Plenary lectures

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

Annie Powell is Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe, Germany. A major focus of her work is the synthesis and properties of "Coordination Clusters", which are aggregates of metal ions contained within ligand shells. The metal ions used can come from anywhere in the Periodic Table and can be mixed from different areas of the Table. Properties include Single Molecule Magnetism, Single Molecule Toroics and optical properties associated with lanthanide ions.

She was educated in the UK and awarded her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Manchester in 1985. After a postdoc in Freiburg, Germany, she returned to the UK and then took up the offer of the Chair in Karlsruhe in 1999. She has won many prize fellowships and visiting professorships. She does extensive work on funding and reviewing panels and is currently an elected trustee of the Royal Society of Chemistry. 

Univ. Jaume I, Spain

Eduardo Peris graduated in Chemistry in 1988 in the University of Valencia. He received his Ph.D. Degree in Chemistry (1991) in the Universidad de Valencia, which he performed under the supervision of Prof. Pascual Lahuerta. In 1994 he joined Bob Crabtree’s group at Yale University, where he stayed for two years, working on a research project regarding the determination of hydrogen bonding to metal hydrides (dihydrogen bond). In October 1995 he moved to the Universitat Jaume I (Castellón-Spain) where he is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. Over the last 10 years, Eduardo Peris directed special attention to the design of heterobimetallic catalysts for tandem catalytic reactions, in which each metal mediated a mechanistically distinct reaction. Most recently, Eduardo Peris developed poly-NHC-based supramolecular systems for the recognition of small polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and for the study of homogeneously catalysed processes in confined spaces. This includes the preparation of molecular squares, rectangles and related two-and three-dimensional assemblies for the recognition of organic substrates (guests) and for catalysis. In the period 2007-2010 Eduardo Peris was member of the Advisory Board of ACS-Organometallics. From 2014 to 2018 he served as President of the Spanish Organometallic Chemistry Division (GEQO), from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ). In 2012 he was awarded the ‘Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry ’ (RSEQ) award in the field of Inorganic Chemistry Research. In 2019, he obtained the Humboldt Research Award. In 2021 he received the Rafael Usón Medal from the Organometallic Chemistry Division (GEQO) of the RSEQ.

Univ. Fudan, China

Guo-Xin Jin is Chair Professor (CheungKong Scholarship) of Inorganic Chemistry at Fudan University. His current research interests include various aspects of organometallic chemistry and catalysts for olefin polymerization. He has published more than 388 research papers and 20 review papers and books. He has delivered more than 30 plenary and keynote lectures in international conferences.

Univ. Korea, S. Korea

Jong Seung Kim, FRSC, received his Ph. D. from Texas Tech University in 1993. He has worked at University of Houston as a post-doc in 1994. Currently he is a full professor in Department of Chemistry at Korea University in Seoul. He has published about 530 papers with h-index 104. He is a member of the Korea Academy of Science and Technology. He has been selected as a Highly Cited Researcher since 2014.

Univ. Cambridge, UK

Jonathan Nitschke received his bachelor's degree from Williams College (USA) in 1995 and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 under the supervision of T. Don Tilley. He then undertook postdoctoral studies with Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg under the auspices of a US NSF fellowship, and in 2003 he started his independent research career as a Maître-assistant (fixed-term independent PI) in the Organic Chemistry Department of the University of Geneva. In 2007 he was appointed University Lecturer at Cambridge, where he now holds a Professorship. His research program investigates the self-assembly of complex, functional structures from simple molecular precursors and metal ions.

Univ. Sydney, Australia

Katrina (Kate) Jolliffe received her PhD (1997) from the University of New South Wales. She currently holds the position of Payne-Scott Professor in the School of Chemistry at The University of Sydney and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Univ. Surrey, UK

Professor Max Lu is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Surrey. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and a Director of the Board of National Physical Laboratory. He is Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, World Academy of Science, National Academy of Inventors, and a Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

Professor Lu founded the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials and served as its director for eight years. A pre-eminent chemical engineer and nanotechnologist, Professor Lu is a highly cited academic in Chemistry. He has published over 500 journal papers (h=129, and 68,000 citations). He is co-inventor of more than 20 granted international patents.