Piotr Zelenay

Dr. Piotr Zelenay, Professor of Chemistry, received his Ph.D. and D.Sc. (“habilitation”) degrees in Chemistry from the University of Warsaw, Poland. He was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, the University of Warsaw until 1997, when he accepted a research position at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). He has been associated with LANL for the past 28 years, currently as a Guest Scientist, after retiring earlier this year from the highest-level research position at the laboratory, one no more than 15 of nearly 17,000. He is among top 25 most cited LANL researchers of all time on Google Scholar. Dr. Zelenay has received numerous awards and recognitions, most recently the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US DOE in 2024 and Outstanding Researcher Award from International Association for Green Energy (IAGE) in 2022 for “outstanding research and advancement of knowledge in fuel cells, electrochemical energy, and green energy systems”. He holds fellowships at Los Alamos National Laboratory, The Electrochemical Society, and International Society of Electrochemistry.

Thomas A. Zawodzinski

The University of Tennessee (USA)

Thomas Zawodzinski is currently the UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair in Electrical Energy Storage. Previously, he was the F. Alex Nason Professor of Engineering at Case, Director of the Case Advanced Power Institute, and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Fuel Cells. His research group focuses on fundamental science and applications of fuel cells, including high-temperature membranes, catalysis, and durability.

He was Team Leader for Fuel Cells in MST-11 at LANL, conducting research on polymer electrolyte fuel cells for 13 years. As Team Leader, he led programs on automotive, stationary, and portable PEM and Direct Methanol Fuel Cells and was a member of the PNGV Technical Team on Fuel Cells.

At LANL, he also initiated programs on lithium batteries, new electrolytes, transport and electrode materials, self-assembled monolayers, chemical/biological sensors, artificial muscles, and electrochemical reactors.

Keynote Speakers

Paweł Kulesza

University of Warsaw

Pawel J. Kulesza is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw, Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, and Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His interests concern development and characterization of functionalized, hierarchical and hybrid inorganic nanomaterials and interfaces for electrochemical energy conversion and storage, electrocatalysis, photoelectrochemistry and analytical electrochemistry. He is Associate Editor of Electrochimica Acta and member of several editorial boards. He received the Alessandro Volta Medal (2024) and is also member of ACS, ISE and the Polish Chemical Society.

Angela De Bonis

Università della Basilicata

Angela De Bonis has been a Full Professor at the University of Basilicata since 2021 and serves as Head of the LACLA (Laser–Physical Chemistry Laboratory). Her research focuses on physical chemistry and materials science, with particular emphasis on laser–matter interaction processes. In particular, her research explores laser-based synthesis techniques for nanostructured functional materials, including thin films and nanocomposites, as well as their advanced physico-chemical characterization using spectroscopic and microscopic methods.Throughout her career, she has coordinated and participated in several national and international research projects. She is the author of more than 120 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals, which have received over 2,800 citations.

Peter Strasser

Technische Universität Berlin

Philippe Knauth

Aix Marseille University

Philippe Knauth is Professor of Materials Chemistry at Aix-Marseille University. He obtained his PhD at Saarland University and has been appointed visiting scholar at MIT and invited professor at the National Institute of Materials Science (Japan) and at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is Fellow of the French Chemical Society (“Membre Distingué”). PK published 230 articles in international journals and held 90 invited, keynote and plenary talks at international conferences. He is editorial board member of several international journals, including “Journal of Materials Science: Materials for Energy”, “Membranes” and “Frontiers in Energy Research”.

Invited Speakers