Speakers - NanoAfrica2022

23 - 25 OCTOBER 2022

26 - 28 OCTOBER 2022

Artur Braun is a Berkeley trained Physicist from Germany (RWTH Aachen) and Doctor of Science from ETH Zürich, and research group leader at Empa in Switzerland.

Dr. Braun is an expert on electrochemical energy storage, solar energy conversion, artificial photosynthesis and hydrogen economy and has authored over 150 publications and 4 graduate level text books. He is visiting researcher at University of Hawai’i and visiting faculty at Yonsei University in Korea. With joint research projects worldwide, Braun passionately engages in human capacity building and science diplomacy. The influential Washington D.C. based Foreign Policy (FP) magazine listed Artur Braun as one of the Leading Global Thinkers of 2014.

Fabian Ezema is a Professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He obtained a PhD and MSc. in Physics and Astronomy from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a BSc from the then Anambra State University of Science and Technology, Enugu.

His researches are on several areas of Materials Science: synthesis and characterizations of particles and thin film materials through chemical routes with emphasis on energy applications. He is interested in materials for thin film solar cells fabrication and nanoparticle synthesis. For the last 15 years, he has been working on the nano/submicron-sized materials for energy conversion and storage (cathodes, anodes, supercapacitors, thin film solar cells, DSSC, etc), including novel methods of synthesis, characterization and evaluation of the electrochemical and optical properties.
He was a CV Raman Fellow at the Shivaji University Kolhapur India in 2011 and MIF Fellow at Tokyo University of Science, Japan in 2013. He is a visiting professor to NRS-EMT (MATECSS UNESCO Chair) in Varennes, Quebec, Canada and iThemba Labs South Africa. He is also a Fellow of UNESCO-UNISA South Africa Chair in Nanosciences and Nanotechnology (U2ACN2). He was awarded University of South Africa (UNISA) visiting researcher to work on perovskite solar cells. He is the team leader of the Nano Research Group, UNN that was awarded a TETFund (National Research Fund) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) grants for the development of novel perovskite absorber and hole conductors for photovoltaic and optical gain media applications. Fabian is a senate representative to National Center for Energy Research and Development (NCERD) University of Nigeria, and due to his commitment to research and international visibility was appointed Pioneer Acting Director, International Office of the University of Nigeria after the approval of the office by the University Senate. He has served as Coordinator, Natural Science Unit, School of General Studies, UNN. He is the Coordinator Nano Research Group, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is the pioneer Dean, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Coal City University Enugu, Nigeria.
Fabian has published over 180 high impact papers in various national and international journals and gave over 50 talks at various conferences, workshops and seminars. His h-index is 34, i10 index of 121 with over 3775 citations as in google scholar.

Emmanuel Iwuoha is the South African Research Chair for NanoElectrochemistry and Sensor Technology and a Senior Professor of Chemistry at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).

He is a National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa’s A-rated Scientist. He was admitted as a Chattered Chemist (CChem) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), UK in 1990 and 1999, respectively. He is the Founder and Director of the UWC Sensor Laboratories (SensorLab) since 2002, which has developed to a centre of excellence in materials electrochemistry. Prof Iwuoha specialises in the development of amperometric and electrochemiluminescent aptasensor, immunosensor and phenosensor testing protocols for the signalling and measurement of disease biomarkers. Another aspect of his work involves the designing of smart nanomaterials for applications in electrochemical energy (batteries and supercapacitor) and photovoltaic energy generation. Prof Iwuoha has supervised/co-supervised more than 70 PhD Chemistry degree graduates, published over 360 research articles and book chapters and has made 33 Plenary and 29 Keynote presentations at international conferences. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of the American Chemical Society Gold (JACS Au), Analytical Chemistry and Bioelectrochemistry, among others. His recent awards and recognitions include: Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (HonFRSC) Award 2021 by the RSC; and the Champion of Research Capacity Development and Transformation Award 2020 by the NRF.

Stephan Barcikowski studied chemistry in Braunschweig and Hannover, Germany, and made his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering.

At the Laser Zentrum Hannover, Barcikowski built up the Nanomaterials group, and later led the institute’s Materials Processing department. In 2010, he co-founded the company Particular GmbH. Since 2011, he chairs the Institute of Chemical Technology I at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Stephan Barcikowski has more than 300 reviewed papers and patent files, cited over 9,000 times, including an open access handbook downloaded several thousand times. He launched the scientific video channel ‘nanofunction’ on youtube with more than 85,000 viewings, and served editing and guest-editing several journals. His research addresses laser synthesis and processing of particles for catalysis, biomedicine, and additive manufacturing.

Suchi Guha is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, where she joined as an assistant professor in 2003. She earned her doctorate degree in physics from Arizona State University.

Prior to that, she obtained master’s and bachelor’s degrees in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and the University of Delhi, respectively. Her current research interests include charge transport mechanisms in polymeric and organic semiconductors, development of organic field-effect transistors and photodetectors, peptide electronics, and photophysics of conjugated polymers and perovskite materials using linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy. She has co-authored over 125 publications and currently serves as an associate editor of the journal – ACS Applied Electronic Materials.

Paul van Loosdrecht studied physics at the Einhoven university of technology. He obtained his PhD from the university of Nijmegen in 1992 for work on fundamental excitations in incommensurate crystals and fullerenes.

He was awarded a NWO ‘Talent’ award to work on endohedral fullerence at IBM-Almaden research center in the USA. After post-doc position at the high magnetic field laboratory in Grenoble and the university of Aachen he moved to the University of Groningen on a NWO ‘Springplank’ award where he became a full professor in optical condensed matter physics in 2003. In 2013 he moved to the university of Cologne. His main interests are the fundamental properties of complex matter and optical manipulation of molecular and complex matter using advanced linear and non-linear spectroscopies. Central to his current research are non-equilibrium material physics and the role of spin-orbit coupling, correlations, and topology in the physical properties of novel quantum materials. He published over 180 peer reviewed articles. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and is editor for Physics Reports.

Federico Rosei (MSc (1996) and PhD (2001) from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”) is Full Professor at the Centre Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Varennes (QC) Canada, where he served as Director (07/2011–03/2019).

He held the Canada Research Chair (Junior) in Nanostructured Organic and Inorganic Materials (2003–2013) and since May 2016 he holds the Canada Research Chair (Senior) in Nanostructured Materials. Since January 2014 he holds the UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Storage.

Dr. Rosei’s research interests focus on structure/property relationships in nanomaterials and their use as building blocks in emerging technologies. His research has been supported by multiple funding sources from the Province of Quebec, the Federal Government of Canada as well as international agencies, for a total in excess of M$ 18. He has worked in partnership with over twenty Canadian R&D companies. He is co-inventor of three patents and has published over 420 articles in prestigious international journals (including Science, Nature Photonics, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Adv. Func. Mater., Adv. En. Mat., Nanolett., ACS Nano, Biomaterials, Small, Phys. Rev. Lett., Nanoscale, Chem. Comm., Appl. Phys. Lett., Phys. Rev. B, etc.), has been invited to speak at over 335 international conferences and has given over 250 seminars and colloquia, over 60 professional development lectures and 40 public lectures in 48 countries on all inhabited continents. His publications have been cited over 19,100 times and his H index is 74.

He is Fellow of numerous prestigious national and international societies and academies, including: the Royal Society of Canada, the European Academy of Science, the Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the African Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Art and Science, the World Academy of Ceramics, the American Physical Society, AAAS, the American Ceramic Society, the Optical Society of America, SPIE, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, ASM International, the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), the Institute of Physics, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Materials, Metallurgy and Mining, the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Australian Institute of Physics, Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society, Foreign Member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, Foreign Member of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, Senior Member of IEEE, Alumnus of the Global Young Academy and Member of the Sigma Xi Society.

He has received several awards and honours, including the FQRNT Strategic Professorship (2002–2007), the Tan Chin Tuan visiting Fellowship (NTU 2008), the Senior Gledden Visiting Fellowship (UWA 2009), Professor at Large at UWA (2010–2012), a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the European Union (2001), a junior Canada Research Chair (2003–2013), a senior Canada Research Chair (2016–2023) a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award (von Humboldt foundation 2011), the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry (Royal Society of Canada 2011), the Herzberg Medal (Canadian Association of Physics 2013), the Brian Ives lectureship award (ASM international 2013), the Award for Excellence in Materials Chemistry (Canadian Society for Chemistry 2014), the NSERC EWR Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2014), the José Vasconcelos Award for Education (World Cultural Council 2014), the IEEE NTC Distinguished Lectureship 2015–2016, the Lash Miller Award (Electrochemical Society 2015), the Chang Jiang Scholar Award (China), the Khwarizmi International Award (Iran), the Recognition for Excellence in Mentorship (American Vacuum Society 2015), the Selby Fellowship (Australian Academy of Sciences 2016), the John C. Polanyi Award (Canadian Society for Chemistry 2016), the Outstanding Engineer Award (IEEE Canada 2017), the President’s Visiting Fellowship for Distinguished Scientists (Chinese Academy of Sciences 2017), the Sigma Xi Distinguished Lectureship (2018–2020), the Sichuan 1000 talent (short term) award, the Lee Hsun Lecture Award (2018), the Changbai Mountain Friendship Award (2018), the IEEE Montreal Gold Medal (2018), the APS John Wheatley Award (2019), the Blaise Pascal Medal (European Academy of Science 2019), the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lectureship (2020–2022), the Guangxi Golden Silkball Friendship Award, the TMS Brimacombe Medal (2021), the Wolfson Fellowship (Royal Society), the Prix Urgel Archambault (ACFAS 2021), the Prix du Quebec “Marie Victorin” (2021) and the Julian C. Smith Medal (Engineering Institute of Canada 2022).

Mohamed Chaker has been a professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Varennes, Quebec, Canada since 1989.

Holding a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plasmas applied to micro and nanomanufacturing technologies since 2003, he has published over 300 articles in peer-review journals (14000 citations, H-index=65 according to Google Scholar) in various domains, including advanced plasma sources characterization (high-density plasmas and laser-induced plasmas) for applications to thin film synthesis, nanometer pattern transfer, nanoparticles production and device fabrication. From 1999 to 2002, he has been the director of the Center Energie et Matériaux of INRS, then from 2002 to 2005, the director of the Center Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications. He played a leadership role in the development of Quebec consortia (Prompt-Québec, NanoQuébec). From 2005, he is the director of the Laboratory of Micro and Nanofabrication (LMN) of INRS.

Dr. Dionysios (Dion) D. Dionysiou is currently a Professor of Environmental Engineering and Science Program at the University of Cincinnati. He teaches courses and performs research in the areas of drinking water quality and treatment, advanced unit operations for water treatment, advanced oxidation technologies and nanotechnologies, and physical-chemical processes for water quality control.

He has received funding from NSF, US EPA, NASA, NOAA/CICEET, USGS, USDA, Ohio Sea Grant, USAID, and DuPont. He is currently one of the Executive Editors of Chemical Engineering Journal, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Engineering (ASCE), co-Editor of Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, and member of the Editorial Boards of several other journals. Dr. Dionysiou is the author or co-author of over 600 refereed journal publications, over 87 conference proceedings, 38 book chapter publications, 34 editorials, and more than 650 presentations. He has edited/co-edited 7 books on water quality, water reuse, ferrates, photocatalysis and treatment of harmful algal blooms and cyanotoxins. Dr. Dionysiou’s work received over 66,000 citations with an H factor of 131 (Google Scholar). He is a Highly Cited Researcher (in Engineering and Environment/Ecology based on Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, and in Environmental Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering based of Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects by Elsevier, 2016).

Web Page 1: https://dion-lab.weebly.com/

Web Page 2: https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/dionysdd

Web Page 3: http://ceas.uc.edu/chemical-environmental-engineering/Dr_Dionysios_Dionysiou.html