Prof. Mizuki Tada was received her Ph.D. at the department of chemistry, the University of Tokyo in 2005. She took up an assistant professor position at the University of Tokyo and moved to 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).

Erwin Reisner received his education and professional training in coordination and bioinorganic chemistry at the University of Vienna, Austria (PhD with Prof Bernhard K. Keppler, 2005), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA (postdoc with Prof Stephen J. Lippard, 2005-7) and the University of Oxford, UK (postdoc with Prof Fraser A. Armstrong, 2008-9). He joined the University of Cambridge, UK as a University Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and as a Fellow of St. John’s College in 2010, was appointed to Reader in 2015 and his current positions of Professor of Energy and Sustainability in 2017. He is the recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant (UKRI funded) on semi-biological domino catalysis (2023-2028) and a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies for tech-transfer of solar reforming (2024-2034). He has received several awards in recognition of his team’s scientific achievements, including the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society (2023) and the Tilden Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry (2024). He is a member of the international advisory boards of Angewandte Chemie (German Chemical Society), Chemical Science (Royal Society of Chemistry) and Accounts of Chemical Research (American Chemical Society).

More details can be found here: https://www-reisner.ch.cam.ac.uk/erwin.html

Professor Paul Donnelly is the Richard Robson Chair of Chemistry at the School of Chemistry and Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute. His research interests lie in fundamental inorganic chemistry and its application to medicine and biology. He has a particular interest in the design and synthesis of new metal-based imaging and therapeutic agents. Paul has co-authored over 200 research publications and is listed as inventor on over 18 patents, many of which have been licensed to companies. His research into metal-based compounds for imaging and therapy has stimulated several clinical trials that span cancer targeting copper and zirconium radiopharmaceuticals to potential therapeutics for Motor Neuron Disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Professor Donnelly has received several awards in recognition of his research including: the Burrows Award, the Rennie Medal, the Biota Award for Medicinal Chemistry and the Alan Sargeson Lectureship all from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute – as well as the David Syme Prize (best original research work in biology, physics, chemistry or geology in Australia), Grimwade Prize for Industrial Chemistry and the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence.

Marinella Mazzanti was born in Vinci, Italy. She obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Pisa in 1985 after spending a year in Columbia University (NY). She obtained a PhD from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1990 in d-block chemistry with C. Floriani. After two post-doctoral stays at the Univeristy of California in Berkeley and Davis ( with A. Balch) in 1994 she was awarded a two years Marie-Curie fellowship to join the French National Laboratory, CEA. In 1996 she was hired as a research scientist and team leader at the CEA Grenoble where her research activities were centered on f element coordination and supramolecular chemistry. In September 2014 she joined the EPFL and founded the Group of Coordination Chemistry where she continued to develop the chemistry of f and d block metals with particular focus on redox reactivity, supramolecular chemistry and small molecule activation. She received the 2021 F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry and in 2023 the Le Coq de Boisbaudran Award for her “oustanding contribution to f-elements chemistry”. She has published more than 200 articles and is an associate editor for Chemical Communication. Her more recent work focuses on dinitrogen activation and stabilization of elusive oxidation states in f-element chemistry.

Frank Neese received both his Diploma (Biology, 1993) and PH.D (Dr. rer. Nat., 1997) working with Peter Kroneck at the University of Konstanz. He performed Postdoctoral work at Stanford University with Edward Solomon (1997-1999) before returning to Konstanz for his Habilitation ( 2001). He joined the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Bioinorganic Chemistry in 2001 as a group leader until accepting the position of Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn (2006). In 2011, Neese was appointed Director of the MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion. In 2018, Neese relocated his activities to the MPI für Kohlenforschung as the successor of the late Walter Thiel. In 2010, Neese received the highest award of the German Science Foundation, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award followed by numerous national and international awards including the Schrödinger medal of the World Association of Theoretically Oriented Chemists (2022) and the American Chemical Society Award in Inorganic Chemistry (2024). Neese is member of various national and international academies including the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina, 2013) and the Academia Europaea (2018). Neese has authored >700 scientific publications and has been listed among the top 1% world-wide most highly cited chemists since 2015. His work focuses on the theory of magnetic spectroscopies (electron paramagnetic resonance, magnetic circular dichroism) and their experimental and theoretical application, local pair natural orbital correlation theories, multi-reference methods, electronic and geometric structure and reactivity of transition metal complexes and metalloenzymes. Neese is the lead author of the ORCA program, as well as co-founder of the company FAccTs (2017) that distributes ORCA commercially.

More details can be found here.