Theme Lectures
Meet the Innovators Setting the Stage
for ICMAT 2025
Discover groundbreaking insights at the Theme Lectures for ICMAT 2025. Join leading experts as they share advancements in materials science and global challenges.
Theme Lectures
Clement Sanchez
Collège de France, France
Clement Sanchez
Collège de France, France
Title:
Integrative Materials Chemistry: A Domain Where Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Engineering Meet
Bio:
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Integrative Materials Chemistry: A Domain Where Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Engineering Meet
Bio:
xx
Rose Amal
UNSW, Australia
Rose Amal
UNSW, Australia
Title:
Sunlight to X: Advanced Catalysis for Sustainable Chemical and Fuel Synthesis
Abstract:
The immense power of sunlight, with just two hours of solar irradiation being sufficient to power the entire planet for a year, underscores the potential of solar energy. While commercial technologies exist for converting sunlight to electricity, achieving net zero emissions requires decarbonizing sectors that are hard to abate, such as long haul aviation and maritime, and the chemical and steel industries. This presentation delves into the role of advanced catalysis in harnessing solar energy to synthesise chemicals and fuels sustainably. Advanced catalysts, characterised by their unique intrinsic properties including modified optical and electronic characteristics, significantly enhance the efficiency and selectivity of solar-driven chemical processes. Our research uses the entire solar spectrum, utilising UV and visible light for photocatalytic reactions and infrared radiation for thermal catalysis. These processes facilitate critical reactions like water splitting for hydrogen production, CO2 reduction, NOx reduction, and CO2 hydrogenation. Key advancements include our work with advanced catalysts such as ZnxIn2S3+x, which have elucidated the interplay between structure, activity, and selectivity—optimising the conversion of furfuryl alcohol into hydrogen and hydrofuroin, a potential jet fuel. Additionally, our integration of a solar-thermal reactor with a photovoltaic-electrolyser demonstrates the practical application of our research, optimising the solar-driven reduction of CO2 with hydrogen to produce methanol. This work not only demonstrates the versatility of solar energy in generating clean fuels and value-added organic transformations but also marks a significant advancement in the application of advanced catalytic materials for solar energy conversion. By providing viable alternatives to fossil fuels and advancing catalysis technologies, our findings contribute substantially to global energy sustainability.
Bio:
Professor Rose Amal is a Scientia Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, Sydney. She is Co-Director of ARC Training Centre for the Global Hydrogen Economy and Lead of NSW Powerfuel including H2 Network. She is Co-Editor in Chief of Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy. Her current research focuses on designing catalysts for solar and chemical energy conversion applications, making solar chemicals and fuels (such as H2) . Professor Rose Amal has received numerous prestigious awards including CHEMECA medalist (2021) and named as 2019 NSW Scientist of the Year. She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (FTSE), a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science (FAA), Fellow of Royal Society NSW (FRSN), Fellow of IChemE, and Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. She has received the nation’s top civilian honour – the Companion of the Order of Australia - for her service to chemical engineering, particularly in the field of particle technology, through seminal contributions to photocatalysis, to education as a researcher and academic, and to women in science as a role model and mentor.
Sunlight to X: Advanced Catalysis for Sustainable Chemical and Fuel Synthesis
Abstract:
The immense power of sunlight, with just two hours of solar irradiation being sufficient to power the entire planet for a year, underscores the potential of solar energy. While commercial technologies exist for converting sunlight to electricity, achieving net zero emissions requires decarbonizing sectors that are hard to abate, such as long haul aviation and maritime, and the chemical and steel industries. This presentation delves into the role of advanced catalysis in harnessing solar energy to synthesise chemicals and fuels sustainably. Advanced catalysts, characterised by their unique intrinsic properties including modified optical and electronic characteristics, significantly enhance the efficiency and selectivity of solar-driven chemical processes. Our research uses the entire solar spectrum, utilising UV and visible light for photocatalytic reactions and infrared radiation for thermal catalysis. These processes facilitate critical reactions like water splitting for hydrogen production, CO2 reduction, NOx reduction, and CO2 hydrogenation. Key advancements include our work with advanced catalysts such as ZnxIn2S3+x, which have elucidated the interplay between structure, activity, and selectivity—optimising the conversion of furfuryl alcohol into hydrogen and hydrofuroin, a potential jet fuel. Additionally, our integration of a solar-thermal reactor with a photovoltaic-electrolyser demonstrates the practical application of our research, optimising the solar-driven reduction of CO2 with hydrogen to produce methanol. This work not only demonstrates the versatility of solar energy in generating clean fuels and value-added organic transformations but also marks a significant advancement in the application of advanced catalytic materials for solar energy conversion. By providing viable alternatives to fossil fuels and advancing catalysis technologies, our findings contribute substantially to global energy sustainability.
Bio:
Professor Rose Amal is a Scientia Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, Sydney. She is Co-Director of ARC Training Centre for the Global Hydrogen Economy and Lead of NSW Powerfuel including H2 Network. She is Co-Editor in Chief of Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy. Her current research focuses on designing catalysts for solar and chemical energy conversion applications, making solar chemicals and fuels (such as H2) . Professor Rose Amal has received numerous prestigious awards including CHEMECA medalist (2021) and named as 2019 NSW Scientist of the Year. She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (FTSE), a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science (FAA), Fellow of Royal Society NSW (FRSN), Fellow of IChemE, and Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. She has received the nation’s top civilian honour – the Companion of the Order of Australia - for her service to chemical engineering, particularly in the field of particle technology, through seminal contributions to photocatalysis, to education as a researcher and academic, and to women in science as a role model and mentor.
Clare P. Grey
Cambridge, UK
Clare P. Grey
Cambridge, UK
Title:
Developing and applying new tools to understand how electrochemical devices function and fail – from batteries, supercapacitors to gated electronics.
Abstract:
Rechargeable batteries have been an integral part of the portable electronics revolution and are now playing a critical role in transport and grid applications to help mitigate climate change. However, these applications come with different sets of challenges. New technologies are being investigated and fundamental science is key to producing non-incremental advances and to develop new strategies for energy storage and conversion.
This talk will focus on our own work to develop NMR, MRI and new optical methods that allow devices to be probed while they are operating, from the local, to particle and then cell level. This allows transformations of the various cell materials to be followed under realistic conditions without having to disassemble and take apart the cell. Starting with local structure and dynamics, as measured by NMR, I will then show - with new optical methods - how the different dynamics can result in different intercalation mechanisms. A good example is our work on LiCoO2, where via optical approaches we were able to directly visualize movement of phase fronts as lithium is removed and inserted into this material. New results on solution-based redox flow and extremely high-rate batteries will be outlined; I will then illustrate how our new metrologies can be extended to study a wider range of electrochemical systems.
Bio:
Clare P. Grey, FRS, DBE is the Geoffrey Moorhouse-Gibson and Royal Society Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge. She received a BA and D. Phil. (1991) in Chemistry from Oxford University. After post-doctoral fellowships in the Netherlands and at DuPont CR&D in Wilmington, DE, she joined the faculty at Stony Brook University (SBU) in 1994. She moved to Cambridge in 2009, maintaining an adjunct position at SBU. She was the founding director of the Northeastern Chemical Energy Storage Center, a Department of Energy, Energy Frontier Research Center, the director of the EPSRC Centre for Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems (CAM-IES) and a founding member of the Faraday Institution. Recent honours/awards include the Société Chimique de France, French-British Prize (2017), the Solid State Ionics Galvani-Nernst-Wagner Mid-Career Award (2017), the Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in Magnetic Resonance (2018), the Italian Chemical Society Sacconi Medal (2018), the Charles Hatchett Award, IoM3 (2019), the RSC John Goodenough Award (2019), the Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance (2020), the RS Hughes Award (2020), the Körber European Science Prize (2021) and the ACS Central Science Disrupters Prize (2022). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Electrochemical Society, and the International Society of Magnetic Resonance, a Foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an International Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and received a DBE in 2022. Her current research interests include the use of solid state NMR and diffraction-based methods to determine structure-function relationships in materials for energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors), and conversion (fuel cells). She is a cofounder of the company Nyobolt, which seeks to develop batteries for fast charge applications.
Developing and applying new tools to understand how electrochemical devices function and fail – from batteries, supercapacitors to gated electronics.
Abstract:
Rechargeable batteries have been an integral part of the portable electronics revolution and are now playing a critical role in transport and grid applications to help mitigate climate change. However, these applications come with different sets of challenges. New technologies are being investigated and fundamental science is key to producing non-incremental advances and to develop new strategies for energy storage and conversion.
This talk will focus on our own work to develop NMR, MRI and new optical methods that allow devices to be probed while they are operating, from the local, to particle and then cell level. This allows transformations of the various cell materials to be followed under realistic conditions without having to disassemble and take apart the cell. Starting with local structure and dynamics, as measured by NMR, I will then show - with new optical methods - how the different dynamics can result in different intercalation mechanisms. A good example is our work on LiCoO2, where via optical approaches we were able to directly visualize movement of phase fronts as lithium is removed and inserted into this material. New results on solution-based redox flow and extremely high-rate batteries will be outlined; I will then illustrate how our new metrologies can be extended to study a wider range of electrochemical systems.
Bio:
Clare P. Grey, FRS, DBE is the Geoffrey Moorhouse-Gibson and Royal Society Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge. She received a BA and D. Phil. (1991) in Chemistry from Oxford University. After post-doctoral fellowships in the Netherlands and at DuPont CR&D in Wilmington, DE, she joined the faculty at Stony Brook University (SBU) in 1994. She moved to Cambridge in 2009, maintaining an adjunct position at SBU. She was the founding director of the Northeastern Chemical Energy Storage Center, a Department of Energy, Energy Frontier Research Center, the director of the EPSRC Centre for Advanced Materials for Integrated Energy Systems (CAM-IES) and a founding member of the Faraday Institution. Recent honours/awards include the Société Chimique de France, French-British Prize (2017), the Solid State Ionics Galvani-Nernst-Wagner Mid-Career Award (2017), the Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in Magnetic Resonance (2018), the Italian Chemical Society Sacconi Medal (2018), the Charles Hatchett Award, IoM3 (2019), the RSC John Goodenough Award (2019), the Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance (2020), the RS Hughes Award (2020), the Körber European Science Prize (2021) and the ACS Central Science Disrupters Prize (2022). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Electrochemical Society, and the International Society of Magnetic Resonance, a Foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an International Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and received a DBE in 2022. Her current research interests include the use of solid state NMR and diffraction-based methods to determine structure-function relationships in materials for energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors), and conversion (fuel cells). She is a cofounder of the company Nyobolt, which seeks to develop batteries for fast charge applications.
Min Gu
University of Shanghai, China
Min Gu
University of Shanghai, China
Title:
Optical artificial intelligence enabled by functional materials
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence based on ever-increasing computing power including neuromorphic computing has heralded a disruptive horizon in many ways of our life. The concept of optical artificial intelligence has demonstrated its unique advantage in terms of the ultrafast computational speed and ultralow energy consumption. In pursuing this vision, the diffractive neural network harvesting the spatial connection among digitised pixels is one of the promising emerging technologies in this race as it offers a potential for ultrafast neuromorphic computing power with a high neural density. Invented by Dennis Gabor in 1948, holography offers a diffractive approach to reconstructing both the intensity and phase information of an object under investigation. In the area of optical holography demonstrated in 1962, this technology can be multiplexed in many physical domains, which is advantageous for high connectivity of holographic neural networks. With the advanced function materials including graphene, topological and perovskite composites, I will show ultrafast artificial intelligence enabled by optical nanoscale holograms fabricated by femtosecond laser lithography as well as temporal optical inferencing.
Bio:
Professor Gu is Executive Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. He was Distinguished Professor and Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor at RMIT University, and a Laureate Fellow of the Australian Research Council, Pro Vice-Chancellor, and a University Distinguished Professor at Swinburne University of Technology. He is an author of four standard reference books and has over 600 publications in nano/biophotonics. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering as well as Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is also an elected fellow of SPIE, Optica, IEEE, AIP, InstP and COS. He was President of the International Society of Optics within Life Sciences, Vice President of the Board of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) (Chair of the ICO Prize Committee) and a Director of the Board of Optica (formerly OSA) (Chair of the International Council). He was awarded the Einstein Professorship, the W. H. (Beattie) Steel Medal, the Ian Wark Medal, the Boas Medal and the Victoria Prize. Professor Gu is a winner of the 2019 Dennis Gabor Award (SPIE) and the 2022 Emmett Norman Leith Medal (Optica).
Optical artificial intelligence enabled by functional materials
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence based on ever-increasing computing power including neuromorphic computing has heralded a disruptive horizon in many ways of our life. The concept of optical artificial intelligence has demonstrated its unique advantage in terms of the ultrafast computational speed and ultralow energy consumption. In pursuing this vision, the diffractive neural network harvesting the spatial connection among digitised pixels is one of the promising emerging technologies in this race as it offers a potential for ultrafast neuromorphic computing power with a high neural density. Invented by Dennis Gabor in 1948, holography offers a diffractive approach to reconstructing both the intensity and phase information of an object under investigation. In the area of optical holography demonstrated in 1962, this technology can be multiplexed in many physical domains, which is advantageous for high connectivity of holographic neural networks. With the advanced function materials including graphene, topological and perovskite composites, I will show ultrafast artificial intelligence enabled by optical nanoscale holograms fabricated by femtosecond laser lithography as well as temporal optical inferencing.
Bio:
Professor Gu is Executive Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. He was Distinguished Professor and Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor at RMIT University, and a Laureate Fellow of the Australian Research Council, Pro Vice-Chancellor, and a University Distinguished Professor at Swinburne University of Technology. He is an author of four standard reference books and has over 600 publications in nano/biophotonics. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering as well as Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is also an elected fellow of SPIE, Optica, IEEE, AIP, InstP and COS. He was President of the International Society of Optics within Life Sciences, Vice President of the Board of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) (Chair of the ICO Prize Committee) and a Director of the Board of Optica (formerly OSA) (Chair of the International Council). He was awarded the Einstein Professorship, the W. H. (Beattie) Steel Medal, the Ian Wark Medal, the Boas Medal and the Victoria Prize. Professor Gu is a winner of the 2019 Dennis Gabor Award (SPIE) and the 2022 Emmett Norman Leith Medal (Optica).
Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
MIT, US
Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
MIT, US
Title:
Next Generation Moiré Quantum Matter
Abstract:
The understanding of strongly-interacting quantum matter has challenged physicists for decades. The discovery five years ago of correlated phases and superconductivity in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene has led to the emergence of a new materials platform to investigate strongly interacting physics, namely moiré quantum matter. In this talk I will review recent experiments on next generation moiré quantum matter, both twisted multilayer graphene systems as well as dual (or asymmetric) moiré systems. In particular, first I will briefly discuss our experiments on magic-angle twisted multilayer graphene as a family of robust moiré superconductors. Second, I will discuss the engineering of moiré quasicrystals and a new type of unconventional ferroelectricity and electron ratchet in asymmetric moiré systems.
Bio
Pablo Jarillo-Herrero is currently Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT. He received his “Licenciatura” in physics from the University of Valencia, Spain, in 1999. Then he spent two years at the University of California in San Diego, where he received a M.Sc. degree before going to the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2005. After a one-year postdoc in Delft, he moved to Columbia University, where he worked as a NanoResearch Initiative Fellow. He joined MIT as an assistant professor of physics in January 2008 and received tenure in 2015. He was promoted to Full Professor of Physics in 2018. His awards include the Spanish Royal Society Young Investigator Award (2006), an NSF Career Award (2008), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2009), a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (2009), the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Semiconductor Physics (2010), a DOE Early Career Award (2011), a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, 2012), an ONR Young Investigator Award (2013), and a Moore Foundation Experimental Physics in Quantum Systems Investigator Award (2014). Prof. Jarillo-Herrero has been selected as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics-Web of Science (2017-present), and was elected APS Fellow (2018), Fellow of the Quantum Materials Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR, 2019), and Member at Large of the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics (2019). Prof. Jarillo-Herrero is the recipient of the APS 2020 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize, the 2020 Wolf Prize in Physics, the 2020 Medal of the Spanish Royal Physics Society, the 2021 Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecture and Medal, the 2021 Max Planck Humboldt Research Award, and the 2021 US National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery. He became elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2022.
Next Generation Moiré Quantum Matter
Abstract:
The understanding of strongly-interacting quantum matter has challenged physicists for decades. The discovery five years ago of correlated phases and superconductivity in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene has led to the emergence of a new materials platform to investigate strongly interacting physics, namely moiré quantum matter. In this talk I will review recent experiments on next generation moiré quantum matter, both twisted multilayer graphene systems as well as dual (or asymmetric) moiré systems. In particular, first I will briefly discuss our experiments on magic-angle twisted multilayer graphene as a family of robust moiré superconductors. Second, I will discuss the engineering of moiré quasicrystals and a new type of unconventional ferroelectricity and electron ratchet in asymmetric moiré systems.
Bio
Pablo Jarillo-Herrero is currently Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT. He received his “Licenciatura” in physics from the University of Valencia, Spain, in 1999. Then he spent two years at the University of California in San Diego, where he received a M.Sc. degree before going to the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2005. After a one-year postdoc in Delft, he moved to Columbia University, where he worked as a NanoResearch Initiative Fellow. He joined MIT as an assistant professor of physics in January 2008 and received tenure in 2015. He was promoted to Full Professor of Physics in 2018. His awards include the Spanish Royal Society Young Investigator Award (2006), an NSF Career Award (2008), an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (2009), a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship (2009), the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in Semiconductor Physics (2010), a DOE Early Career Award (2011), a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, 2012), an ONR Young Investigator Award (2013), and a Moore Foundation Experimental Physics in Quantum Systems Investigator Award (2014). Prof. Jarillo-Herrero has been selected as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics-Web of Science (2017-present), and was elected APS Fellow (2018), Fellow of the Quantum Materials Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR, 2019), and Member at Large of the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics (2019). Prof. Jarillo-Herrero is the recipient of the APS 2020 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize, the 2020 Wolf Prize in Physics, the 2020 Medal of the Spanish Royal Physics Society, the 2021 Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecture and Medal, the 2021 Max Planck Humboldt Research Award, and the 2021 US National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery. He became elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2022.