Luis Oriol is a researcher at the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA; CSIC-Univ. Zaragoza) and a professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Zaragoza, where he obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. J.L. Serrano. Initially, he worked on liquid crystal polymers for high-performance fiber applications, and later, following a stay at Philips Research Labs under the supervision of Prof. D.J. Broer, on liquid crystal photopolymers for optical applications. In collaboration with groups from INMA, Univ. della Calabria, etc., he has developed a wide variety of light-responsive macromolecules mainly based on azobenzenes. More recently, he has specialized in applying controlled polymerization techniques and click chemistry to the development of polymers, linear or dendritic block copolymers, or hydrogels, responsive to stimuli and applicable in nanomedicine or optical technologies. His work has been documented in over 140 publications.

Auxi Prieto received her PhD in Pharmacy in the year 1995 from the Complutense University of Madrid. She was granted with two EMBO fellowships. First, at the Federal Institute of Biotechnology, Germany, in the group of Prof. Kenneth Timmis. Then, as EMBO Postdoc fellow at the Institute of Biotechnology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, in the group of Prof. Bernard Witholt. Currently is Full Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy-SusPlast (www.susplast-csic.org) of CSIC, gathering multidisciplinary researcher groups devoted to implement plastic circularity. At the Biological Research Center-Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC) she is the Head of the Polymer Biotechnology group that aims to explore and exploit the bacterial abilities to produce and biodegrade bio-based polymers in order to contribute to global sustainability, using tools of molecular biology combined with omic technologies and synthetic biology.

Prof. Dr. Michel Armand received his Ph.D. in Physics from University Joseph Fourier (France) in 1978. He was Director for Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France) since 1989 and Professor at University of Montreal (1995−2004). He has ushered theoretical concepts and new materials leading to practical applications in energy-related electrochemistry. He has been one of the pioneers of the use of intercalation electrodes (1972), and ushered the concept of “rocking chair” batteries using a second intercalation compound at the negative electrode, which will become known as the lithium-ion. He has introduced polymer electrolytes (1978) which are now used in the first commercial solid-state battery in application, new salts based on delocalized anions, of the sulfonimide family like TFSI or FSI (1986), widely used in batteries and the base for ionic liquids; he developed the first organic electrode materials (1996) and the carbon coating for LiFePO4, making it the most popular and safest electrode materials in battery production. He joined CIC Energigune in 2011, and present activities include new solvating polymers for lithium and sodium, lithium sulfur batteries, and several new salts. Michel Armand has been an author or a co-author for > 500 publications while contributing to 16 book chapters, has a H factor of 110 and his work has been quoted > 95000 times. He is the recipient of several distinctions and honours including the silver medal (CNRS), the Faraday Division Award from the Royal Society (UK), the Pergamon and Volta gold medals. Michel Armand is an ECS Fellow.

Manuela E. Gomes is presently Associate Professor with Habilitation and Vice-President of the I3Bs Research Institute of the University of Minho, Portugal. Her research interests currently focus on tendon tissue engineering strategies, namely in the development of magnetic scaffold materials and bioinks based on biodegradable natural origin polymers, stem cells sourcing and differentiation (using biochemical and physical methods). Manuela Gomes has been involved in numerous European and national/regional projects as PI or team member. She currently coordinates a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC CoG) - MagTendon - and ERC Proof of Concept (ERC PoC) – Biochips and she Chairs the Cost Action TENET – Tendon Regeneration Network. Manuela Gomes is editor 2 books and co-editor of the Tissue Engineering Encyclopaedia (Elsevier, 2019) and author of 240 full papers, 45 book chapters, 8 patents and has delivered more than 50 lectures in international conferences. In 2021 She member of the TERMIS Fellow’s (FTERM) Class of 2021. She has been very involved in several scientific societies, particulary in TERMIS being currently the TERMIS-EU Chair-Elect and Portuguese Embassador of the European Orthopaedic Society (EORS).

George Malliaras is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology at the University of Cambridge. He received a BS from the Aristotle University, Greece, a PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and did a postdoc at the IBM Almaden Research Center, USA. Before joining Cambridge, he was a faculty member at Cornell University in the USA, where he also served as the Director of the Cornell NanoScale Facility, and at the School of Mines of St. Etienne in France. His research has been recognized with awards from the European Academy of Sciences, the Materials Research Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the US National Science Foundation, and DuPont. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Linköping (Sweden), elected Fellow of the Materials Research Society and member of the Academia Europaea and of the European Academy of Sciences.