Patrik Schmuki Friedrich-Alexander-UniversitätDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering Erlangen, Germany Lecture titleSingle atom co-catalysts in photocatalytic H2 generationAbstract Patrik Schmuki obtained his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in 1992. From 1994–1997 he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory, U.S., and at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences of the National Research Council of Canada. From 1997–2000, he has been Associate Professor for Microstructuring Materials at EPFL, Switzerland, and in 2000 became Full Professor and Head of the Institute for Surface Science and Corrosion at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2017 he is also head of the “Photoelectrochemistry/Fuel cells” research division at the Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. He co-authored nearly 600 publications and 6 books, and in 2015 and 2016 was among the Highly Cited Researchers in the Chemistry category. His research interests target electrochemistry and materials science at the nanoscale, with a particular focus on functional materials and self-organization processes. Research activities Electrochemistry and materials science at the nanoscale – particularly, self-organized metal oxide nanostructures: formation, properties, applications Nanostructured materials for: photo-electrochemical water splitting, dye-sensitized solar cells, photocatalysis, ion-intercalation (insertion) devices, membrane fabrication, supercapacitors, biomedical applications Techniques for material characterization: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), Electrochemistry, Photoelectrochemistry, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) Guobao Xu Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry & University of Science and Technology of ChinaChinese Academy of Sciences, China Lecture titleElectrochemiluminescence: new materials and devicesAbstract Guobao Xu is Professor, FRSC and Deputy Director of State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He received BEng, MSc and PhD from Jilin University, Xiamen University, and CIAC, respectively. After postdoctoral studies in University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories (JST Researcher, Japan), he has been working in CIAC since 2004. He is Chairperson of Organization Committee of 15th-19th International Symposiums on Electroanalytical Chemistry & 3rd International Meeting on Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence and symposium (co)organizer of many international meetings. He is Editor of J. Electroanal. Chem. and Executive Associate Editor of Anal. Sci. as well as the Guest Editor of 15 special issues of Electrochim. Acta, J. Electroanal. Chem., ChemElectroChem, Biosens. Bioelectron., Bioelectrochemistry, Electroanalysis, and so on. His international group mainly studies electrochemiluminescence and precise synthesis of nanostructures for electrochemical and analytical applications. He has over 300 articles. He has won Young Scholar Award of Chinese Chemical Society, Excellent Youth Award of Chinese Society of Electrochemistry, Young Researcher Gold Award in Materials Science, and Second-Class Award of National Natural Science of China. Nejc Hodnik National Institute of ChemistryDepartment of Materials Chemistry Ljubljana, Slovenia Lecture titleDesigning electrocatalytic materials for water reactionsAbstract Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nejc Hodnik leads the Laboratory for Electrocatalysis (>30 researchers) at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC) and is a PI of the ERC StG. He was also leading projects like NATO SPS on the topic of graphene-based electrocatalysts, ERA-MIN 2 PGM recycling project, and a few other national projects. He is currently supervising two industrial PhD projects underway in his laboratory at NIC, funded by Johnson Matthey and EKPO. These projects are focused on the evaluation and testing of PEMFC and PEM electrolysis catalysts. He earned his PhD at the University of Ljubljana in 2013, followed by a Marie-Curie IEF Scholarship at the Max-Planck Institute in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2016, he returned to Slovenia and the NIC. Shortly after, he was elected to associate professor at the University of Nova Gorica. He has published over 100 scientific papers, has an h-index of 33, holds three patents and two patent applications, and was/is a mentor of over 10 PhD students. Jasna Jankovic University of ConnecticutDepartment of Materials Science and EngineeringStorrs, USA Lecture titleThe nano world of clean energy electrochemical systems – microscopy and spectroscopy of fuel cells, electrolyzers and batteries Abstract Dr. Jasna Jankovic is an Associate Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut (UConn) since 2018. Prior to joining UConn, she completed her Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia, Department of Chemical Engineering, followed by a 7 years employment as a Senior Research Scientist at the Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation in Burnaby, Canada, a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Daimler. Dr. Jankovic’s research focus is in advanced characterization of fuel cells, electrolyzers and batteries using microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, fabrication of novel electrodes for electrochemical devices, as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and clean energy education. She has more than 25 years of experience in clean energy sector, more than 50 publications, 2 full patents and 2 provisional patents. Dr. Jankovic is a recipient of several Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) awards in Canada, and a number of National Science Foundation (NSF) awards and Department of Energy (DOE) sub-awards in the US. Aleksandar R. Žerađanin Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion Department of Heterogeneous ReactionsMülheim an der Ruhr, Germany Lecture titleBeyond current frontiers of electrocatalysisAbstract Dr. Aleksandar R. Žerađanin is a senior scientific staff and group co-leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. He graduated at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy (Department of Physical Chemistry and Electochemistry ) in 2008, at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. He received his PhD in Electrochemistry in 2012 at the Faculty of Chemistry (Department of Analytical Chemistry) at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, with distinction (summa cum laude). After postdoctoral research at Max-Planck Institute for Iron Research (Department of Interface Chemistry and Surface Enginering), Düsseldorf, Germany (2012-2015), he worked as a senior scientist at: Helmholtz-Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy and Research Center Jülich IEK¬-11 (2016-2017), Max-Planck Institute for Iron Research, Düsseldorf, Germany (2018) as well as at the Department of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen and Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials, Bremen, Germany (2019). During the years he worked continuously with some of the world re-known experts in the field of electrochemistry (Prof. Wolfgang Schuhmann, Prof. Karl J.J. Mayrhofer, Prof. Robert Schlögl etc.) covering broad range of topics (water electrolysis, chlor-alkali technology, fuel cells, CO2 reduction, corrosion, lead acid and polymer batteries etc). From 2020 he is working at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion focusing on fundamental and applied aspects of electrocatalysis in relation to renewable energy conversion and storage.
