Invited Speakers

BRINSON L. Catherine, Sharon C. and Harold L. Yoh, III Distinguished Professor, research page

Tentative title: Polymer Nanocomposites: AFM, interfaces, and data

Bio: L. Cate Brinson is the Sharon C and Harold L Yoh III Professor of Engineering and the Donald M Alstadt Department Chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department at Duke University. Following her PhD from Caltech and a postdoc in Germany, she was a faculty member at Northwestern University until her move in 2017 to Duke University. Current research involves characterization of local polymer mechanical behavior (including composites and 3d printed constructs) and materials genome (data) research, where investigations span the range of molecular interactions, micromechanics and macroscale behavior. Dr. Brinson has received a number of awards, including the the Eringen Medal of SES, the Nadai Medal of the ASME, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the ASME Tom JR Hughes Young Investigator Award, and an NSF CAREER Award, and she is a Fellow of many professional societies. She has authored one book and over 170 refereed journal publications with over 25000 citations and an h-index of 70. Her book has had over 60,000 chapter downloads from the e-version since publication in 2008 and a second edition published in 2015. She served 5 years on the Society of Engineering Science Board of Directors, including one year as President, and is a founding member of the Materials Research Data Alliance (MaRDA).

STRICCOLI Marinella, Senior Researcher at CNR - National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Physical and Chemical Processes (IPCF), BARI (Italy) , research page

Tentative title: Colloidal Nanocrystals for Advanced Nanocomposite Materials

Bio: Marinella Striccoli is a Senior Researcher at National Council of Researches – Institute for Physical and Chemical Processes (CNR IPCF) in Bari - Italy. Her expertise covers nano structured materials (semiconductor quantum dots, perovskite nanocrystals, oxides, metals, hetero structures, carbon dots), hybrid organic-inorganic nanomaterials, their self or driven assembly, as well as nanocomposite materials and their chemical-physical, morphological and spectroscopic characterization, for application in optoelectronic and energy conversion. She has actively worked as PI in several European Projects (H2020 FET, large 7FP EU Projects) and in several National and Regional Projects. She is co-author of more than 170 peer-reviewed papers, one patent and 7 book chapters, guest editors of special issues and member of the editorial Board of international journals in the field of nanomaterials. Google Scholar Profile, ORCID Number.

BILOTTI Emiliano, Assoc. Prof. in Polymer Science and Technology, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London , research page

Tentative title: Multifunctional Polymer Nanocomposites

Bio: Emiliano Bilotti graduated cum laudae in Materials Engineering from "Federico II", University of Naples. In 2004 EB joined QMUL for his PhD study on polymer/clay nanocomposites and new environment friendly flame retardant materials, within the frame of the European STRP project Nanofire. In 2010 EB moved to Nanoforce - a QMUL subsidiary company - as Research & Technology Manager. EB currently holds a Reader position in Polymer Science and Technology at the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) at QMUL. EB’s research focuses on the Processing-Structure-Property relationship in polymer nanocomposites and, more recently, on smart polymers (self-regulating flexible heaters), polymers for energy (organic thermoelectrics, ferroelectric/relaxor polymers) and graphene nanocomposites. EB is author/co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers (h-index of 39), 4 book chapters and 6 patents. EB’s research has been supported by a variety of agencies, including the European Council (EC), Innovate UK and the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) or received direct support from industry.

GRUNLAN Jaime, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Leland T. Jordan ’29 Chair Professor, research website

Tentative title: Big challenges, Nano-sized solutions

Bio: I joined Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in July of 2004, after spending three years at the Avery Research Center in Pasadena, CA. In 2010, I was promoted to Associate Professor and to Professor in 2013. In 2020, I was awarded the Leland T. Jordan Chair in Mechanical Engineering. I hold joint appointments in Materials Science and Engineering and in Chemistry. My current research interests lie in the transport properties (e.g., gas permeability and electrical conductivity) of polymer nanocomposites. In the Polymer NanoComposites Laboratory, we are developing gas barrier, flame retardant and thermoelectric nanocoatings (< 1 µm thick) using layer-by-layer assembly. We’re also working on polyelectrolyte complexes and the study of electrically conductive and thermoelectric thick film nanocomposites (> 10 µm thick). I’ve now graduated 24 PhD students (as of January 2021) and published more than 180 peer reviewed journal papers. I’m an Editor for Journal of Materials Science, Associate Editor for Green Materials and serve on the International Advisory Board for Macromolecular Rapid Communications and Macromolecular Materials and Engineering.

PAPADOPOULOS Vissarion, National Technical University of Athens, research page

Tentavie title: Data driven material design at exascale

Bio: Professor at the Institute of Structural Analysis and Antiseismic Research (ISAAR) at the School of Civil Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). His research focuses on the area of Computational Stochastic Mechanics with emphasis on Data driven Methods and Multiscale methods. He is Vice President of the Greek Association of Computational Mechanics (GRACM). He has co-organized a series of international Scientific Conferences and Minisymposium. He has published more than 180 papers in international refereed Journals and conferences and has participated in numerous national and EU research projects. He is the founder of the research team ΜGroup (http://mgroup.ntua.gr/) which is active in the research area of Computational Mechanics.  

SOLDERA Armand, Professeur, Vice-doyen Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Département de chimie, research page

Tentative title: From nano to single polymer chain: a chemist perspective of the glass transition

Bio: Ph.D. Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg, France) en Physico-Chimie Moléculaire Ingénieur de recherche Commissariat Énergie Atomique (1994-2002) Science ambassador for Biovia (Dassault Systemes) co-Editor-in-Chief Chemistry Africa (Springer). The aim of the research carried out at the Laboratory of Molecular Physics and Chemistry (LPCM) is to better understand the link between the molecular and the macroscopic by combining simulation, experiment and theory. In particular, we are interested in phase transitions in soft matter such as polymers, liquid crystals or organic glasses. It is thanks to the concertation within this triumvirate at each temporo-spatial level that it is possible to account for the microscopic phenomena giving rise to a macroscopic property, and thus to the appearance of the phase transition. The ultimate goal, when the molecular is better understood, is to propose new materials with properties that are not yet known. will have been improved.

KINLOCH Ian, Professeur, Professor of Materials Science,  University of Manchester

Tentative title: 

Bio: I hold the Morgan Advanced Materials/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Carbon Materials. Together with Dr. Bissett, Dr. Vallès and Prof. Young, I lead the Advanced Nanostructures Group within the School of Materials and the National Graphene Institute. I have held an EPSRC Challenging Engineering Fellowship and EPSRC/RAEng Research Fellowship. I moved to Manchester in 2006, having previously worked as a PDRA and studied for my PhD in Materials Science at the University of Cambridge and getting my BSc(Hons) in Physics at the University of Durham. I am Deputy Workpackage Leader of the Composites Theme in the Graphene Flagship. I am Head of Research for the School of Natural Sciences.