Naomi J. Halas is the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and professor of biomedical engineering, chemistry, and physics at Rice University. She is also the founding director of Rice University Laboratory for Nanophotonics, and the Smalley-Curl Institute. She invented the first nanoparticle with tunable plasmonic resonances, which are controlled by their shape and structure, and has won numerous awards for her pioneering work in the field of nanophotonics and plasmonics. She was also part of a team that developed the first dark pulse soliton in 1987 while working for IBM.
Harry Albert Atwater, Jr. is an American physicist and materials scientist and is the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the division of engineering and applied science at the California Institute of Technology. Currently he is the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and the director for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), a Department of Energy Hub program for solar fuels. Atwater's scientific effort focuses on nanophotonic light-matter interactions and solar energy conversion. His current research in energy centers on high efficiency photovoltaics, carbon capture and removal, and photoelectrochemical processes for generation of solar fuels. His research has resulted in world records for solar photovoltaic conversion and photoelectrochemical water splitting. His work also spans fundamental nanophotonic phenomena, in plasmonics and 2D materials, and also applications including active metasurfaces and optical propulsion.
Thalappil Pradeep is an institute professor and professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He is also the Deepak Parekh Chair Professor. In 2020 he received the Padma Shri award for his distinguished work in the field of Science and Technology. He has received the Nikkei Asia Prize (2020), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) prize (2018), and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2008 by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Paula Therese Hammond is an Institute Professor and the Vice Provost for Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was the first woman and person of color appointed as head of the Chemical Engineering department. Her laboratory designs polymers and nanoparticles for drug delivery and energy-related applications including batteries and fuel cells.
Monica Olvera de la Cruz is a Mexican born, American and French soft-matter theorist who is the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemistry, and by courtesy Professor of Physics and Astronomy and of Chemical and Biological Engineering, at Northwestern University.
Sharon Hammes-Schiffer is a physical chemist who has contributed to theoretical and computational chemistry. She is currently a Sterling Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. She has served as senior editor and deputy editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry and advisory editor for Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. As of 1 January 2015 she is editor-in-chief of Chemical Reviews.
Nicholas A. Kotov is the Irving Langmuir Distinguished Professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Prof. Nicholas Kotov demonstrated that the ability to self-organize into complex structures is the unifying property of all inorganic nanostructures. He has developed a family of bioinspired composite materials with a wide spectrum of properties that were previously unattainable in classical materials. These composite biomimetic materials are exemplified by his nacre-like ultrastrong yet transparent composites, enamel-like, stiff yet vibration-isolating composites, and cartilage-like membranes with both high strength and ion conductance.
CatherineJ. Murphy is an American chemist and materials scientist, and is the Larry Faulkner Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The first woman to serve as the head of the department of chemistry at UIUC, Murphy is known for her work on nanomaterials, specifically the seed-mediated synthesis of gold nanorods of controlled aspect ratio. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
Nanoclusters are atomically precise, crystalline materials most often existing on the 0-2 nanometer scale. They are often considered kinetically stable intermediates that form during the synthesis of comparatively larger materials such as semiconductor and metallic nanocrystals. The majority of research conducted to study nanoclusters has focused on characterizing their crystal structures and understanding their role in the nucleation and growth mechanisms of larger materials.
Sherine O. Obare is the dean of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She works on nanomaterials for sensing and drug delivery.
Sara E. Skrabalak is a James H. Rudy Professor at Indiana University. Skrabalak leads a research group in the department of chemistry which focuses on the development of new nanomaterials. She has an adjunct appointment in the department of intelligent systems engineering.
Susan M. Kauzlarich is an American chemist and is presently a distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of California, Davis. At UC Davis, Kauzlarich leads a research group focused on the synthesis and characterization of Zintl phases and nanoclusters with applications in the fields of thermoelectric materials, magnetic resonance imaging, energy storage, opto-electronics, and drug delivery. Kauzlarich has published over 250 peer-reviewed publications and has been awarded several patents. In 2009, Kauzlarich received the annual Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, which is administered by the National Science Foundation to acknowledge faculty members who raise the membership of minorities, women and disabled students in the science and engineering fields. In January 2022 she became Deputy Editor for the scientific journal, Science Advances. She gave the Edward Herbert Boomer Memorial Lecture of the University of Alberta in 2023.
So-Jung Park 박소정(朴昭靜) is a professor of chemistry at Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea. Her research considers the self-assembly of nanoparticles and functional molecules for biomedical and optoelectronic devices. She serves as Associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces and Nanoscale.
Arthi Jayaraman is an Indian-American scientist who is the Centennial Term Professor for Excellence in Research and Education at the University of Delaware. Her research considers the development of computational models to better understand polymer nanocomposites and biomaterials. Jayaraman was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2020.
Stephanie Lee Brock is an American chemist who is professor of inorganic chemistry at Wayne State University. Her research considers transition metal pnictides and chalcogenide nanomaterials. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.
R. Lee Penn is an American chemist and the Merck Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. Their research considers crystal growth, materials and environmental chemistry. Penn is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. In 2020 Penn was awarded the University of Minnesota George W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Service.
Rizia Bardhan is an Indian origin American biomolecular engineer who is an Associate Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering at Iowa State University. She is Associate Editor of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Sara A. Majetich is an American physicist and Professor of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work considers magnetic nanoparticles and nanostructures for application in spintronic devices. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Emilie Ringe is an American chemist who is an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge. She was selected by Chemical & Engineering News as one of its "Talented Twelve" young scientists in 2021.
Maria Ibáñez Sabaté is a Spanish materials scientist and Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Her research considers functional nanomaterials for next generation technologies. She was awarded the ETH Zurich Ružička Prize in 2017.
