchwald. At MIT, he worked on the development of new continuous-flow methods for cross-coupling chemistry at the MIT-Novartis Center for Continuous Manufacturing. In 2011, he accepted a position as an assistant professor in the research group of Professor Volker Hessel at Eindhoven University of Technology. His research interest are flow chemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis and organic synthesis.

He received in 2011 the Incentive Award for Young Researchers from the Comité de Gestion du Bulletin des Sociétés Chimiques Belges, in 2012 a VENI award from NWO and he was also finalist of the European Young Chemist Award 2012. In 2013, he received a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant from the European Union. Since 2015, he coordinates the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ETN program “Photo4Future” on the development of photoredox catalysis in photomicroreactors (www.photo4future.com). In 2015, he obtained a prestigious VIDI award from NWO. He serves as an associate editor for Journal of Flow Chemistry.

Ottavia Jedrkiewicz completed her Master degree in Physics, in experimental quantum optics in October 1997 at the University of Rome La Sapienza and obtained her PhD in Theoretical Physics at Essex University (UK). Since 2012 she has been a permanent Researcher at the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies (IFN-CNR). She currently carries out her research activity in Como, in a affiliate unit of IFN-Milan, performing experimental research in Classical and Quantum nonlinear optics at the Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics laboratory of Insubria University, where she also teaches “Physics of Lasers”. In addition to her long-standing research on coherence and spatio-temporal classical and quantum correlations in optical parametric processes, she is currently interested and works on pulse/beam reshaping into nondiffracting waves for laser microfabrication, material cutting, waveguide generation, integrated photonics and for applications to microfluidics.

Ottavia Jedrkiewicz has worked within many national and European research projects, and won a Marie-Curie Inter-European fellowship in 2006. She has an h-index of 18 and is author of 75 papers published on refereed international journals (8 Phys. Rev. Lett.) and 60 conference papers. She is also coauthor of two patents on “High speed laser processing of transparent materials” (PCT/EP2012/073099 and PCT/EP2013/003508).

Enrico Tronconi is the author of over 250 scientific publications and co-inventor of fifteen industrial patents. His research focuses mainly on the applications of Catalytic Reaction Engineering in energy conversion processes and environmental protection. His works on diesel engines have contributed to the development of the BlueTec technology, currently used in Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The Professor has recently coordinated a Research Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN) funded by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), entitled “Processes for Clean Energy, Low-Emission Transport and Sustainable Chemistry using Open-Cell Foams as Novel Advanced Structured Materials” (IFOAMS).

Supporting innovative high-quality scientific projects carried out by established researchers is the objective of the Advanced Grants, the funding scheme of the European Research Council (ERC) for researchers of any nationality and any age that are able to open new directions in scientific development. Enrico Tronconi, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan, has been awarded one of these prestigious grants, about 2,5 million euro, for his project that will last five years.

Simelys Hernández obtained her degree in Chemical Engineering, with highest honors (Lode) at both Politecnico di Torino (Polito, Turin, Italy) and at Universidad Central de Venezuela (Caracas, Venezuela) in 2004 and completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Polito in November 2009. Since June 2016, she is Assistant Professor of the courses of Catalysis for the Energy and the Environment, Introduction to Sustainability, Processes of the Food Industry and Gas and Oil Production at the DISAT department (Polito). She is responsible of the research team: CO₂ reduction for a low-carbon economy (CREST group). She is affiliated to the CSFT of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT@Polito) and to the Institute of Nanotechnology of the National Research Council (CNR-Nanotech, Italy), member of the RSC and MRS. She has worked in the coordination and scientific teams of FP7 and H2020 EU projects (SOLHYDROMICS, MCWAP, ArtipHyction, TERRA, CELBICON and OCEAN). As an example, she was in the team that develop the first pilot scale (1.6 m²) photo-electrochemical reactor for H₂ production (the Artiphyction project prototype). Currently, she is focused on the study of innovative and sustainable systems for the capture and conversion of the CO₂ to high-added value products. She is Associate Editor of the Journal Frontier in Chemistry (section Catalysis and Photocatalysis). She is currently co-author of more than 46 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and her H-index is 17. She is reviewer of high-level international scientific journals such as Nature Catalysis, Appl. Cat. B: Environm., Adv. Energy Mat., ChemSusChem and Green Chemistry, among others. 

Giuseppe Marcì received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering (1992) and PhD degree (1996) from the Engineering School at Palermo University. He is Associate Professor in Chemistry (CHIM/07) at the University of Palermo from 2015 where he teaches Chemistry since 1996 at the Engineering Faculty of Palermo University and develops his work in the fields of Photocatalysis and Materials Chemistry. He has worked as invited researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering of Cardiff University (UK) with Prof. D. Tilley (1998), at the Okkaido University, Sapporo (Japan) with Prof. B. Ohtani, at the Kinki University of Osaka (Japan) with Prof. H. Kominami (2000) and at the Hahn Meitner Institute of Berlin with a fellowship from the "Detscher Akademischer Austauschdienst" (DAAD) to carry out research work in collaboration with Prof. H. Tributsch (2002). From 1998 he collaborated with the "Plataforma Solar de Almería" in a Training and Mobility of Researchers Program.

In 2007 he published with Profs. L. Palmisano and M. Schiavello a Chemistry book titled "Elementi di Chimica" (Ed. EDISES) as well as a “Periodic Table”.

The scientific activity of Dr. Eng. G. Marcì has been mainly focused in the field of heterogeneous photocatalysis. He is mainly interested in the preparation, characterisation and photocatalytic activity of various of photocatalysts.

Prof. Marcì is a co-author of 106 scientific papers published in national and international journals (peer refereed), 1 patent and 200 papers in proceedings of national and international congress (h index 38, citation 5027, SCOPUS 2017).

Francesca Bisi is co-founder of MAT3D srl an inter-university spinoff company between the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and the University of Parma, with the aim to design, develop and produce innovative polymeric and nonocomposite materials for additive manufacturing (3D printing).

She got a PhD in march 2016 in Material Science and Technology at the Department of Engineering “E. Ferrari” of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia defending a thesis on the study and development of polymeric hydrogels for potential biomedical applications. During the PhD she has been exchange student at the Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry of the University of Ghent (Belgium).

Before starting the PhD, she had a research fellow for 1 year in 2012 at the Department of Engineering “E. Ferrari” of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The project on which she was involved regarded the preparation and characterization of self-organized surface morphologies characterized by polymeric micro- and nano-sphere patterns. During this period, she worked on another research project concerning the study and development of new materials for oenology.

She graduated in 2011 in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia with a Master's Thesis Project done at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the University of Vienna (Austria).

Francesca Soavi is Assistant Professor in Inorganic Chemistry  at University of Bologna and Delegate to the "Third Mission" of the Department of Chemistry “Giacomo Ciamician”. She is Chair Elect of Division 3 - Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion of The International Society of Electrochemistry.

She has 20 years of experience in Li-ion batteries, Li/oxygen batteries, supercapacitors, PEMF fuel cells for transportation, stationary and in flexible, thin micro-supercapacitors for portable applications. Recently, she also investigated electrolyte gated transistors/micro-supercapacitor and microbial fuel cells/supercapacitor as integrated systems for low- and self-powered devices.  

The scientific activity is acknowledged by more than 70 publications on international Journals and Books and more than 100 participations in national and international Conferences.

She is Associate Editor of Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy and of Frontiers in Chemistry and Guest Editor of the 2017 Special Issue of Electrochimica Acta on Supercapacitors.

Shiming Chen was born in China.  From 2012 to 2015, Chen studied master degree at the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Science, where he focused on carbon material in catalysis. From 2015, Chen joined SINCHEM, under the supervison of Prof. Siglinda Perathoner on electrochemical ammnonia synthesis from dinitrogen and water. 

Kristine Rodulfo Tolod is a third year PhD student in the Erasmus+ PhD Programme in Sustainable Industrial Chemistry (SINCHEM). She is affiliated with the Solar Fuels Laboratory of Politecnico di Torino in Italy and as a co-tutelle PhD student in the Surface Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory at CPE Lyon in France at the same time. Her PhD work mainly focuses on improving the BiVO₄ photoanode performance for a more efficient sun-driven photoelectrochemical water oxidation.

Kristine is a chemical engineer from the Philippines, and she has obtained her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (Cum Laude) as well as her Master of Science in Energy Engineering degrees from the University of the Philippines – Diliman in 2008 and 2011, respectively. She started working on the photocatalysis field for her master’s thesis when she worked with Cu-doped SrTiO₃ perovskite photocatalyst for visible light-driven hydrogen production, in collaboration with the Chemical Engineering Department of Thammasat University in Thailand. 

Phuoc Hoang HO received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology in his country – Vietnam in 2008, then worked in the beverage industry for two years before coming back to academia at Pukyong National University, South Korea for Master of Science in Chemical Engineering. During his full-time research of master program, he focused on developing porous materials for the adsorptive desulfurization of fuel (city gas and ultra-low sulfur diesel ULSD) in fuel processing for fuel cell applications (funded by STX metal company and POSCO corporation).

He is currently part of the PhD research program in Sustainable Industrial Chemistry (SINCHEM) since 2014 with a project regarding metal-based structured catalysts hosted by Laboratory of Process Development at the University of Bologna in Italy and Laboratory of Palkovits’s group at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. His PhD research aims to improve the electrodeposition route as an efficient technique to coat open-cell metal foams with several types of catalytic materials for the preparation of structured catalysts. The catalysts offer great opportunities in energy and environmental applications, e.g. syngas production, N₂O decomposition, and CO oxidation.

Marco Zibordi is a PhD who spent more than 10 years carrying out research on ecophysiology of fruit trees. Marco is co-founder and CEO of HK Horticultural Knowledge, an Italian SME that sells PerFrutto, a precision horticultural service.

Enrico DI Oto was born in Bologna in 1983. Here he graduated in Biology and obtained an MD in clinical pathology and a PhD in oncology. During his doctoral research, with his group, he invented a chemical solution to render diagnostic tests in oncology more efficient. That invention provided the basis for his participation in the Unibo LaunchPad program and his entrepreneurial experience.

Prof. Groppi is Full Professor at the Polytechnic of Milan. He co-authored about 140 publications on ISI journals with more than 4600 citations (H-Index=39). He has been recently invited as a Plenary speaker to the 5th International Symposium on Modelling of Exhaust Gas After-treatment (MODEGAT V).
His main research interests are on the application of Heterogeneous Catalysis for Energy and Environmental Processes and the study of the use of Structured Catalysts for processes intensification.

Fabrizio Cavani received his PhD Diploma in Industrial Chemistry in 1987. He was hired by EniChem Synthesis in 1986, at the Catalysis Development Center, were he was in charge for the study and development of new catalysts for gas phase oxichlorination of ethylene and for benzene alkylation with propylene. His work led to the development of a new chemical process for cumene manufacture, currently employed by Polimeri Europa.