Invited Speakers

Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Annika Bande is professor and director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at Leibniz University Hannover and leads the Joint Research Group Theory of Electron Dynamics and Spectroscopy at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. She is a theoretical chemist with a doctorate from RWTH Aachen University, postdoctoral stays in Boulder (CO), Japan, and Heidelberg as well as a habilitation from FU Berlin. Her method portfolio spans from electron dynamics over machine learning to quantum computing. Central target questions are on adaptive optical materials, semiconducting qubits, nanostructured catalysts, batteries and on making electron dynamics simulations an intuitive tool.

University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Lucas V. Besteiro is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at CINBIO, at the University of Vigo, Spain. His work in computational physics touches on material science and nanophotonics, and his main research interests lie in the field of plasmonics, particularly in studying hot carriers and their role in photocatalysis. He completed his PhD at University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, after which he held a postdoctoral position at Ohio University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

Emiliano Cortés is Professor in Experimental Physics and Energy Conversion at the University of Munich. His research focuses on the development of new materials and techniques for sustainability and energy applications, including energy harvesting, conversion, and storage. Particular emphasis is placed on plasmonic and photonic approaches to enhance efficiency, control light–matter interactions, and enable novel pathways for energy management and transformation.

University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

Thomas W. Ebbesen is a physical chemist educated in the United States and France. He is currently the director of the J.M. Lehn Foundation and he holds the chair of physical chemistry of light-matter interactions at the Strasbourg Institute for Advances Studies. Over the past 15 yeares, his the mas made the first demonstrations that chemistry and ground state material properties can be modified by coupling electronic and vibrational transitions to the vacuum electromagnetic field.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Stephan Link received his PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology under the supervision of Professor Mostafa El-Sayed. After postdoctoral research at Georgia Tech and at the UT Austin, Stephan started his independent academic career in the Chemistry Department at Rice University. In 2024, he moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he is the Charles W. and Genevieve M. Walton Professor of Chemistry. His awards include an NSF CAREER Award and the Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research from the Welch Foundation.

University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark

N. Asger Mortensen is Professor at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and holds a Chair of Physics at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study. He leads the Danish National Research Foundation–funded Center of Excellence, POLIMA, which explores polariton-driven light–matter interactions. Mortensen earned his academic degrees from the Technical University of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen. His research addresses complex wave phenomena and light–matter interactions in artificially structured materials, especially at the interface between classical electrodynamics and quantum physics.

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India

Vivek Polshettiwar is a professor of chemistry at TIFR, Mumbai. His research focuses on advanced nanomaterials and nanocatalysis for harvesting solar energy and converting CO₂ into valuable chemicals and fuels. He is fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has been awarded several prizes, among others a Bronze medal by the CRSI, India, the IUPAC-CHEMRAWN VII prize for green chemistry and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award.

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Emilie Ringe is a professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. She obtained a PhD from Northwestern University, performed postdoctoral studies in Cambridge, and started her independent career at Rice University. In 2018, she moved back to Cambridge to establish the Optical Nanomaterials group, pioneering the synthesis and use of magnesium nanoparticles for plasmonics.

University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

King's College, London, UK

Ivana Savic obtained her PhD at the University of Leeds, UK in 2006. After research positions at the Commission of Atomic Energy, Grenoble, France, the University of California, Davis, USA and the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland, she joined King's College London in 2022 as a Senior Lecturer in Physics. Her research focus is the development of theoretical and computational approaches to characterise and predict transport properties and ultrafast processes in bulk and nanostructured materials.

EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Priscila Vensaus is a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technologies at EPFL, led by Prof. Giulia Tagliabue. Her research focuses on chiral nanophotonic structures to control charge and spin dynamics in energy-conversion processes. She completed her Ph.D. in 2024 at the National University of General San Martín, Argentina. Her thesis was recognized with the Hans J. Schumacher Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in physical chemistry in Argentina.

CIC biomaGUNE (BRTA), Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

Gail Vinnacombe-Willson is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the BioNanoPlasmonics Group at CIC biomaGUNE, led by Prof. Luis Liz-Marzán. Her research develops alternative bottom-up synthesis approaches whereby plasmonic nanostructures are grown directly on substrates (such as oxides and soft polymers) and explores the implementation of plasmonic nanomaterials in cellular in vitro models for biosensing and imaging.

Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea

Sangwoon Yoon received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2003. After completing postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, he returned to Korea and is currently a Professor of Chemistry at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Korea. His research focuses on the synthesis and controlled assembly of gold nanoparticles with diverse shapes and sizes. By engineering nanogaps within these assemblies, he investigates plasmon coupling, light–matter interactions, hot carrier generation, and photothermal effects.