Plenary Speakers

Antonio Facchetti is the Hightower Chair in Biopolymers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Flexterra Corporation and an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University. Facchetti obtained his Laurea degree in chemistry cum laude and a PhD degree in chemical sciences from the University of Milan. He has published more than 600 research articles, 15 book chapters, and holds more than 120 patents. He received the ACS Award for Creative Invention, the Giulio Natta Gold Medal of the Italian Chemical Society, the team IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe Award, the corporate Flextech Award. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, National Academy of Engineering, European Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, AAAS, PMSE, Kavli, and RSC. His interests include synthesis of organic/hybrid opto-electronic/energy materials, solution processing of thin-films, semiconductor devices, bioelectronics and sustainable technologies.

Arokia Nathan, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, Overseas National-Level Talent, IEEE Fellow and 2020 EDS J.J Ebers Award winner. He received his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from University of Alberta, Canada in 1988. Since then, he has worked as Chair Professor at the University of Waterloo, University College London, and University of Cambridge. He is now the Chair Professor of Shandong University. Professor Arokia Nathan’s research interests lie in the application of nano-optoelectronic materials and devices, display technology and thin-film transistors (TFT), and he has made a number of research achievements in low-temperature thin-film devices fabrication and their integration with flexible substrate. His approach to engineering research and development is broad and comprehensive, encompassing fundamental device science, process development and manufacturing, and device and circuit inventions to achieve new systems. In addition, he addresses the wide application of large-area flexible electronics through modelling and electronic design automation tools EDA.

Manish Chhowalla is the Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the fundamental studies of atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). In particular, his group studies the properties of different phases of 2D TMDs. He has demonstrated that it is possible to induce phase transformations in atomically thin materials and utilise phases with disparate properties for field effect transistors, catalysis, and energy storage. Prof. Chhowalla is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Materials Research Society, and Churchill College. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Applied Materials Today, Associate Editor of ACS Nano, and is now the Editor-in-Chief of MRS Energy & Sustainability. He has been on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers since 2016. Prior to Cambridge, he was a Professor at Rutgers University in NJ, USA.