Invited Speakers

Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Alírio E. Rodrigues is Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP).

Prof. Alírio Rodrigues, a Chemical Engineer from the University of Porto (1968) and Doctor of Engineering from the University of Nancy (1973), as well as an "Agregado" from IST (Lisbon), is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Porto and the founder of the Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE).

Throughout his career, he has held visiting professor positions at UT Compiègne, the University of Virginia, the University of Oviedo, and the Federal University of Ceará. His research focuses on cyclic adsorption/reaction processes, lignin valorization, perfume engineering, and microencapsulation. Notably, he has supervised 100 PhDs and published 800 papers, patents, and books.

Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Prof. Dr. Ir. Thijs J.H. Vlugt is a leading researcher in molecular thermodynamics, currently a full professor and chair of Engineering Thermodynamics at Delft University of Technology. He specializes in areas like CO₂ capture, hydrogen systems, adsorption in nanomaterials, and the thermodynamic properties of complex fluids, with over 330 publications, 19,000 citations, and an H-index of 74. His research centers on understanding molecular-scale processes to enable sustainable engineering applications, particularly in transport phenomena and adsorption in porous materials.

Prof. Vlugt also plays a key role in scientific leadership, serving on multiple academic committees, organizing international conferences, and co-leading RASPA simulation software workshops. His contributions are supported by prestigious grants and extensive collaborations with industry and academia, aiming to integrate molecular insights with large-scale engineering innovations.

IMDEA Energy Institute, Spain

With an unconventional multidisciplinary scientific background (Pharmacy BCs, 2001 and Material Science Ph.D, 2005; University Complutense of Madrid, Spain), she joined the Institut Lavoisier (France), first as postdoc (2005) and then as CNRS researcher in 2007. Since 2016, Patricia is Senior Researcher and Head of the Advanced Porous Materials Unit in IMDEA Energy (Madrid, Spain). Her research activity is focused to the development of new multifunctional materials and their application in energy, environment and health.

With a large frame of collaborations, she (h=74) is coauthor of 189 publications (142 in Q1; 71 in D1), 7 book chapters, 1 edited book and 9 patents, with >30700 citations (WoS; Oct 2024). She has participated in >150 conferences, including 45 invited presentations, 2 keynotes, and 10 plenary lectures. She has been awarded with several prizes and awards (e.g. Deusto University 2024, Young Doctoral de Alcala 2023, Silver Medal IAAM 2023, Female Talent RAC 2022, Young Researchers Leading Groups RSEQ 2020, Leonardo award 2017, Miguel Catalan 2016).

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Gino Baron was professor and department head of Chemical Engineering at VUB until his retirement in 2008 and since then works as a technical expert in that department. Participating in a variety of projects, his main activities are designing, building and testing of new adsorption setups and writing the control software as well as performing material characterization. Recently, he has also developed setups to study hydrates for storage and separation of gases with a focus on hydrogen and methane clathrates.

Until retirement he had a rather unusual career with periods in pharmaceutical and brewing industry, and switching fields such as distillation, biotechnology, brewing, catalysis, biomass gasification, high temperature gas cleaning, liquid chromatography and adsorptive separations (gas and liquid phases). The common approach in most of these fields was similar: exploiting dynamics and order from the process to the molecular level to improve performance.

Gino Baron has been President of the IAS and Editor in Chief of the Adsorption Journal. He also was Vice-Rector for Research at his university.

DSM-firmenich, The Netherlands

Dr. Sá Gomes holds a doctorate in Chemical & Biological Engineering and an MBA in Finance from the University of Porto, Portugal, with post-doctoral research experiences at RWTH Aachen University in Germany and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

He is celebrating two decades of professional experience in the field of Adsorption, Ion-Exchange, and Process Scale Chromatography. Over the course of his career, Dr. Sá Gomes has published 25 scientific papers, holds more than 10 active patents, and has delivered numerous lectures and courses. He has been directly responsible for the development and implementation of several advanced purification and separation processes on a global scale, spanning sectors of food and feed, pharmaceuticals, and base and performance chemical, particularly, along his tenure at BASF SE in Germany, where he held the roles of R&D Team/Project Manager, Principal Scientist (Global Expert in Adsorption and Chromatography), Global Technology Manager (operations process pharma at Nutrition and Health division), and Large Investment Project Manager.

More recently, as the Associate Director of Cargill’s New Ingredient and Process Development for global R&I Specialized Nutrition, he has led an advisory-level team expanding capabilities in protein, fibers, and lipids extraction, fermentation (both biomass and precision), downstream processing (DSP), encapsulation, and delivery, in addition to direct responsibility for establishing process technology roadmaps and the business unit’s Manufacturing and Asset Strategy.

Currently, Dr. Sá Gomes is the Director - Global Technology Owner for Downstream Processing at Global Technology & Industrialization - Taste, Texture and Health (TTH) - dsm-firmenich, based in Delft, NL.

Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Professor Jones is the John F. Brock III School Chair and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech.  He joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 2000 and previously served as Associate Vice President for Research from 2013-2019.

Dr. Jones leads a research group that works on materials, catalysis and adsorption.  He is known for his extensive work on materials that extract CO2 from ultra-dilute mixtures such as ambient air, which are key components of direct air capture (DAC) technologies. He served on the National Academies Consensus Study on Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration in 2017-2018, focusing on DAC, and more recently on the National Academies Consensus Study on Atmospheric Methane Removal: Development of a Research Agenda, from 2023-2024.

Jones also has produced an extensive body of work in catalysis. Dr. Jones was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal, ACS Catalysis, and is Vice-President of the North American Catalysis Society. He was tapped in 2020 to launch the new open access American Chemical Society journal, JACS Au. (Read as Jacks Gold)

Jones’ work in both catalysis and CO2 separation has been recognized with awards from numerous organizations including the ACS, ASEE, AIChE and North American Catalysis Society.  Jones was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2022 and the US National Academy of Inventors in 2023.

University of Miami, USA

Dr. Rezaei is Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering Department at University of Miami. She obtained her PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from Monash University in Australia and LTU in Sweden in 2011. Her research focus broadly lies at the interface of chemical, materials science and environmental engineering, and the overall goal of her research group is development of advanced adsorbent materials and adsorption processes for separation, purification, and storage applications.

Rezaei’s research has been supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), department of Energy (DOE), and department of Defense (DOD). She is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and has received several awards including 2024 ACS ENFL Emerging Researcher. She is currently the Associate Editor of ACS Energy & Fuels journal.

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Jin Shang is a tenured Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong, specializing in adsorption-based gas separation technology, finding applications in carbon capture, carbon removal, the extraction of toxic gases etc.

Prof. Shang discovered the molecular trapdoor mechanism, the fourth recognized method for adsorption-based separation showing the highest CO2 selectivity in natural gas purification.

He has received the 2024 Carbon Capture Award for Excellent Research and the 2022 ISTP-Bogen Young Scientist Award. With over 120 papers published and an h-index of 52, Prof. Shang is among Stanford's top 2% most highly cited scientists in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, India

Sasidhar Gumma obtained his PhD from Cleveland State University under the guidance of Prof Orhan Talu in 2003. Since January 2020, he is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati. Earlier he has been a faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and Cleveland State University. His research interests are in experimental measurements of adsorption equilibria, adsorption thermodynamics, structure-property relationships in metal-organic frameworks and other novel materials for various gas separations, and process development. He has served as a consultant to various industries such as Oil India Limited (OIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), Tata Advances Systems Limited (TASL) and Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). He is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of the International Adsorption Society, Adsorption.

Nagoya University, Japan

Prof. Mizuki Tada has received her PhD at the department of chemistry of the University of Tokyo in 2005. She took up an assistant professor position at the University of Tokyo and moved to the Institute for Molecular Science as an associate professor in 2008. She is a full professor of chemistry at Nagoya University since 2013. She worked at RIKEN as the team leader of element visualization team at SPring-8 during 2014-2019. Her research interests are the surface design of metal-complex catalysts, heterogeneous catalysis on oxygen storage materials, and operando XAFS-CT imaging of functional materials (heterogeneous catalysts, MOFs, and fuel cells).

Shinshu University, Japan

Dr. Hideki Tanaka received his PhD in Science from Chiba University in 2002. He subsequently completed postdoctoral research at the Venture Business Laboratory (VBL) at Chiba University and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Chiba University (2004-2006), before moving to Kyoto University, where he served as an Assistant Professor (2006-2011), Lecturer (2011-2016), and Associate Professor (2016-2019) in the Department of Chemical Engineering. In 2019, he joined Shinshu University as a Professor at the Research Initiative for Supra-Materials (RISM), and since 2024, he has been serving as a Professor at the Institute for Aqua Regeneration (ARG) at Shinshu University. He is actively engaged in elucidating adsorption phenomena through computational science and experimental studies, and the author of over 110 peer-reviewed journal articles. He also serves as a board member of both the International Adsorption Society and the Japan Adsorption Society.

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dr. Frederico W. Tavares is a distinguished chemical engineer with a comprehensive academic and professional background. He holds a D.Sc. from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and has completed postdoctoral research in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware and UC Berkeley. Dr. Tavares is a full professor at UFRJ’s School of Chemistry, where he supervises numerous graduate theses and post-doctoral projects. His research contributions are substantial, with over 225 peer-reviewed publications, two authored books, and a citation record demonstrating significant influence in his field. Dr. Tavares holds editorial positions in journals such as the Journal of Molecular Liquids and has received prestigious recognitions, including the “Scientist of Our State” fellowship and the CNPq “Productivity in Research” grant at its highest level since 2017. He has been awarded several large project grants from industry and government, underscoring his impactful research in chemical thermodynamics, phase equilibria, and molecular simulation.

Rutgers University, USA

Dr. Alexander V. Neimark is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University. He graduated and got his DSc degree from the Moscow State University. Before his move to US, Dr. Neimark worked in the lab of Professor Dubinin in the Institute of Physical Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences and with Professor Unger in the Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.

His research interests include thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and molecular modeling of adsorption, transport, and interfacial phenomena in nanoporous and nanostructured materials and self-assembly in surfactant and polymeric soft matter systems.

He is a recipient of many national and international awards and honored appointments, including Guggenheim Fellow, Blaise Pascal International Chair, Humboldt Fellow, Fellow of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Fellow of International Adsorption Society, Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Leverhulme Professorship. Dr. Neimark published 290+ research papers with 42,000+ citations and Hirsh index h=76.

The University of Western Australia, Australia

Eric May is Managing Director of the Future Energy Exports (FEnEx) CRC and was named the 2021 Western Australian Scientist of the Year. His research team works closely with industry, conducting projects in hydrogen liquefaction, LNG production and decarbonisation, gas separations, CCS and fluid property prediction. Eric was awarded the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year as part of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. In 2017, he co-established Gas Capture Technologies Pty Ltd, a spin-out company for patented technologies to capture methane from coal mines, land-fill gas and other sources.

Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

Stefan Kaskel studied chemistry at Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen (Germany), and received his Ph.D. degree in 1997 from the same University in solid state chemistry, under the guidance of Prof. J. Strähle. As a Feodor-Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation he worked with J. Corbett at Ames Laboratory, USA (1998-2000) on intermetallic compounds. He was a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr (2000-2004) in the group of F. Schüth and after his habilitation at Ruhr University (Bochum) in 2004 in the area of heterogeneous catalysis, he became full professor for Inorganic Chemistry at Technical University Dresden. Since 2008 he is also technology field leader at Fraunhofer IWS, Dresden (part time).

His research interests are focused on porous and nanostructured materials (adsorption, synthesis, characterization, structure, function) for applications in energy storage, catalysis, batteries and separation technologies. In 2021 he initiated the IUPAC task group on the standardized reporting of adsorption isotherms (https://iupac.org/project/2021-016-1-024). He has been working on MOFs and porous carbon materials, CVD, CNTs, adsorption, and printing. His major activity at Fraunhofer IWS is the development of lithium sulfur batteries. He received the nanotechnology award of the German Ministry of Science and Education in 2002, the JSPS award from Japan in 2016, and 2 ERC Advanced Grants. Stefan Kaskel has authored more than 650 publications (h-index 130) and has contributed as inventor to more than 60 patent applications. He was recognized multiple times as a Highly Cited Researcher of world’s most influential scientific minds by Clarivate Analytics.

Federal University of Ceará, Brazil

Diana Azevedo leads the research lab LPACO2 (Laboratory on Adsorption Research and CO2 Capture, Brazil), which essentially focuses on the interplay between adsorbent and process development in gas-phase applications. Her current research interests include CCUS and hydrogen storage. She is a Full Professor in Chemical Engineering at Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC, Brazil), where she presently holds the position of vice-chancellor (2023-2027). She served as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Adsorption Society (IAS) on two occasions and has recently been appointed Fellow of IAS. She has championed the expansion of adsorption research in Latin America by chairing several scientific events, including the 1st Iberoamerican Symposium on Adsorption (IBA series) in 2012. She belongs to the Editorial Board of Adsorption and the Chemical Engineering Journal, having published nearly 170 papers in indexed journals with h-index 44. She is a member of the National Engineering Academy (ANE) in Brazil with a particular interest in gender balance initiatives in STEM careers.