BIO of Florian Kongoli

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Dr. Florian Kongoli holds 3 degrees: a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science/University of Montreal, Canada and a Doctor of Science Degree/Tohoku University, Japan. Since 1996 he is CEO of FLOGEN Technologies Inc.,(www.flogen.com) a Sustainable High Tech applied research institute
incorporated in Canada and USA that today have offices and representations in more than 15 Countries around the the world while carrying out high tech projects in more than 40 countries.

Since 2007 he is Chairman of FLOGEN STAR OUTREACH (www.flogen.org), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to (1) achieving sustainability through science and technology, (2) raising the profile of science and engineering in the society and (3) properly honoring scientists and engineers.

Since 2003 Dr Kongoli has been President of the Organizing Committee of the Sustainable Industrial Processing Summits (SIPS) held every year in several countries around the world with an average participation of 500 authors from academia, industry, government and the entrepreneurship world representing an average of 80 countries.

Dr Kongoli has about 25 years of rich scientific and applied technology experience through direct involvement in numerous invited engagements in all continents. He has managed, involved, or actively participated in about 200 projects, 40 types of reactors, 10 industries, in 45 countries and in 6 continents. Dr. Kongoli has published 113 books and more than 200 scientific articles. He has delivered in numerous countries around the world about 220 plenary, keynote and invited presentations as well as articles, technical reports and research presentations. He has served in many leadership positions in national and international organizations and in many Professional Award Councils such as the Industrial Achievement Award Committee of International Federation of Automatic Control. He is Editorial Board member of several International Journals.

He is an elected Honorary Member of the Lorraine Academy of Sciences and Elected Member of Euro Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded in 2017 the title "The Environmental Tech CEO of the year 2017" by CEO-Monthly UK magazine. He was awarded Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of his contribution toward sustainable development through FLOGEN Sustainability Framework by Tomas Bata University in Zlin (Czech Republic)/Faculty of Applied Informatics. He is honorary Citizen of Rio de Janeiro and Laureate of Gold Medal of the City of Nancy, France. In 2022 he was honored by the Congressman elect of Rio de Janeiro State, Alan Lopes, who will propose to the State Congress to adopt FLOGEN Sustainability Framework developed by Dr. Florian Kongoli in the state law for evaluating any proposed public or private project in the state. Also, in 2022 he was invited to give the Opening Sustainability Plenary Lecture at the United Nation Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 11 February 2022 about FLOGEN Sustainability Framework at the International Year of Glass 2022.

He has participated in business and government delegations in numerous countries accompanying Prime Ministers, Ministers and other government officials.
A more detailed biography can be found at: http://www.flogen.com/elt/pdf/Kongoli_Short-CV.pdf

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BIO of Matteo Alvaro

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Matteo Alvaro, 41 years old, is currently a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Pavia, Italy where since 2019 he is Rector delegate for international affairs and vice president of the center for Global and Strategic Engagement (GLOBEC). Professor Alvaro received his BSc, MSc and PhD from the University of Pavia. After a period as a post-doc at Virgina Tech, University of Chieti and University of Padua, he joined the faculty at University of Pavia. Prof. Alvaro is a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA). He is elected for the second mandate as council member of the Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrologia.

In 2015 Prof. Alvaro established the “Fiorenzo Mazzi” Experimental Mineralogy Laboratory located at the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Pavia, Italy. In the same year he has been awarded the SIR-MIUR grant, one of the most prestigious research fellowship awarded in Italy to investigators younger than 40 years old. Prof. Alvaro received the “Ugo Panichi” prize (2016) from the Italian society of Mineralogy and Petrology for his significant scientific contributions in the field of mineralogy; the “Mario Nardelli” Prize (2018) for researchers who contributed significantly to the development of the Italian crystallography and the EMU Research Excellence Medal (2021) by the European Mineralogical Union as an early career scientist who has made significant contributions to research in mineralogy and whose professional and societal activities contribute to strengthening scientific links in Europe. In 2017 Prof. Alvaro has been awarded the European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant, considered one of the most prestigious European grant awarded to scientist showing high potential with PhD obtained not later than 12 years before the application.

Prof. Alvaro is known for his contribution to the development of the methods of elastic geothermobarometry for determining pressure and temperature attained by rocks at depth by measuring the residual stresses preserved in crystalline solid inclusions trapped in minerals.

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BIO of Gilberto Artioli

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Gilberto Artioli is a professor of mineralogy, crystallography and materials science at the University of Padova. He received a Laurea Degree from the University of Modena and a PhD from the University of Chicago. His interests focus on mineralogy, crystallography and materials science. His scientific expertise encompasses the use of combined techniques, including those based at large scale facilities, for the investigation of complex materials, including natural and industrial materials. His recent interests concern the application of advanced characterization techniques to cultural heritage materials and processes.

He started and directed the CIRCe Centre @UNIPD for the investigation of cements and chaired the IUCr Commission on Crystallography in Art and Cultural Heritage. Honors include: Mineralogical Society of America fellow (1998), Conservation Guest Scholar at The Getty Conservation Institute (2006), the Luigi Tartufari International Prize, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2014), the Mario Giacomo Levi of the Società Chimica Italiana (2018), the Waltrude and Friedrich Liebau Prize for the Promotion of Interdisciplinarity in Crystallography, German Society for Crystallography (2021). He is member of Academia Europaea, Accademia nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Padova.

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BIO of Mark Asta

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Mark Asta received his PhD in an interdisciplinary Materials Physics program from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993. He subsequently joined Sandia National Laboratories at Livermore, CA, as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a senior member of technical staff beginning in 1995. He joined the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, as an Associate Professor in 2000. In 2005 he joined the University of California, Davis, as a full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, where he served as vice-chair from 2008-2009. In 2010 he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Department Chair from July, 2015 – January, 2018, and where in 2015 he was named the Arthur C. and Phyllis G. Oppenheimer Professor in Advanced Materials Analysis. Professor Asta is also a member of the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has been a Faculty Scientist since 2010, and Division Director since January, 2018.

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BIO of Shmulik Hayun

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Professor Shmuel (Shmulik) Hayun has been an Associate Professor at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. His current research focuses on two main areas – the development of advanced ceramics for structural, functional, and energy-related applications and the thermochemistry and thermophysical properties of multi-component alloys. Professor Hayun received Ph. D. degree in 2009 from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. From 2009 to 2011, he was with Peter A. Rock Thermochemistry Laboratory, University of California, Davis, USA, as a Postdoc. In 2011, he returned to Israel and became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva. In 2016, he became an Associate Professor. In 2017 He spent one year as a visiting professor in Peter A. Rock Thermochemistry Laboratory, University of California, Davis, USA. During this visit, he developed together with Prof. Navrotsky a new methodology for measuring the enthalpy of formation from elements of multi-principal element alloys (MPEA) based on high-temperature oxidative calorimetry. He has published more than 100 journal and conference papers as the first or corresponding author. He is a member of the editorial board of Materials in the section board of advanced composites. He also serves as a guest editor and Dr. Sergey Ushakov from ASU for a special issue, "Thermal Analysis of Materials," through MDPI. His work on reaction-bonded boron carbide for lightweight armor: The interrelationship between processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties was published as a cover story In the American Ceramic Society Bulletin in 2017.

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BIO of Alexandra Navrotsky

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Alexandra Navrotsky, 80, was educated at the Bronx High School of Science and the University of Chicago (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in chemistry). After postdoctoral work in Germany and at Penn State University, she joined the faculty in Chemistry at Arizona State University, where she worked with a leading-edge team in materials science and geochemistry until her move to the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University in 1985. She chaired that department from 1988 to 1991 and was active in the Princeton Materials Institute. In 1997, she became an Interdisciplinary Professor of Ceramic, Earth, and Environmental Materials Chemistry at the University of California Davis and was appointed Edward Roessler Chair in Mathematical and Physical Sciences in 2001. She directed the organized research unit on Nanomaterials in the Environment, Agriculture and Technology (NEAT) from 1999 to 2019.Professor Navrotsky rejoined the ASU faculty in 2019 as Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences and the School of Engineering, Matter, Transport and Energy. She is director of the Center for Materials of the Universe at ASU, a cross-disciplinary center which brings together planetary science and materials science.

Her research interests have centered about relating microscopic features of structure and bonding to macroscopic thermodynamic behavior in minerals, ceramics, and other complex materials. She has made contributions to mineral thermodynamics; mantle mineralogy and high pressure phase transitions; silicate melt and glass thermodynamics; order-disorder in spinels; framework silicates; and other oxides; ceramic processing; oxide superconductors; nanophase oxides, zeolites, nitrides, perovskites; and the general problem of structure-energy-property systematics. The main technical area of her laboratory is high temperature reaction calorimetry. She has published over 900 scientific papers.

Honors include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1973); Mineralogical Society of America Award (1981); American Geophysical Union Fellow (1988); Vice-President, Mineralogical Society of America (1991-1992), President (1992-1993); Geochemical Society Fellow (1997). She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1993. In 1995 she received the Ross Coffin Purdy Award from the American Ceramic Society and was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from Uppsala University, Sweden. In 2004, she was elected a Fellow of The Mineralogical Society (Great Britain) and awarded the Urey Medal (the highest career honor of the European Association of Geochemistry). In October 2009, she received the Roebling Medal, the highest honor of the Mineralogical Society of America. In 2011, she became a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 2017 she received the Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society and the Kingery Award of the American Ceramic Society, both top lifetime achievement awards. In 2018 she was elected to the World Academy of Ceramics. In 2020 she received the Czochralski Award of the European Ceramic Society and was elected a Distinguished Life Member of the American Ceramic Society.

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BIO of Ralf Riedel

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Professor Ralf Riedel has been a Full Professor at the Institute of Materials Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt from 1993. His current research focuses on two main areas – the molecular synthesis of advanced ceramics for structural, functional and energy-related applications and the ultrahigh pressure synthesis of novel inorganic nitride based materials.
Prof. Riedel got a PhD. degree in Inorganic Chemistry in 1986 at the University of Stuttgart. After postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Metals Research and the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart he completed his habilitation in 1992.
Professor Riedel is an elected member of the World Academy of Ceramics, a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the European Ceramic Society and the School of Engineering at The University of Tokyo in Japan. To state some of his accomplishments, he was awarded with the Gold Medal for Merits in Natural Sciences, a honorary doctorate of the Slovak Academy of Science, as well as with the Gustav Tammann Prize of the German Society of Materials Science (DGM) and an honorary professorship at the Tianjin University in China.
Recently, Prof. Riedel has also received the Innovation Talents Award of Shaanxi Province, China at the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi´an. He is a Guest Professor at the University of Tokyo and was awarded with the International Ceramics Prize 2020 for Basic Science by the World Academy of Ceramics. Furthermore, he is Editor in Chief of the Journal of The American Ceramic Society and of Ceramics International.

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BIO of Nancy Ross

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Nancy Ross, 66, is currently a Professor in the Department of Geosciences and Materials Science and Engineering Department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (“Virginia Tech”) in Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. Professor Ross received her B.S. from Virginia Tech, her M.S. from the University of British Columbia and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University. After postdoctoral work at Stony Brook University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, she joined the faculty at University College London, England. In 2000, she came full circle, returning to the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech as a full professor. She served as the first Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the newly-formed College of Science at Virginia Tech from 2003 to 2012. She chaired the Department of Geosciences from 2012 to 2017.

Ross is a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA). She was selected as a Distinguished Lecturer of MSA (2011-2012). She was elected as Vice-President of MSA (2008-2009) and as President of MSA (2090-2010). She is currently a candidate for the position of First Vice President of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA). She was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Societá di Mineralogia e Petrologia, Italy (2014) and Fellowship of Geological Society of America, U.S.A. (2016). In September 2024 she will receive the Roebling Medal, the highest honor of the Mineralogical Society of America.

Ross is known for her influential role in applying lattice dynamics and principles of atomic bonding and structure to derive governing principles of the stability and sustainability of materials, and for leadership in expanding the scope of the fields of geochemistry and mineralogy with neutron sources.

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BIO of Basilios Tsikouras

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Professor Basilios Tsikouras was educated at the University of Patras, Greece (BSc and PhD in Geology). After working as a Geologist in construction and teaching at high schools, he was appointed to the Department of Geology at the University of Patras, Greece, where he worked until 2017, eventually as an Associate Professor. Since 2013, he has been working at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), where he is currently a Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology in the Geosciences Programme and the Director of Research in the Office of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Sustainability. He previously served as Head of the Physical & Geological Sciences Department in UBD, as well as the Faculty of Science, UBD, as the Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs and of Graduate Studies and Research.

His research interests include Soil and Environmental Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Petrogenesis of Ophiolites, formation of Chromitites and Platinum-Group-Minerals, and quality assessment of Industrial Minerals. He has been the principal investigator of 20 research grants funded by national and international funds and has authored over 150 scientific papers and 3 books. Professor Tsikouras was also a Research Fellow of Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada, and is currently a Research Fellow of INTI International University, Malaysia. He is the founder and Chair of the International Congress on Earth Sciences in SE Asia and a member of several technical and scientific committees. In 2019, a new mineral, tsikourasite, was named in his honour by the International Mineralogical Association for his contributions to ore mineralogy and mineral deposits of ophiolite complexes.

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