Author: Activities Chair

Affiliation: Max-Born Institute

Keywords: Ultrafast diffraction imaging, ultrafast photochemistry, ultrafast photophysics, femtosecond molecular dynamics, ultrafast phase transitions

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Full profile: Kasra completed his PhD at University of Oxford in 2017 on laser-induced Coulomb explosion imaging and postdoctoral positions on laser-induced electron diffraction at The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, Barcelona). In 2021, Kasra was the junior group leader of the newly-established ultrafast electron diffraction group (UED) at Max-Born Institute (MBI, Berlin), focussing on high repetition rate UED imaging of transient gas-phase and condensed matter structures with high temporal resolution. In 2024, Kasra received the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (€2.5 million) to continue his groups work on UED with exploring its extension to both time- and energy-resolved electron scattering (TERES).

Affiliation: Israel Institute of Technology

Keywords: Computer architecture, VLSI, circuit design, chip design, memristors

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Full profile: Shahar Kvatinsky is a Full Professor at the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and a Visiting Professor at the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto. Shahar received the B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Applied Physics and an MBA degree in 2009 and 2010, respectively, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 2014. From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a circuit designer at Intel. From 2014 to 2015, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at Stanford University. Kvatinsky is a member of the Israel Young Academy and a Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe. He is the head of the Architecture and Circuits Research Center at the Technion, chair of the IEEE Circuits and Systems in Israel, and an associate editor of Microelectronics Journal. Kvatinsky has been the recipient of numerous awards: the 2023 Uzi & Michal Halevy Award for Innovative Applied Engineering, the 2021 Norman Seiden Prize for Academic Excellence, the 2020 MDPI Electronics Young Investigator Award, the 2019 Wolf Foundation’s Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, the 2015 IEEE Guillemin-Cauer Best Paper Award, the 2015 Best Paper of Computer Architecture Letters, Viterbi Fellowship, Jacobs Fellowship, an ERC starting grant, the 2017 Pazy Memorial Award, 2014, 2017, 2021, and 2025 Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Awards, the 2013 Sanford Kaplan Prize for Creative Management in High Tech, 2010 Benin prize, and seven Technion excellence teaching awards. His current research is focused on circuits and architectures with emerging memory technologies and the design of energy-efficient architectures.

Affiliation:  University of Edinburgh

Keywords: Embodied AI, Soft sensors, Machine learning, Robotic Perception

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Full profile: Dr. Yunjie Yang is an Associate Professor at The University of Edinburgh. He is also an affiliate of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), the Edinburgh Generative AI Laboratory (GAIL) fellow, and part of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. He was the Chancellor’s Fellow in Data Driven Innovation (2018-2023) and Bayes Innovation Fellow (2023-2024). He received his PhD in Engineering Electronics from The University of Edinburgh, MSc in Control Science & Engineering from Tsinghua University, and BEng in Measurement & Control Engineering from Anhui University. After his PhD, he briefly worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Chemical Species Tomography at The University of Edinburgh before he secured the lectureship.

His research interests focus on AI-powered sensing and imaging, machine learning, soft sensors & electronics for robotics. His research has led to over 130 peer-reviewed journal and international conference publications, many of which were published in high-impact journals such as Nature portfolio journals. His research has been licensed to overseas research institutes and industry partners and received wide media coverage, including BBC, EFE, USA Today and STV. He is the awardee of the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (2024).

Dr. Yang serves as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, the Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports, the Guest Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal, and the regular reviewer for over 70 high-impact international journals. He served as the track/session chair of several international conferences. He is the recipient of the 2024 IEEE J. Barry Oakes Advancement Award (For demonstrated exceptional expertise, innovation and leadership in the field of Instrumentation and Measurement), 2015 IEEE I&M Society Graduate Fellowship Award, and multiple Best Paper Awards. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Fellow of the International Society for Industrial Process Tomography (FISIPT), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Affiliation: Independent scholar (Luxembourg) with Academic Visitor status in the Classics Faculty of the University of Oxford

Keywords: Latin literature, Classical rhetoric, ancient and modern oratory, Cicero, Maurice Garçon

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Full profile: Thierry holds master’s degrees in Latin literature and Musicology (University of Tübingen), in Latin language and literature (University of Oxford), and in Criminal law (University of Toulouse Capitole). He received his PhD in Classics from Oxford with a thesis on Cicero’s first work on rhetorical theory.

The grandson of a two-time internal refugee from WWII, he decided to continue with his research as an independent scholar while being professionally active outside of academia, first by getting involved in the management of the ‘refugee crisis’ that started in Europe during his PhD. After a year spent as a volunteer with a UN program, he was appointed head of the refugee program within the Employment Agency of Luxembourg, his home country, in 2017. Sensing that his vocation lay in defending people, he left the civil service in 2020 to study law in order to become an avocat (barrister).

Since 2018 he has been an Associate Researcher, then Academic Visitor in the Oxford Classics Faculty, and in 2022-2025 served on the Executive Council of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR), of which he has been a two-time Research Fellow. In 2024 he was elected to serve on Luxembourg’s Consultative Human Rights Commission, which advises the government and parliament of Luxembourg on human rights issues. Since 2016 he has been one of the organists of the renowned Stahlhuth-Jann organ of St Martin’s, Dudelange.

He is the author of two volumes of works by Claude Debussy and W.A. Mozart arranged for the organ (Carus Verlag). His scholarly book publications so far include a German bilingual edition of Rhetorica ad Herennium (Reclam Verlag) as well as two textbooks combining Classical rhetorical theory with modern law court speeches, Introduction à l’art de la plaidoirie. L’exemple luxembourgeois (Larcier-Promoculture) and L’art de la plaidoirie. Théorie et pratique (Larcier-Bruylant), which includes a selection of 30 law court speeches by leading avocats from Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. Thierry currently works on a major commentary on Book 1 of Cicero’s De Inventione (OUP) in parallel with a bilingual English edition of Cicero’s De Inventione, De Optimo Genere Oratorum, and Topica (HUP, Loeb Classical Library), as well as on a commentary on Cicero’s Actio Prima in C. Verrem (CUP) and a reedition cum introduction of Maurice Garçon’s treatise on rhetoric and two major law court speeches (Les Belles Lettres).

Affiliation:  Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine, Portugal

Keywords: Gut-Brain axis ; Neuroimmunology ; Microbiota ; peptidoglycan; Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs); Sex hormones

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Full profile: I started my research training in 2004, at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil. The main goal of my undergraduate, and Master’s projects was to uncover novel therapeutical approaches for Diabetes Mellitus. This research was supported by Brazilian government fellowships. During my Master’s, I obtained a scholarship from the École normale supérieure de Cachan (France) to spend six months there, in a research training program expanding my knowledge of molecular biology and viral vectors. In 2011, I joined a neuroimmunomodulation group and started my Ph.D. at USP. In the 2nd year of my Ph.D., I obtained an international fellowship to continue my research training at the Rockefeller University in New York, studying neuroimmune interactions in the gut. The work I accomplished during my thesis, uncovered a neuro-immune axis that induces a tissue-protective program in gut macrophages in response to a potentially pathogenic insult (Gabanyi et al. Cell 2016).

During this time, I acquired a solid understanding of gut immunology and the enteric-associated nervous system and became increasingly interested in studying the poorly characterized mechanisms of neuronal responses to bacterial stimuli. Thus, I joined the Institut Pasteur (France) for my postdoctoral work, where I have gained a solid foundation in neuroscience, particularly in the study of the central nervous system. The work I carried during this period describes cell-autonomous effects in brain neurons in response to bacterial compounds regularly released by the intestinal microbiota at homeostasis, uncovering a new sex- and age-dependent microbiota-brain axis involved in metabolism control (Gabanyi et al. Science 2022). Although many studies have highlighted the importance of the gut-brain axis, we are still far from understanding the mechanisms by which the gut microbiota modulates brain circuits. To continue to dissect the mechanisms and external factors involved in the microbiota-gut-brain axis interactions I joined the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (now Gulbenkian Institute of Molecular Medicine) in Portugal to establish my research team in 2022.

Affiliation: University of Granada

Keywords: Printed electronics; sensors; sustainable electronics; energy harvesting; RFID technology

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Full profile: Dr. Almudena Rivadeneyra completed 5 different master’s degrees in telecommunication engineering, environmental sciences, electronics engineering, industrial management and marketing studies. In 2014 she obtained the Ph.D. degree in design and development of environmental sensors from the University of Granada and moved to the Institute for Nanoelectronics at the Technical University of Munich (Germany). In 2018 she obtained a Marie Curie fellowship, moving back to Granada, and currently is Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the University of Granada.
Almudena was awarded the Young Researcher Award in 2019 by the Consejo Social UGR and has been listed among the 2% most influential researchers by the Stanford University. She was nominated for the Early Career Distinguished Presenters recognition at the Material Research Society Fall Meeting 2024. She has been principal investigator of 10 research projects, including a preclinical study. She has been invited to give several talks and webinars at different institutions (University of Malaga, TUM, DAAD, COIT-AORM) and conferences (2024 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit, Multimat 2018, Symposium “Selected Topics in Science and Technology”). Almudena belongs to several technical committees, including IEEE RFID Technical Committee on Additively Manufactured Electronics Systems and IEEE IES Technical Committee on MEMS and Nanotechnology (TC-MICRO). Also, she is member of various executive committees of conferences, such as “International Conference on Nanotechnology & Materials Science 2023”, “The Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing Conference” (EDTM 2022 and 2023). In addition, Almudena has organized 2 workshops and 4 special sessions at international conferences. She was co-chair of the IEEE International Flexible Electronics Technology Conference (IFETC) 2024 awards.
Almudena actively participates in dissemination and communication activities giving talks and workshops at different events, such as the European Research Night; Science week; Engineering Fair; Women and Girls in Science Day.

Affiliation: University of Cologne

Keywords: • Aerogels, Bio-inspired materials, Hybrid nanomaterials, Biopolymer-based hydrogels and aerogels, Bone tissue engineering, Cancer therapy, Theragenerative materials.

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Full profile: PD. Dr. Hajar Maleki is a research group leader at the Institute of Inorganic and Materials Chemistry, University of Cologne (UoC), Cologne, Germany, and an associated research group leader at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC). Her research focuses on the development of bio-inspired porous materials, particularly aerogels for biomedical, environmental, and energy-related applications.

She began her scientific career as a recipient of the prestigious Marie Curie Ph.D. Fellowship at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, where she developed hybrid aerogels for aerospace insulation. She continued as a Lise Meitner Fellow in Austria, where she pioneered the development of silk fibroin-based aerogels (AeroSF)—ultralight, flexible biopolymer-based materials suitable for biomedical applications.

Since starting her habilitation in Germany in 2019, Dr. Maleki has established an independent research line on biomimetic aerogels as artificial extracellular matrices for bone tissue regeneration. Her group has developed smart, multifunctional aerogel scaffolds with improved mechanical properties, osteogenic potential, and therapeutic functionalities such as antibacterial and anticancer effects. These innovations integrate surface chemistry engineering, 3D processing (including freeze-casting and printing), and hybrid nanomaterials.

In addition to biomedical materials, her team also develops:

• Wearable soft electronics such as piezoresistive sensors
• Thermal insulating aerogels for energy applications
• Functional aerogel sorbents for environmental remediation
• Hybrid photocatalysts for solar hydrogen generation

She leads a dynamic interdisciplinary group and has mentored over 30 students and early-career researchers, including Ph.D. candidates and postdocs. Her contributions to the field have been recognized through several competitive honors and fellowships, including:

• Marie Curie Ph.D. Fellowship
• FWF Lise Meitner Postdoctoral Fellowship
• German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Grants
• ACS Materials Au Rising Star in Materials Science (2023)
• Top 2% Most Influential Scientists Worldwide in Nanoscience & Materials Chemistry (2022–2024, Stanford University/Elsevier)
• Career Advancement Group Awardee of Center of Molecular Medicine Cologne (2024)

She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and delivered 30+ invited/keynote talks, and serves on editorial boards of Scientific Reports, Smart Materials and Methods, and Frontiers in Biomaterials Science. She is also a Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe (FYAE) and acting as a Key Opinion Leader at Fibrothelium GmbH.

Affiliation:  University of Bucharest

Keywords: Early modern philosophy, aesthetics, Holocaust studies, biopolitics, philosophy of culture

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Full profile: Oana Serban teaches Modern Philosophy, Aesthetics, Biopolitics and Cultural Studies at the University of Bucharest, Romania, as titular professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and the UNESCO Chair in Interculturality, Good Governance and Sustainable Development. She is the Executive Director of CCIIF – The Research Center for the History of Philosophical Ideas (UB). She has authored Cultural capital and creative communication. (Anti)Modern and (Non)Eurocentric Perspectives (Routledge, 2023), After Thomas Kuhn. The Structure of Aesthetic Revolutions (De Gruyter, 2022), Artistic Capitalism (Paralela 45, 2016; Cartea Românească Educațional 2025), and co-edited different volumes of philosophy, culture and aesthetics, from which the most recent are Rethinking Modernity, Transitions and Challenges (Cambridge, Ethics International Press), Bordering the European Identity (Bucharest University Press 2018), Octavio Paz: Culture and Modernity (Bucharest University Press, 2017), Culture and Religion in the Balkans. Philosophical Approaches (Bucharest University Press, 2015).

Currently, she is interested in the biopolitical potential of modern art, explored in one of her latest studies, published in the volume Philosophy and Film: Bridging Divides (ed. Christina Rawls, Diana Neiva, Steven Gouveia) (Routledge, 2019), and continued in her capacity as director of a research project on Biopolitical Art in the Post-Holocaust Time. Forthcoming volumes at Edinburgh University Press and Suny Press include her latest studies on biopolitical art and Italian biopolitics. She teaches Holocaust studies framed as a biopolitical history of antisemitism and antihumanism. In this field, she is interested in topics such as the impardonable and limits of forgiveness, the origins of totalitarianism, hospitality and hostility in the 20^th century, the aestheticization of violence, cultural memory and remembrance. Oana Șerban has translated different authors such as Gilles Lipovetsky, Michel Foucault, Sylvain Tesson and Jean d’Ormesson.