Scientific Program
Plenary and Keynote talks
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Prof. Kevin Plaxco, a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, holds appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and of BioEngineering. Prior to joining UCSB in 1998, Dr. Plaxco received his Ph.D. from Caltech and performed postdoctoral studies at Oxford and the University of Washington. Dr. Plaxco’s research focus is on the physics of biomolecular folding and its engineering applications. A major aim of the group’s applied research is to harness the speed and specificity of folding in the development of sensors, adaptable surfaces, and smart materials. Dr. Plaxco has co-authored nearly 300 papers and two dozen patents on protein folding, protein dynamics, and folding-based sensors and materials. He serves on the scientific boards of a half dozen biotechnology firms, several of which are commercializing technologies developed by his group, and has also written a popular science book on Astrobiology.
Prof. Caroline Ajo-Franklin is a Baker Institute Rice faculty scholar in the Center for Health and Biosciences. She is also a professor of biosciences at Rice University and a CPRIT scholar in cancer research. Her research uses biophysics and synthetic biology to engineer and explore the nanoscale interface between living microbes and inorganic materials. She is particularly interested in the basic mechanisms underlying charge transfer and assembly of materials at this living/non-living interface. Her research has applications in carbon capture and sequestration, bio-solar energy generation and the hierarchical assembly of nanostructures. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Emory University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.
Prof. Renata Bilewicz is a distinguished expert in supramolecular and biomimetic electrochemistry, with a focus on electron transfer in molecular and biomolecular systems for applications in sensors and biofuel cells. She obtained her PhD in 1984, habilitation in 1994, became Professor at the University of Warsaw in 1996, and was awarded the formal title of Professor in 2000.
Her research focuses on electron transport and molecular recognition at interfaces, employing Langmuir-Blodgett and self-assembly methods to create functional molecular films with macrocyclic complexes. She has published over 200 papers, 4 book chapters, and several reviews. Prof. Bilewicz has received prestigious fellowships and carried out extensive international research in Switzerland, France, and the USA. She is an active member of leading scientific societies, including ACS, BES, ISE, and the Polish Chemical Society, where she has held leadership roles. She served as co-chair of the ISE Bioelectrochemistry Division (2003–2006) and is currently an Advisory Board member of Electrochimica Acta.http://beta.chem.uw.edu.pl/people/RBilewicz/professor.html
Prof. Eleni Stavrinidou (F, Linköping University is a Senior Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Linköping University, recognized for pioneering research at the intersection of organic electronics and plant science. She earned her BSc in Physics (2008) and MSc in Nanotechnology (2010) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She completed her PhD in Microelectronics in 2014 at École des Mines de Saint-Étienne, France, focusing on ion transport in conducting polymers.
After her PhD, she joined Linköping University as a postdoc, pioneering the concept of Electronic Plants. She advanced to Assistant Professor (2017), Associate Professor and Docent (2020), and Senior Associate Professor (2023). Stavrinidou has received numerous prestigious awards, including a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, ERC Starting Grant, and the Tage Erlander Prize, and since 2021 has been an Associated Group Leader at the Umeå Plant Science Center. Her research bridges plant biology and electronics to enable sustainable agriculture and novel biohybrid technologies that merge living systems with artificial components.https://liu.se/en/employee/elest58
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
TBD
INVITED SPEAKERS
TBD