BIO of Burak Büyükfırat

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Burak Büyükfırat graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Civil Engineering Department in 1989 and obtained his MBA degree from Oregon State University in 1991. Following graduation, he started his career at Kabelwerk Wagner GmbH & Co KG in Germany as an Investments Specialist. He joined Sabancı Holding and worked as Commercial Affairs Specialist, Marketing & Planning Manager, Strategy & Development Manager and Executive Committee Secretary at Sabancı Cement Group and Akçansa A.Ş. from 1994 to 2000. He continued his career as a turnaround and restructuring executive in companies operating in packaging, casting, mechanical contracting, energy, and steel industries from 2001 to 2010. Büyükfırat served as Marketing and Sales Director at Erdemir A.Ş., CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Erdemir Çelik Servis Merkezi A.Ş., Board Member at Erdemir Romania S.R.L., CEO at Erdemir Engineering A.Ş., Group Technology Coordinator at Erdemir A.Ş., Executive Board Member at Chemson AG Austria and Board Member at Akdeniz Kimya between 2010 and 2017. Starting from 2017, he engaged in consultancy services and joined Şişecam as an advisor to “production technologies restructuring” project under “One Şişecam” in 2021. As of February 1, 2024, Mr. Büyükfırat was appointed as Şişecam's Chief Research, Development and Quality Officer. Mr. Büyükfırat was appointed as Şişecam’s Chief Research and Technological Development Officer as of August 1, 2024.

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BIO of Vinit Kapur

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Post Graduate Diploma in Public Relations and Bachelors of Commerce (Honours), Mr. Vinit Kapur is the Secretary of The All India Glass Manufacturers Federation (AIGMF) since January 2011.

Mr. Kapur represented as the Council Member of IYoG from India for the UN declared International Year of Glass 2022 (IYoG) under the aegis of International Commission on Glass; and India was able to deliver more than 30 IYoG events from mid-2021 till Dec 2022, mainly driven by activities involving Youth with event details available at www.aigmf.com

Prior to joining the AIGMF, Mr. Kapur worked as the Director (Coordination and Government Relations) in the Organising Committee for Commonwealth Games in New Delhi between 2007-2010.

Mr. Kapur served as the Public Diplomacy Officer in the Australia-India Council and The Japan Foundation under Australian and Japanese Governments in New Delhi between 1999-2005.

Mr. Kapur holds 28-years of expertise in Public Advocacy programs.

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BIO of Sener Oktik

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Prof. Dr. Sener Oktik has been the president of the Research and Technological Development Group of Şişecam (the 10th largest glass company of the world) since 1 January 2012, and he is also the chairman of Turkish Solar Energy Industry Association. He is a senior experimental applied physicist with academic/industrial research technological development and teaching expertise in materials, devices and systems in the field of photovoltaic value chain. He graduated in Physics in 1976 and received M. Eng. in “Applied Physics” in 1977 from the University of Ankara (Turkey). He received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 1982 (the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics of Durham University U.K.) and worked as a lecturer/senior lecturer, a research scientist and a top executive for universities at international level. He served as the “Rector” between 2002 and 2010 for Mugla University (Turkey).

Together with his academic career, he also works for industrial research as a senior research scientist/senior technologist, a top executive and consultant for companies such as Imperial Chemical Industries and BP Solar, Industrial Research Labs of Durham University (U.K), Anel Group, Arıkanlı Holding and Şişecam (Turkey). He has been contributing to the scientific communities through memberships in professional and non-governmental organizations/committees such as; an advisory board for TUBITAK. MAM between 2003-2005; the Turkish Delegation for the accession process of Turkey to EU; International Commission for Glass (ICG), European Society for Glass, EU Photovoltaic Technology Platform, EU Physical Society Energy working Group, Ex-Co of IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme, Turkish Solar Energy Industry Association, Turkish Clean Energy Foundation, Ex-Co of National Photovoltaic Technology Platform of Turkey, Turkish Energy Council, Turkish National Innovation Group, Euro Solar, Institute of Physics, and Turkish Society of Physics.

Professor Oktik has published over 120 scientific and technical publications and inventor/co-inventor of two world patents in the field of photovoltaic.

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BIO of Setsuhisa Tanabe

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Setsuhisa Tanabe is a full professor at Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University. He received his PhD at Department of Industrial Chemistry, Kyoto University in 1993. After working as an assistant professor, he became an associate professor in 2001 and was promoted to a full Professor in 2008 all in Kyoto University. He is the author of >250 original papers, >25 book chapters, and >40 review papers on luminescent glass and ceramic materials for upconversion lasers, optical fiber amplifier for telecommunication, LED phosphors and persistent phosphors. His h-index is 59 by Scopus. He has served as a plenary, keynote or invited speaker at more than 140 international conferences. He was the chair of Technical Committee on Photonic Glasses (TC20) of International Commission on Glass (ICG) during 2003- 2011 and was a member of Steering Committee of ICG during 2013~2020. On the occasion of UN International Year of Glass 2022, he served as the President of Japanese IYOG2022 Executive Committee in 2021~2022 as well as an International Committee member of IYOG led by Alicia Durán. He was a visiting scientist at Rutgers University, NJ, USA to work with Prof. Elias Snitzer during 1996-1997, also an invited professor at University of Rennes I, France in 2010 and 2016, and at University of Gdansk, Poland in 2019. He has been a main Editor of Journal of Luminescence since 2020 after serving as an associate Editor during 2014~2020. He is a Fellow of SPIE and ACerS

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