�Ӱ�ֱ��

Chair: Prof Meg Tao

Chair: Dr��Zhiwei Sun

Chair: Prof Meg Tao

Dr. Alicia Bayon has 15 years of experience in the development of new materials for thermal energy storage and solar hydrogen production. After completing her PhD at IMDEA Energy in Spain (2014) where she worked on synthesis and characterization of redox materials, she joined CSIRO Energy in �Ӱ�ֱ�� as postdoctoral fellow (2014-2020) where she conducted techno-economic evaluations and worked on optimizing hydrogen production processes, specifically solar thermal hydrogen plants.

In 2020 she moved to Arizona State �Ӱ�ֱ�� (U.S.) as Research Scientist where she worked on projects funded by ARPA-E and DOE in thermochemistry. Since 2022, she has been a Researcher at Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid via the prestigious Talent Attraction Program, focusing on the accelerated discovery of novel materials for thermochemical hydrogen production using artificial intelligence. She has supervised 4 finished doctoral theses with one more ongoing and has published over 45 research articles, with an h-index of 20, and has presented her work at more than 50 conferences worldwide, 10 times as invited speaker.

Dr. Ashley Roberts evaluates technical and commercial aspects of low-emission energy technologies and developments. She is particularly interested in the commercialisation of new technologies and applying insights from life cycle assessments to guide critical, early-stage investment and policy decisions.

Ashley holds a PhD in Materials Science from Monash �Ӱ�ֱ�� and a dual MBA/MS in Engineering Physics from Appalachian State �Ӱ�ֱ��. She has worked as a research scientist, business strategist, energy analyst, and commercialisation officer for industry, government, and start-ups in �Ӱ�ֱ��, Europe, and the USA.

Ashley recently joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as a Senior Technical Leader.�� EPRI’s Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI) is targeting advances in the production, distribution, and application of low-carbon, alternative energy carriers and the cross-cutting technologies that enable their integration at scale.

Bill Tumas is the Associate Laboratory Director for Materials, Chemical and Computational Science (MCCS) at NREL leading fundamental and applied R&D for renewable energy and energy efficiency. He oversees NREL's solar, hydrogen and fuel cells, basic energy sciences, advanced computing, and ARPA-E programs. Tumas has been actively engaged in collaborative research and technical leadership positions for over 30 years in industry and at national laboratories.

He has helped create a number of multi-institution and international collaborations, including the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), was director of two Energy Frontier Research Centres (EFRCs), helps drive the RD20 collaboration led by Japan’s AIST (rd20.aist.go.jp). Bill is the US lead for and helped create the newly formed Mission Innovation Sunlight to X global innovation community (). He is also on the management team for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA,��), a DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences solar fuels hub.

Prior to NREL, Bill was at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 17 years, where his last position was Program Director for Applied Energy Programs. He started his career at Dupont Central Research after postdoctoral research at Caltech. His research activities include materials discovery, solar energy conversion, hydrogen storage, catalysis, supercritical fluids and alternate reaction media, green chemistry, and waste treatment technology development and assessment. He has over 65 peer-reviewed publications, 12 patents, and has given over 125 invited presentations. Bill received a B.A in Chemistry from Ithaca College and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford �Ӱ�ֱ��.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Christian Sattler studied chemistry in Bonn, Germany and joined the German Aerospace Center DLR in 1997. He was guest scientist at Unversidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil. From 2015 to 2022 he was professor for solar fuels production at TU Dresden, Germany, from 2021 to 2023 Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport of DLR, and since 2021 he is Director of the DLR Institute of Future Fuels and professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen �Ӱ�ֱ��, Germany. He is Vice-President of the Hydrogen Europe Research association and as an ASME lifetime fellow member of the ASME Clean Energy Technology Group.��

Christoph Falter is Head of Strategy at Synhelion. Synhelion is a Swiss cleantech company that uses solar energy to produce renewable solar fuels to decarbonize transportation. The fuels produced by Synhelion – such as solar kerosene, gasoline, or diesel – can directly replace fossil fuels as they are fully compatible with existing global infrastructure. With its solar fuel technology, Synhelion offers a sustainable and economically viable alternative to fossil fuels and unlocks a clean future of transportation.

Christoph received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen in 2017. He has more than ten years of experience in the experimental and theoretical analysis of various alternative fuel pathways including biofuels, power-to-liquid fuels, and solar thermochemical fuels. He has published several scientific journal articles quantifying their thermodynamic, environmental, and economic potential. Christoph worked at a German research institute and in the Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment at MIT before joining Synhelion.

Bio coming soon

Ellen B. Stechel is Co-Director, ASU LightWorks®; Professor of Practice, Molecular Sciences; and Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab, and Fellow in the Institute for the Future of Innovation in Society. She has built and coordinated research programs at a national laboratory, in the automotive industry; at a U.S. government agency; and now in academia. Her current research focuses on materials and systems design for concentrating solar technologies for producing sustainable liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, hydrogen from advanced water splitting, clean water, renewable ammonia, and for thermochemical energy storage.

Dr Stechel holds numerous positions of an advisory or editorial capacity, nationally and internationally, and has published over 100 peer reviewed articles. Recently a project team, in which she is a co-PI, won the U.S. Department of Energy 2021 R&D award for Hydrogen Production Technologies.

Prof. Francesca M. Toma is the Director of the Institute of Functional Materials for Sustainability at Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon and a Distinguished Helmholtz Professor at Helmut Schmidt �Ӱ�ֱ��. Her research centers on the synthesis and characterization of sustainable materials for renewable energy and biological applications. She also holds a position as a Visiting Professor at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the International School of Advanced Studies in Italy in 2009, and acquired postdoctoral experience at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Trieste, before moving to the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Santa Barbara as a Marie Curie Researcher in 2011, and to the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Berkeley in 2013. For nearly a decade, she was as a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where she served as the Program lead of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance and as the Photoelectrochemistry Technology Lead for HydroGEN. In 2022, she also served for a year as a Detailee in the Catalysis Science Program of the Basic Energy Science of the Department of Energy.

Prof. Toma's has co-authored 120 publications, focusing on (photo)electrocatalysis, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. Her work has garnered international recognition with several awards. She was honored as one of the "100 Women of Materials Science" by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2018 and received the "Rising Star" Award from the American Chemical Society in 2021. She was also awarded the “Alfredo di Braccio Award” by the Italian Academy of Science. In 2022, she was selected as an Oppenheimer Fellow by the US National Laboratory Directors' Council in 2022, underscoring her contributions as a leader to advancing scientific research. The Division of Energy & Fuels of the American Chemical Society selected her as a finalist for the 2025 Energy Lectureship for the Mid-Career category.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Professor of Chemistry at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Sydney, where he leads the MERLin (Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale) group – School of Chemistry and with 20 years’ experience one of the leading experts in hydrogen technologies advising many key stakeholders including as part of the ISGP hydrogen future pathways and the UN secretary as a Global Expert of the International Science Council.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Co-director of the �Ӱ�ֱ��n-French Research Network FACES and the ARC Training Centre for Hydrogen GlobH2E. He is also the President and CTO of H2potential.

Dr Hannah Johnson is a Senior Engineer in the Materials Engineering department at Toyota Motor Europe based in Belgium. She has been working on solar fuel production for the past 6 years with topics including hydrogen production, CO2 conversion and CO2 capture. For hydrogen production, there are three pathways under investigation – photoelectrochemical, photocatalytic and photovoltaic combined with electrolysers.

For photoelectrochemical hydrogen production, she is coordinator of the European Horizon 2020 project, Sun-To-X, which, for solar hydrogen, focuses on development of transparent, porous and conductive photoelectrode supports and methods to deposit semiconductors onto them.

Hai Wang is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford �Ӱ�ֱ��. Prior to his appointment at Stanford, he was the Northrop Chair in Engineering and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at USC. He received his Ph.D. in Fuel Science from Penn State in 1992.��He was a Professional Research Staff at Princeton �Ӱ�ֱ�� from 1994 to 1996 before starting his faculty��career at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Delaware.��He is best known for his work on the mechanisms of PAH and carbon formation in reacting flows and development of chemical kinetic models for fuel pyrolysis and combustion. He has made contributions in the application of ab initio quantum chemistry and reaction rate theory in chemical kinetics.

He developed stochastic methods for detailed modeling and uncertainty quantification. He contributed to the transport theories of nanoparticles and large molecules, atmospheric heterogeneous chemistry, and nanomaterials synthesis and its applications in solar cells and lithium ion batteries. He was the recipient of the AIAA Propellant and Combustion Award in 2018, and the Humboldt Research Award in 2019. He is a Fellow of ASME and an inaugural Fellow the Combustion Institute. He served as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science from 2014 to 2024. He is currently the President of the Combustion Institute, an international, non-profit, educational and scientific society.

Jon Gluyas has over 43 years of expertise in geoenergy delivery, technology and research. Much of that experience is in petroleum development and production. In the past 14 years he have worked extensively in carbon capture and storage including well operations. He has also 14+ years’ experience in geothermal energy including drilling two deep research wells. From 2012, Jon co-led the team which developed and successfully tested a model for helium exploration, delivering the first new helium province in decades.��

Derived from the work on helium, Jon now researches on natural hydrogen generation, migration and accumulation. His research interests also include human induced seismicity and earth movements. Jon has co-founded 14 companies operating in the energy and resources industries.

Max Ellerich, born in 1986, finished his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration with the focus in Energy Technologies at RWTH Aachen �Ӱ�ֱ��. After working as executive assistant to the managing director of a 3^rd party logistics company, Max headed back to RWTH Aachen �Ӱ�ֱ�� to conduct his PHD at Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL). During his six years at WZL, Max was managing director of the IT startup innoTecS, focusing the optimization of production planning and control.

He furthermore was assigned Chief Engineer of the department for Quality Intelligence at the Chair for Metrology and Quality Management from 2018 to 2020. At NEUMAN & ESSER (NEA), Max started within the Business Development of the NEA Energy Strategical Business Unit. In his current role as Solution Manager H2 Production, Max is now globally responsible for electrolyzers at NEA, where he aligns sales, business development and product development for electrolyzer systems.

Dr. Murray Thomson is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Toronto. He received a BEng from McGill �Ӱ�ֱ�� (1986) and PhD from �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Berkeley (1994). He was made a Fellow of the Combustion Institute in 2018, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers in 2016, and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2012. He is the Canada National Director, Lead of the methane pyrolysis theme, and on the executive committee of the Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center which is a collaboration of researchers from Canada (NSERC), USA (NSF), �Ӱ�ֱ�� (CSIRO) and the United Kingdom (UKRI).

He is also Cofounder and Chief Science Officer of Aurora Hydrogen, a company that is developing hydrogen production from microwave-driven methane pyrolysis. Dr. Murray Thomson’s research is in the area of methane pyrolysis, hydrogen production and carbon material synthesis. He has supervised the thesis research of 105 graduate students and published 142 journal publications. ����

Natasha Beydokhti holds an M.Sc. in Electrochemistry from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Calgary, where her research focused on electrochemical cell design, specifically, minimization of non-uniform potential distribution in thin-layer electrochemical cells. After completing her studies in 2000, she worked as a research electrochemist at the Alberta Research Council, on the development of a direct methanol fuel cell for smaller power applications. She then joined Hydrogenics Corporation in Toronto Canada, as a research scientist working on fuel cell and electrolyser stack design from 2003-2021.

She transitioned to strategic and technical sourcing in 2021 and has been the electrolyser stack sourcing team lead at Accelera, a business unit within Cummins Inc. focused on zero emission technologies,�� where she leads the stack sourcing team to��develop and implement sourcing strategies for electrolyser stack components, aiming to improve quality, reduce cost, enhance innovation, and ensuring alignment between sourcing strategies, technical roadmaps, and global and regional Hydrogen policies.

Sophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She is a member of EPFL’s research award commission and of EPFL’s Academic Strategic Committee. She has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), the Raymond Viskanta Award on Radiative Transfer (2019), and the Yellott award (2024). She is a co-founder of the startup SoHHytec aiming at commercializing photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. She is the former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Solar Energy Division (2018), a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum (2016-2022), a member of the scientific board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, and a member of the Ethics Board of Arete Ethik Invest.

Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modeling and demonstrations. Her research interests include: thermal sciences and radiative transfer, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales.

Dr. Suriati Sufian has served as an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) since 2014. She earned her BEng (Hons.) in Chemical Process Engineering with Fuel Technology from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Sheffield, UK, MEng in Chemical Engineering from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Queensland, �Ӱ�ֱ��, and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from UTP in 2010. Dr. Suriati has completed several professional attachments, including with PETRONAS Operational Excellence (Nov 2019 to May 2020), Tenaga Nasional Generation Bhd. in 2003, and a research placement at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Nottingham, UK, in 2007. Her research contributions include over 100 indexed journal publications with an H-index of 42. Her primary research interests encompass hydrogen production and storage, CO₂ utilization, waste-to-energy, and wastewater treatment. She has successfully supervised 12 PhD and 14 MSc graduates and currently oversees 10 PhD students as both a main and co-supervisor. Dr. Suriati has also mentored exchange students and interns from France, the USA, Thailand, �Ӱ�ֱ��, India, and New Zealand.

She has received numerous research grants from national and international sources, including the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of Malaysia, and the Murata Science Foundation (Japan). Dr. Suriati is a Professional Engineer and serves on the Trustee Committee of The Malaysian Association of Hydrogen Energy (MAHE) for 2021-2023.

As a certified and accredited trainer (under Human Resource Development Corporation). Dr. Suriati Sufian has led various short courses and training programs, including training sessions on Biochar Feasibility Studies, Hydrogen Economy, Technology & Business Cases, Gas Treatment & Processing and Offshore Renewable Energy. In addition, she has taught several undergraduate courses such as Petrochemical Processing, Gas Process Engineering, Renewable Energy II, Reaction Engineering II, and Energy & Process Utility Engineering. For Master’s programs by coursework, she has taught courses in Synthesis Reaction & Separation Systems.

Takashi Hisatomi received his PhD in engineering from The �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Tokyo in March 2010. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne from April 2010 to March 2012. He moved to the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Tokyo in April 2012 as a postdoctoral fellow and acquired an assistant professor position in August 2012.

He moved to Shinshu �Ӱ�ֱ�� as an associate professor in April 2018 and was promoted to professor in April 2023. He has been cross-appointed to Okayama �Ӱ�ֱ�� since January 2025. His major research interests include semiconductor photocatalysts for overall water splitting, kinetics of photoexcited carriers in semiconductors, and reaction systems for solar��hydrogen production.

Dr. Thomas I. Valdez reports to the Chief Technology Officer at Plug Power Incorporated, Latham, New York. ��His focus is on tracking hydrogen generation technology.

Thomas has over 30 years of experience in advanced power systems for military, space, underwater, and commercial applications. ��His career began at NASA's famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he was a major contributor to the JPL Fuel Cell Group and Power Systems Section. ��After a 25-year career at JPL, he transitioned to Teledyne and continued to develop advanced fuel cell technologies such as what is featured in the Teledyne Subsea Supercharger®.

His educational background starts with being a student of Mr. Jaime Escalante, whose teachings were the basis of the Hollywood movie Stand and Deliver. ��Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Materials Engineering from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Irvine. ��He completed his doctorate in Materials Science under Professor Florian Mansfeld, winner of the Electrochemical Society Vittorio de Nora Award, at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Southern California. ��Thomas also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Loyola �Ӱ�ֱ�� Maryland

Yushan Yan is the Henry B. du Pont Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Founding Director of the Center for Clean Hydrogen (CCH) at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Delaware (UD). CCH is a partnership of UD, Chemours, Plug Power, West Virginia �Ӱ�ֱ��, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

He is also the Founder and CEO of Versogen, a pioneer in AEM innovations, and a Cofounder of RepAir, a carbon capture technology company.��His research is in the area of electrochemical engineering with a focus on green hydrogen, fuel cells, and carbon capture using polymer anion (hydroxide) exchange membranes.

His recognitions include being a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science.��He received his BS in Chemical Physics from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Greg is a Professor of Chemistry and Acting Director of the Centre for Energy Technology (CET) at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Adelaide. He established and convenes the international Hydrogen Production Technology (HyPT) series of forums running since 2019. He is also the �Ӱ�ֱ��n Director of the NSF-CSIRO Global Center for Hydrogen Production, a sub-task leader for the IEA Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP) Task 45: Renewable Hydrogen Technology, and �Ӱ�ֱ��n lead for the Mission Innovation Sunlight-to-X Innovation Platform.

His research uses light sources from lasers to synchrotrons, across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, investigating a range of molecular phenomena to discover new molecules and explore their properties. He heads the Metal Cluster Laboratory which focuses on the exploration of the physical and chemical properties of sub-nanometre sized metallic particles underpinned by advanced computational modelling, the advancement of novel catalysts based on metal clusters, and building novel apparatus and instrumentation including pioneering work developing photocatalytic reactors that operate under concentrated solar radiation. This work has led to the establishment of the company Sparc Hydrogen for which he continues as the lead researcher.

Interim Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources; Research Program Director, HILT CRC

Gus Nathan is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Adelaide, a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Combustion Institute and Engineers �Ӱ�ֱ��, a recipient of a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the �Ӱ�ֱ��n Research Council and an ATSE KH Sutherland medallist. He was the bid leader for, and is now the Research Director of, the national $215m Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre, the HILT CRC. Overall, he has led the development of six technology platforms, three of which are in ongoing commercial use and include the flame for Sydney Olympic Relay Torch, while three are currently being upscaled to decarbonise heavy industry.

His work in hydrogen includes the development of a novel methane pyrolysis platform in partnership with 1414 Degrees and a low NOx hydrogen combustion industrial burner with FCT. He has developed two novel concentrating solar thermal technologies to TRL-4 and contributed to understanding of the viability of the direct use of concentrated solar thermal energy for industrial process heat. He has published more than 300 papers in international journals, 250 in peer reviewed conferences, 50 commissioned reports and 13 patents.

Centre for Energy Technology, the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Adelaide

Cameron aims to use fundamental chemistry and materials science to find solutions to��environmentally relevant problems such as the destruction of pollutants or the generation of renewable fuels.

Sunlight is the most abundant energy source on Earth yet it is still underutilized in chemical synthesis.��Photocatalysis��is the key to unlock the potential of light in a range of applications.��

Dr Meng Tao joined Arizona State �Ӱ�ֱ�� in 2011 as a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and now heads the Physical Electronics and Photonics Program. His research focuses on sustainable solar technologies, from materials and devices to systems and applications. He played a critical role in the initiation and launch of the US. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium under SEMATECH.

He has been the lead organiser for the Electrochemical Society symposium series on Photovoltaics for the 21st Century for over a decade. He is an editor of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology. He was awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy Technology and was invited to the 2017 Nobel Award Ceremony in Stockholm.

Simon is the South �Ӱ�ֱ��n State Chair of Petroleum Geoscience in the Discipline of Earth Sciences, School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Adelaide. With his colleague Rosalind King, he leads the Stress, Structure & Seismic (S^3) Research Group; this is a multidisciplinary group of academics, research staff and HDR students working mostly on applied GeoEnergy problems related to structural geology and geomechanics in sedimentary basins. Current research foci include the development of rapid methods for evaluating the geomechanical impacts of CCUS at basin scales, the quantification of uncertainty associated with stress magnitude determination and the geomechanical impacts of cyclic hydrogen storage. He has a long-standing interest in magmatism in sedimentary basins, with geographic focus on the rifted margins of �Ӱ�ֱ�� and NW Europe. This research seeks to understand the impacts of magmatism on petroleum systems and evaluate the potential for subsurface gas storage, and specifically the permanent storage of carbon, in buried volcanic rocks.

Centre for Energy Technology, the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Adelaide

Dr Woei Saw is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Adelaide (UA). He has demonstrated a good track record in the development and demonstration of novel technology in the decarbonisation of high-temperature industrial processes. For example, he has developed a patent on net-zero steam alumina calcination, which allows steam generated from the alumina calcination process to be recovered and utilised in the bauxite digestion within the Bayer process. Currently, he is leading a HILT-CRC project to perform a preliminary assessment of technical and economic feasibility of low carbon alumina calcination via electrification or hydrogen pathway.

Dr. Zhiwei Sun works on laser diagnostics in combustion and other challenging reacting flows. In his research, novel optical, laser-based techniques are used to visualize the key parameters in flames/flows in high spatial and temporal resolution. He also focuses on the development of unique new techniques for quantitative measurements of reacting flows that are reacting or under high radiation.

Victoria is Centre Administration Officer for the Centre for Energy Technology (CET).��

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Dr. Alicia Bayon has 15 years of experience in the development of new materials for thermal energy storage and solar hydrogen production. After completing her PhD at IMDEA Energy in Spain (2014) where she worked on synthesis and characterization of redox materials, she joined CSIRO Energy in �Ӱ�ֱ�� as postdoctoral fellow (2014-2020) where she conducted techno-economic evaluations and worked on optimizing hydrogen production processes, specifically solar thermal hydrogen plants.

In 2020 she moved to Arizona State �Ӱ�ֱ�� (U.S.) as Research Scientist where she worked on projects funded by ARPA-E and DOE in thermochemistry. Since 2022, she has been a Researcher at Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid via the prestigious Talent Attraction Program, focusing on the accelerated discovery of novel materials for thermochemical hydrogen production using artificial intelligence. She has supervised 4 finished doctoral theses with one more ongoing and has published over 45 research articles, with an h-index of 20, and has presented her work at more than 50 conferences worldwide, 10 times as invited speaker.

Dr. Ashley Roberts evaluates technical and commercial aspects of low-emission energy technologies and developments. She is particularly interested in the commercialisation of new technologies and applying insights from life cycle assessments to guide critical, early-stage investment and policy decisions.

Ashley holds a PhD in Materials Science from Monash �Ӱ�ֱ�� and a dual MBA/MS in Engineering Physics from Appalachian State �Ӱ�ֱ��. She has worked as a research scientist, business strategist, energy analyst, and commercialisation officer for industry, government, and start-ups in �Ӱ�ֱ��, Europe, and the USA.

Ashley recently joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as a Senior Technical Leader.�� EPRI’s Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI) is targeting advances in the production, distribution, and application of low-carbon, alternative energy carriers and the cross-cutting technologies that enable their integration at scale.

Bill Tumas is the Associate Laboratory Director for Materials, Chemical and Computational Science (MCCS) at NREL leading fundamental and applied R&D for renewable energy and energy efficiency. He oversees NREL's solar, hydrogen and fuel cells, basic energy sciences, advanced computing, and ARPA-E programs. Tumas has been actively engaged in collaborative research and technical leadership positions for over 30 years in industry and at national laboratories.

He has helped create a number of multi-institution and international collaborations, including the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), was director of two Energy Frontier Research Centres (EFRCs), helps drive the RD20 collaboration led by Japan’s AIST (rd20.aist.go.jp). Bill is the US lead for and helped create the newly formed Mission Innovation Sunlight to X global innovation community (). He is also on the management team for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA,��), a DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences solar fuels hub.

Prior to NREL, Bill was at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 17 years, where his last position was Program Director for Applied Energy Programs. He started his career at Dupont Central Research after postdoctoral research at Caltech. His research activities include materials discovery, solar energy conversion, hydrogen storage, catalysis, supercritical fluids and alternate reaction media, green chemistry, and waste treatment technology development and assessment. He has over 65 peer-reviewed publications, 12 patents, and has given over 125 invited presentations. Bill received a B.A in Chemistry from Ithaca College and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford �Ӱ�ֱ��.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Christian Sattler studied chemistry in Bonn, Germany and joined the German Aerospace Center DLR in 1997. He was guest scientist at Unversidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil. From 2015 to 2022 he was professor for solar fuels production at TU Dresden, Germany, from 2021 to 2023 Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport of DLR, and since 2021 he is Director of the DLR Institute of Future Fuels and professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen �Ӱ�ֱ��, Germany. He is Vice-President of the Hydrogen Europe Research association and as an ASME lifetime fellow member of the ASME Clean Energy Technology Group.��

Christoph Falter is Head of Strategy at Synhelion. Synhelion is a Swiss cleantech company that uses solar energy to produce renewable solar fuels to decarbonize transportation. The fuels produced by Synhelion – such as solar kerosene, gasoline, or diesel – can directly replace fossil fuels as they are fully compatible with existing global infrastructure. With its solar fuel technology, Synhelion offers a sustainable and economically viable alternative to fossil fuels and unlocks a clean future of transportation.

Christoph received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen in 2017. He has more than ten years of experience in the experimental and theoretical analysis of various alternative fuel pathways including biofuels, power-to-liquid fuels, and solar thermochemical fuels. He has published several scientific journal articles quantifying their thermodynamic, environmental, and economic potential. Christoph worked at a German research institute and in the Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment at MIT before joining Synhelion.

Bio coming soon

Ellen B. Stechel is Co-Director, ASU LightWorks®; Professor of Practice, Molecular Sciences; and Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab, and Fellow in the Institute for the Future of Innovation in Society. She has built and coordinated research programs at a national laboratory, in the automotive industry; at a U.S. government agency; and now in academia. Her current research focuses on materials and systems design for concentrating solar technologies for producing sustainable liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, hydrogen from advanced water splitting, clean water, renewable ammonia, and for thermochemical energy storage.

Dr Stechel holds numerous positions of an advisory or editorial capacity, nationally and internationally, and has published over 100 peer reviewed articles. Recently a project team, in which she is a co-PI, won the U.S. Department of Energy 2021 R&D award for Hydrogen Production Technologies.

Prof. Francesca M. Toma is the Director of the Institute of Functional Materials for Sustainability at Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon and a Distinguished Helmholtz Professor at Helmut Schmidt �Ӱ�ֱ��. Her research centers on the synthesis and characterization of sustainable materials for renewable energy and biological applications. She also holds a position as a Visiting Professor at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the International School of Advanced Studies in Italy in 2009, and acquired postdoctoral experience at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Trieste, before moving to the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Santa Barbara as a Marie Curie Researcher in 2011, and to the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Berkeley in 2013. For nearly a decade, she was as a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where she served as the Program lead of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance and as the Photoelectrochemistry Technology Lead for HydroGEN. In 2022, she also served for a year as a Detailee in the Catalysis Science Program of the Basic Energy Science of the Department of Energy.

Prof. Toma's has co-authored 120 publications, focusing on (photo)electrocatalysis, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. Her work has garnered international recognition with several awards. She was honored as one of the "100 Women of Materials Science" by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2018 and received the "Rising Star" Award from the American Chemical Society in 2021. She was also awarded the “Alfredo di Braccio Award” by the Italian Academy of Science. In 2022, she was selected as an Oppenheimer Fellow by the US National Laboratory Directors' Council in 2022, underscoring her contributions as a leader to advancing scientific research. The Division of Energy & Fuels of the American Chemical Society selected her as a finalist for the 2025 Energy Lectureship for the Mid-Career category.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Professor of Chemistry at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Sydney, where he leads the MERLin (Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale) group – School of Chemistry and with 20 years’ experience one of the leading experts in hydrogen technologies advising many key stakeholders including as part of the ISGP hydrogen future pathways.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Vice-President of the �Ӱ�ֱ��n French Association for Research and Innovation, Co-director of the �Ӱ�ֱ��n-French Research Network FACES and the ARC Training Centre for Hydrogen GlobH2E. He is also the President and CTO of H2potential.

Dr Hannah Johnson is a Senior Engineer in the Materials Engineering department at Toyota Motor Europe based in Belgium. She has been working on solar fuel production for the past 6 years with topics including hydrogen production, CO2 conversion and CO2 capture. For hydrogen production, there are three pathways under investigation – photoelectrochemical, photocatalytic and photovoltaic combined with electrolysers.

For photoelectrochemical hydrogen production, she is coordinator of the European Horizon 2020 project, Sun-To-X, which, for solar hydrogen, focuses on development of transparent, porous and conductive photoelectrode supports and methods to deposit semiconductors onto them.

Hai Wang is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford �Ӱ�ֱ��. Prior to his appointment at Stanford, he was the Northrop Chair in Engineering and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at USC. He received his Ph.D. in Fuel Science from Penn State in 1992.��He was a Professional Research Staff at Princeton �Ӱ�ֱ�� from 1994 to 1996 before starting his faculty��career at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Delaware.��He is best known for his work on the mechanisms of PAH and carbon formation in reacting flows and development of chemical kinetic models for fuel pyrolysis and combustion. He has made contributions in the application of ab initio quantum chemistry and reaction rate theory in chemical kinetics.

He developed stochastic methods for detailed modeling and uncertainty quantification. He contributed to the transport theories of nanoparticles and large molecules, atmospheric heterogeneous chemistry, and nanomaterials synthesis and its applications in solar cells and lithium ion batteries. He was the recipient of the AIAA Propellant and Combustion Award in 2018, and the Humboldt Research Award in 2019. He is a Fellow of ASME and an inaugural Fellow the Combustion Institute. He served as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science from 2014 to 2024. He is currently the President of the Combustion Institute, an international, non-profit, educational and scientific society.

Jon Gluyas has over 43 years of expertise in geoenergy delivery, technology and research. Much of that experience is in petroleum development and production. In the past 14 years he have worked extensively in carbon capture and storage including well operations. He has also 14+ years’ experience in geothermal energy including drilling two deep research wells. From 2012, Jon co-led the team which developed and successfully tested a model for helium exploration, delivering the first new helium province in decades.��

Derived from the work on helium, Jon now researches on natural hydrogen generation, migration and accumulation. His research interests also include human induced seismicity and earth movements. Jon has co-founded 14 companies operating in the energy and resources industries.

Max Ellerich, born in 1986, finished his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration with the focus in Energy Technologies at RWTH Aachen �Ӱ�ֱ��. After working as executive assistant to the managing director of a 3^rd party logistics company, Max headed back to RWTH Aachen �Ӱ�ֱ�� to conduct his PHD at Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL). During his six years at WZL, Max was managing director of the IT startup innoTecS, focusing the optimization of production planning and control.

He furthermore was assigned Chief Engineer of the department for Quality Intelligence at the Chair for Metrology and Quality Management from 2018 to 2020. At NEUMAN & ESSER (NEA), Max started within the Business Development of the NEA Energy Strategical Business Unit. In his current role as Solution Manager H2 Production, Max is now globally responsible for electrolyzers at NEA, where he aligns sales, business development and product development for electrolyzer systems.

Dr. Murray Thomson is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Toronto. He received a BEng from McGill �Ӱ�ֱ�� (1986) and PhD from �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Berkeley (1994). He was made a Fellow of the Combustion Institute in 2018, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers in 2016, and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2012. He is the Canada National Director, Lead of the methane pyrolysis theme, and on the executive committee of the Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center which is a collaboration of researchers from Canada (NSERC), USA (NSF), �Ӱ�ֱ�� (CSIRO) and the United Kingdom (UKRI).

He is also Cofounder and Chief Science Officer of Aurora Hydrogen, a company that is developing hydrogen production from microwave-driven methane pyrolysis. Dr. Murray Thomson’s research is in the area of methane pyrolysis, hydrogen production and carbon material synthesis. He has supervised the thesis research of 105 graduate students and published 142 journal publications. ��

Natasha Beydokhti holds an M.Sc. in Electrochemistry from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Calgary, where her research focused on electrochemical cell design, specifically, minimization of non-uniform potential distribution in thin-layer electrochemical cells. After completing her studies in 2000, she worked as a research electrochemist at the Alberta Research Council, on the development of a direct methanol fuel cell for smaller power applications. She then joined Hydrogenics Corporation in Toronto Canada, as a research scientist working on fuel cell and electrolyser stack design from 2003-2021.

She transitioned to strategic and technical sourcing in 2021 and has been the electrolyser stack sourcing team lead at Accelera, a business unit within Cummins Inc. focused on zero emission technologies,�� where she leads the stack sourcing team to��develop and implement sourcing strategies for electrolyser stack components, aiming to improve quality, reduce cost, enhance innovation, and ensuring alignment between sourcing strategies, technical roadmaps, and global and regional Hydrogen policies.

Sophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She is a member of EPFL’s research award commission and of EPFL’s Academic Strategic Committee. She has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), the Raymond Viskanta Award on Radiative Transfer (2019), and the Yellott award (2024). She is a co-founder of the startup SoHHytec aiming at commercializing photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. She is the former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Solar Energy Division (2018), a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum (2016-2022), a member of the scientific board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, and a member of the Ethics Board of Arete Ethik Invest.

Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modeling and demonstrations. Her research interests include: thermal sciences and radiative transfer, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales.

Dr. Suriati Sufian has served as an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) since 2014. She earned her BEng (Hons.) in Chemical Process Engineering with Fuel Technology from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Sheffield, UK, MEng in Chemical Engineering from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Queensland, �Ӱ�ֱ��, and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from UTP in 2010. Dr. Suriati has completed several professional attachments, including with PETRONAS Operational Excellence (Nov 2019 to May 2020), Tenaga Nasional Generation Bhd. in 2003, and a research placement at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Nottingham, UK, in 2007. Her research contributions include over 100 indexed journal publications with an H-index of 42. Her primary research interests encompass hydrogen production and storage, CO₂ utilization, waste-to-energy, and wastewater treatment. She has successfully supervised 12 PhD and 14 MSc graduates and currently oversees 10 PhD students as both a main and co-supervisor. Dr. Suriati has also mentored exchange students and interns from France, the USA, Thailand, �Ӱ�ֱ��, India, and New Zealand.

She has received numerous research grants from national and international sources, including the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of Malaysia, and the Murata Science Foundation (Japan). Dr. Suriati is a Professional Engineer and serves on the Trustee Committee of The Malaysian Association of Hydrogen Energy (MAHE) for 2021-2023.

Takashi Hisatomi received his PhD in engineering from The �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Tokyo in March 2010. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne from April 2010 to March 2012. He moved to the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Tokyo in April 2012 as a postdoctoral fellow and acquired an assistant professor position in August 2012.

He moved to Shinshu �Ӱ�ֱ�� as an associate professor in April 2018 and was promoted to professor in April 2023. He has been cross-appointed to Okayama �Ӱ�ֱ�� since January 2025. His major research interests include semiconductor photocatalysts for overall water splitting, kinetics of photoexcited carriers in semiconductors, and reaction systems for solar��hydrogen production.

Dr. Thomas I. Valdez reports to the Chief Technology Officer at Plug Power Incorporated, Latham, New York. ��His focus is on tracking hydrogen generation technology.

Thomas has over 30 years of experience in advanced power systems for military, space, underwater, and commercial applications. ��His career began at NASA's famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he was a major contributor to the JPL Fuel Cell Group and Power Systems Section. ��After a 25-year career at JPL, he transitioned to Teledyne and continued to develop advanced fuel cell technologies such as what is featured in the Teledyne Subsea Supercharger®.

His educational background starts with being a student of Mr. Jaime Escalante, whose teachings were the basis of the Hollywood movie Stand and Deliver. ��Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Materials Engineering from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of California, Irvine. ��He completed his doctorate in Materials Science under Professor Florian Mansfeld, winner of the Electrochemical Society Vittorio de Nora Award, at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Southern California. ��Thomas also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Loyola �Ӱ�ֱ�� Maryland.

Yushan Yan is the Henry B. du Pont Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Founding Director of the Center for Clean Hydrogen (CCH) at the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Delaware (UD). CCH is a partnership of UD, Chemours, Plug Power, West Virginia �Ӱ�ֱ��, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

He is also the Founder and CEO of Versogen, a pioneer in AEM innovations, and a Cofounder of RepAir, a carbon capture technology company.��His research is in the area of electrochemical engineering with a focus on green hydrogen, fuel cells, and carbon capture using polymer anion (hydroxide) exchange membranes.

His recognitions include being a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science.��He received his BS in Chemical Physics from the �Ӱ�ֱ�� of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

TBA

TBA

TBA