2024 Speakers

Prof. Zhengming Sun
Southeast University, China

Zhengming Sun is a National Distinguished Expert, Chair Professor at Southeast University, Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Southeast University, a master's degree from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a joint Ph.D. from IMR and University of Vienna. Then, he served as a research associate at IMR. In March 1993, he joined the Institute of Physical Chemistry, the University of Vienna, as a guest researcher. In August 1994, he was invited to join the Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan, under the support of Daiko Foundation. He obtained a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in August 1995. In April 1997, he joined the Tohoku National Industrial Research Institute (Japan), as a research officer. This institute was later reorganized to the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan), where he was promoted to a senior research scientist and served as an associate to the director of the International Affairs Division. He also worked at Drexel University, USA, in February 2004 for one year, on his sabbatical leave from AIST. He later joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, and was appointed the dean of the school in 2019. His research interests cover the research and development of metallic materials, intermetallic compounds, ceramics and composites. In the past decade, he devoted most of his energy to the MAX phase materials, a family of ternary compounds, which combines the best attributes of metals and ceramics. Recently he is more engaged in the study of energy storage materials such as MXenes, the derivatives of MAX phases, for Li-ion batteries, super capacitors, Li-S batteries, Zn-ion batteries. He has published more than 300 research papers in journals such as Nat. Commun., Adv Mater, Adv Energy Mater, Energy Environ Sci, Adv Funct Mater, Acta Mater, and holds more than 40 patents. He serves as a director of the Chinese Materials Research Society, executive director of the Chinese Society for Composite Materials, vice president of the Jiangsu Materials Research Society. He has received awards such as the Overseas Chinese Contribution Award, Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Award, and the Scientific and Technological Award of the Composite Materials Society. More information is available at the site of his group http://smse.seu.edu.cn/sun/

Prof. Hiroyuki Nakamura
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Hiroyuki Nakamura was received his PhD from Tohoku University under the supervision of Professor Yoshinori Yamamoto in 1996. He became an assistant professor at Kyushu University (1995-1997) and at Tohoku University (1997-2002). He worked as a visiting assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh with Professor D. Curran (2000-2001). In 2002, he was appointed as an associate professor at Gakushuin University and promoted as a professor in 2006. In 2013, he was appointed as a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. He received the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Young Chemists in 1999 and the Incentive Award of the Japanese Society for Molecular Target Therapy of Cancer in 2007. He became president of the Japanese Society of Neutron Capture Therapy in 2015. His research interests include synthetic methodology, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, photodynamic therapy, and neutron capture therapy.

Prof. Prabhakar Singh
Indian Institute of Technology, India

Prabhakar Singh, Ph.D. (University of Muenster Germany) is Professor of HAG scale in the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi. He completed his M.Sc. in Physics and M.Tech. in Materials Science and Technology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He is graduated (B.Sc.) from Udai Pratap College, Varanasi. Prof. Singh has served as Assistant Professor in Udai Pratap College Varanasi and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) New Delhi for more than 8 years. He joined Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University in 2007 as a Reader / Associate Professor. He became Professor of Physics on 1st September 2015 and Professor of HAG scale at IIT (BHU) Varanasi on 1st July 2022. With more than two decades of teaching and research experiences, he has more than one 150 peer reviewed international publications, 08 book chapters and 01 monograph to his credit. He has edited a book entitled Nanomaterials Advances and Applications. His research interests include physics of materials for energy applications such as solid oxide fuels cells, Solar cells and piezoelectric/dielectric. He has supervised 15 PhD and 16 master students for their Ph.D. and master thesis, respectively and mentored several postdoctoral fellows under various national fellowship schemes. Prof. Singh has completed successfully 07 externally funded projects as principal investigator and currently 03 externally funded projects are running under his principal investigator-ship. Prof. Singh has visited several countries to carry out his academic and research works and has many international collaborations. He is member of many national and international professional societies. He has attended more than 70 national and international conferences and delivered invited talks. Prof. Singh has many awards / fellowships to his credit including Global Star Award-2021, and ACerS Global Ambassador-2023 Recognition by American Ceramic Society. Prof. Singh has served IIT (BHU) in various administrative capacities such as Head of the Department, Chairman Council of Wardens, Administrative Warden, Joint Chief Proctor, Proctor and Professor in-charge of staff sports team. Dr. Singh has been elected as a member of Board of Governors of IIT (BHU) as one of the Senate Representatives. He has been a member of Finance committee of IIT (BHU). He has been elected as President Faculty Forum of IIT (BHU). He is a member of board of studies of many NITs and Universities. He has been nominated as a Senate Member of NIT Raipur for two years. He is member of academic council of U.P. Rajarshi Tandon Open University, Prayagraj. He is UGC nominee of Governing body of St. Ann’s College of Engineering and Technology, Challareddypalem A.P. He has served as an adjunct professor of Physics at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Jammu for two years between 2017 and 2019. Prof. Singh is a member of various external national committees such as NCTE, UGC, NAAC and AICTE.

Dr. Ruiqi Xie
Southwest University, China

Dr. Ruiqi Xie is an Associate Professor at the College of Sericulture, Textile and Biomass Sciences, Southwest University (SWU). She received her Ph.D. from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where she also served as a research associate from 2016 to 2018. In 2018, she joined SWU as an associate professor. Her research interests mainly focus on smart biomaterial design and its applications in wound healing and hemostasis. Dr. Xie's research is distinctly multi-disciplinary, encompassing biomaterials, biomimetics, nanotechnology, and tissue regeneration. Over the past five years, she authored over 30 peer-reviewed papers in high-level research journals such as Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Fiber Materials, and Chemical Engineering Journal. Her research project was reported by more than 260 media outlets at home and abroad, including Beijing TV (evening news, August 15, 2018), AAAS and China Daily (November 13, 2018). She helped to establish OSSPOLY Limited Co. (Hong Kong) as a co-founder. Also, Dr. Xie has delivered more than 20 keynotes and invited seminars at leading institutions and conferences worldwide, focusing on biomaterials for hemostasis and wound healing.

2023 Speakers

Prof. Kwang Leong Choy
Duke Kunshan University, China

Professor Kwang-Leong Choy (DSc, FIMMM, FRSC) and her team performing pioneering research into novel, sustainable, and cost-effective processing of nanostructured thin films and thick coatings using non-vacuum and environmentally friendly Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) based methods, characterised by unique nanocrystalline microstructure and superior properties for energy, transport, functional, healthcare and biomedical applications. She has over 30 years’ experience in surface coating and nanomaterials. She has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications, including 4 books and 20 patents related to CVD based nanoparticles, nanowires, nanostructured ceramic and composite thin and thick films for engineering applications. She has given over 150 keynote/invited lectures. Professor Choy obtained her D.Phil. in Materials Science from the University of Oxford, where she was awarded the Hetherington Prize and Oxford Metallurgical Society Award. She also held academic position at Imperial College London and her pioneering on the Electrostatic Spray Assisted Vapour Deposition has led to the Grunfeld Medal and Prize from Institute of Materials (UK) and a spin-out company. She helped to establish two university spin-out companies. She also held a Chair in Materials, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham (2002-2014), where she was the Research Director of University Innovation Centre and University’s Knowledge Exchange Board. Over the past four years, Professor Choy’s work has led to her participation in numerous multimillion pounds research programmes. These include research contracts funded by EU, EPSRC, HEFCE, the Royal Society, Marie Curie, Innovate UK, TSB, Regional Development Agency (RDA) and many companies. She has been the international expert reviewer. She has been awarded Guest Professorships at the University of Uppsala (2001/03), Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE, 2010/2012), and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientist (2011/2013). Professor Choy is now a Director of UCL Institute for Materials Discovery and Professor of Materials Discovery at University College London since February 2014 to lead a multidisciplinary research Institute to integrate fundamental materials, chemistry, physics, engineering and biological principles across the disciplines to create new opportunities in materials creation, discovery and exploitation for the clean energy, aerospace, transport, optoelectronics, engineering, healthcare and biomedical applications. The Institute also plays an active role in materials translation and industrial engagements, linking theory with real world applications. She is also active in several UCL’s Global Engagement programmes with China, Europe and Africa.

Prof. Shinji Takeoka
Waseda University, Japan

Shinji Takeoka is a professor of Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience, School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University. He received B.S. degree(1986), M.S. degree(1988) , Ph. D. degree(1991) from Waseda University, Japan. He worked as a research associate at Waseda University School of Science and Engineering from 1991. Then he worked as Visiting Fellow, U. Pennsylvania School of Medicine for 1 year from 1998 to 1999. In 2005, he was promoted as professor of Waseda University. Prof. Shinji Takeoka is the Associate Director of Research Promotion Division, Waseda University. He is also the President of The Society of Blood Substitutes, Japan. His research interests include biomedical Engineering, biological material sciences, molecular assembling science and engineering.

Prof. Steven Y. Liang (Fellow of ASME & SME)
Morris M. Bryan, Jr. Professor for Advanced Manufacturing Systems
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Steven Y. Liang holds a 1987 Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California at Berkeley, USA, and was founding Director of Precision Machining Research Consortium and Director of Manufacturing Education Program and has been Morris M. Bryan, Jr. Professor for Advanced Manufacturing Systems at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Dr. Liang served as President of Walsin Lihwa Corp., a publicly-traded manufacturing entity with over USD6 billions of yearly revenue. Dr. Liang's technical interests lie in advanced manufacturing, precision engineering, and materials-centric production, and in these areas he has supervised over 90 post-doctoral studies, Ph.D. dissertations, and M.S. theses and has authored in excess of 450 book chapters, archival journal papers, and professional conference articles. He has delivered more than 60 keynotes and invited seminars at industries, peer institutions, and conferences in over 20 countries on manufacturing science and technology. Dr. Liang served as President of North American Manufacturing Research Institution and Chair of Manufacturing Engineering Division of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing (MDPI) and Editor of International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing (Springer). Dr. Liang is the recipient of Robert B. Douglas Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award of SME, Ralph R. Teetor Education Award of SAE, Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award of ASME, Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal of ASME, etc. Dr. Liang is a fellow of both ASME and SME.