Invited Speakers

Prof. Seema Agarwal

Academic Director and Professor at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Short Bio: Seema Agarwal is an Academic Director and Professor at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Her research interests include biopolymers, smart and functional polymers, and fibers with special morphologies. She has published over 260 peer-reviewed articles and is an Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellow. She received the Hermann-Schnell Award from the German Chemical Society for her research on biodegradable polymers. Additionally, she is a Henriette-Herz AvH Scout and holds a foreign faculty position at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. She also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of e-Polymers.

Dr. Vassilis Drakonakis

Managing Director
Advanced Materials Design & Manufacturing Limited

Short Bio: Dr. Vasileios (Vassilis) Drakonakis is an expert in the development, processing, and characterization of advanced polymer composites. He earned his Diploma in Mechanical and Aeronautics Engineering from the University of Patras in 2008 and completed his PhD in Industrial, Processing, and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington in August 2012.
Dr. Drakonakis has gained extensive international and multidisciplinary experience, working as a scientist in world-renowned research laboratories, including PCL (Seattle, WA, USA), NECST at MIT (Cambridge, MA, USA), Hephaistus NRS at UCY (Cyprus), and CMG and AML at the University of Patras (Greece). His research has been published in over 20 peer-reviewed journals and presented in more than 40 conferences, alongside multiple invention disclosures. Read More

Prof. Dr. Christian Clasen

Professor in Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium

Short Bio: Prof. Dr. Christian Clasen is full professor in Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven, Belgium, and head of the department. He received his PhD in 2001 and, after a postdoc at MIT, his Habilitation in Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry in 2008, both from Hamburg University. He is the recipient of a number of awards in the field of rheology, including both Rheologica Acta and JOR publication awards, and is currently the president of the European Society of Rheology (ESR).
Research in his Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT) group focusses on the characterization of complex fluids and soft matter, with a strong focus on polymeric materials in the melt and solution state, to link the synthesis dependent nano-, micro-, and meso structures to macroscopic physicochemical properties and flow and deformation behaviour. The characterization of polymers in a dispersed or dissolved state focusses on the development of novel tools and experimental techniques, with latest applications focusing on elongational rheology as well as utilizing novel mechanical wave forms to probe the curing, crosslinking and solidification of polymers in-situ on short time scales.

Dr. Anne Hébraud

Associate Professor at the University of Strasbourg and Institute for Chemistry and Processes for Energy, Health and Environment (ICPEES)

Short Bio: Dr. Anne Hébraud is associate Professor at the University of Strasbourg. She holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry with specialty in Colloid and Polymer Science (obtained in 2004) from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. She carries out her research at Institute for Chemistry and Processes for Energy, Health and Environment (ICPEES) on polymer physicochemistry and their processing in dispersed media or by electrospinning to elaborate functional nanostructured particles and fibers for various applications such as filtering, catalysis, energy or biomedical applications.

Ewa Kijeńska-Gawrońska

Head of the Laboratory of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at the Department of Medical Biotechnology, Centre for Advanced Materials and Technologies CEZAMAT, Warsaw University of Technology

Short Bio: Ewa Kijeńska-Gawrońska Ph.D., M.Sc., Eng. is the Head of the Laboratory of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at the Department of Medical Biotechnology, Centre for Advanced Materials and Technologies CEZAMAT, Warsaw University of Technology. She specializes in designing, developing, and physicochemical and biological characterization of biomaterials for tissue-engineered scaffolds and drug delivery carriers. Her research interest focuses mainly on electrospun natural and synthetic polymeric- and composite-based biomaterials, including biomaterial synthesis, cell-biomaterial interactions, smart biomaterials for tissue regeneration, drug delivery, advanced design, fabrication, and characterization of the scaffolds. She is also exploiting electrospinning for biotechnology applications using polymeric and composite wastes. She was involved in implementing ten international and nine national scientific projects. In 2021 awarded the 1st-degree WUT Rectors Award. In 2023, she was chosen as one of the 21 best of the best young scientists at WUT (1st edition of Best of Best PW competition- Best of Best PW 2023).

Dr. Jose María Lagarón Cabello

Group Leader, Novel Materials and Nanotechnology for Health Applications Group, IATA, CSIC
Leader of the Research Joint Unit CSIC-University Jaume I in “Polymer Technology”
Founder/Owner:  Bioinicia

Short Bio: Dr. Jose Maria (Chema) LAGARON is currently Founder and Group Leader of the group Novel Materials and Nanotechnology for Health Applications at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA) of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) located in Valencia, Spain. He is also Head of the CSIC-University Jaume I Join Unit in “Polymer Technology”. According to Scopus he is author in 361 peer reviewed publications, inventor in 75 patents and has an h-index of 77. Read More

Dr. Antonella Macagnano

Senior Research Scientist at the National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research

Short Bio: Dr. Antonella Macagnano is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research. She graduated in Biological Sciences and got her Ph.D. in Sciences, Technologies and Biotechnologies for Sustainability. Mainly, her research activities have concerned the study, design, characterization and optimization of chemical (nanostructured electrospun polymers and ceramics, metallo-porphyrins, MIPs and metallo-oligomers) and biological membranes (oligopeptides, biopolymers) for selective interactions with both gases and volatile organic compounds. She has been involved in several international and national research projects focused on the design, improvement and implementation of sensor devices for health, environment and agri-food industries.