Jürgen Janek has a chair for Physical Chemistry at Justus Liebig University in Giessen (JLU). Germany, is director of the JLU Center for Materials Research and Scientific Director of the BELLA lab at KIT, Karlsruhe. He was visiting professor at Seoul National University (South Korea), Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) and D´Aix-Marseille (France), holds a honorary doctorate by TU Delft (Netherlands), is member of the Leopoldina – German National Academy of Sciences and was recently awarded with the first Greve Prize by Leopoldina. He holds numerous patents, has published more than 450 peer-reviewed papers and got numerous awards. His research interests focus on the physical chemistry of inorganic solids, solid state ionics and reactivity, specifically on the properties of mixed ionic-electronic conductors, defect chemistry of ionic materials, kinetics of solid-state reactions and solid-solid interfaces. In recent years his research is focused strongly to the chemistry of battery materials, solid electrolytes and solid-state batteries and operando studies of batteries. He is scientific coordinator of the German Cluster of Competence for Solid State Batteries FESTBATT funded by BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research) and member of the DFG Cluster of Excellence POLIS at Ulm/Karlsruhe.

Tejs Vegge is Professor and Head of Section for Autonomous Materials Discovery at the Technical University of Denmark, with a large international network and broad knowledge of materials physics/chemistry and energy materials in general. His section specializes in integrating atomic-scale computational modelling, machine learning and experimental techniques for accelerated autonomous design and discovery of novel materials for conversion and storage of sustainable energy, specifically next-generation battery materials and electrocatalysts. Among other things, he is the coordinator of the large-scale European battery project BIG-MAP and an elected member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV).

Professor Birger Horstmann is Group Leader at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the Helmholtz Institute Ulm and is Professor of Materials Simulation. He studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of Jena and the University of Cambridge. After completing his PhD on theoretical quantum physics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics near Munich, Dr. Horstmann moved to the field of continuum modelling of batteries. His current research focusses on mesoscale models for electrochemical interfaces and interphases. This includes the theory of electrochemical double layers, nucleation and growth of reaction products, and the formation of interphases, e.g. SEI. Furthermore, he evaluates these mesoscale theories in macroscopic models of lithium and beyond lithium batteries.

Dr. Simona Onori is an Assistant Professor in Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University where she also holds a courtesy appointment in Electrical Engineering. Upon joining the Stanford faculty, she funded and currently directs the Stanford Energy Control lab where she leads a team of graduate/undergraduate students, postdocs and international visiting scholars conducting research on experimental characterization, modeling, control and optimization of energy storage and conversation systems for sustainable transportation and power grid applications. She is Fellow of SAE (2022), and the recipient of the 2020 U.S. DoE Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Award, Category Research, the 2019 Board of Trustees Award for Excellence, Clemson University, the 2018 Global Innovation Contest Award by LG Chem, the 2018 SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award and the 2017 NSF CAREER award. She is Editor in Chief of the SAE International Journal of Electrified Vehicles, a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (2020-2022) and IEEE Senior Member (2015). She is serving as a technical advisory of a number of battery start-ups and she consults for major companies on the topic of BMS. She earned a Laurea Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of New Mexico, and a PhD. in Control Engineering from University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Prior to joining Stanford University, she was a faculty at Clemson University International Center of Automotive Research and before that research scientist at the Ohio State University.

Sam Cooper is an Associate Professor in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London, where he leads the TLDR group (Tools for Learning, Design, and Research), who largely focus on the development of methods for characterising, simulating, and optimising energy systems. Over the past five years, his group has released a variety open-source software to enable the research community to rapidly analyse experimental data to extract materials’ properties. Their recent papers demonstrate how machine learning methods can be used for dimensionality expansion (2D to 3D image generation) and data fusion (combining high-res. 2D data with low-res. 3D data). tldr-group. The Tools for Learning, Design and Research (tldr) group is a multidisciplinary team based in the Dyson school of Design engineering at Imperial College London. With activities spanning online education, generative design and simulation-based characterisation, this team is brought together by a common theme of tool making.

Dr. Kara Fong is a Schmidt Science Fellow and Trinity College Junior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, working with Prof. Angelos Michaelides and Prof. Clare Grey. In early 2025, she will start as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Kara earned her PhD in 2022 from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She additionally received an MPhil in Materials Science and Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. Kara’s research uses molecular simulations and statistical mechanics to understand transport and thermodynamics in electrochemical systems. Her work has focused in particular on linking atomic-level ion motion and macroscopic transport phenomena in Li-ion battery electrolytes.

Jelena Popovic-Neuber is currently Associate Professor in Battery Technology at University of Stavanger, Norway. She studied colloid chemistry at Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces/University of Potsdam, Germany and chemical engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. After graduation, she spent 11 years as a staff scientist at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany. Her scientific interests are focused on fundamental physicochemical investigation of ion conduction mechanisms in materials for electrochemical energy storage, mostly battery electrolytes, electrodes and interphases

Dr. Paul Albertus holds a B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied Electrochemical Engineering. Dr. Albertus then spent five years at the Bosch Research and Technology Center in Palo Alto, CA, as a Senior Research Engineer, where he continued research on electrochemical systems, including Li/Oxygen and flow batteries. In 2014 Dr. Albertus joined the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, where he led the development of two programs (IONICS and DAYS) focused on energy storage for both portable and stationary applications, and managed electrochemical projects across a range of ARPA-E programs . During his time at ARPA-E Dr. Albertus led the initiation of $96M in new projects and additional funding for existing projects. Dr. Albertus transitioned to academic roles at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2019, and currently serves as Associate Director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute and Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His research group focuses on mathematical modeling, experimental characterization, and innovations for electrochemical technologies, including lithium metal and solid state batteries.

Dr Rebecca Ciez is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon and has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. She also spent time as a postdoc at Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and Columbia’s Electrochemical Energy Center. Her research focuses on the intersection of performance, technology adoption, and public policy for energy technologies.