Prof. Laure Monconduit

(University of Montpellier, ICGM, France)

​Prof. Laure Monconduit was promoted to CNRS Research Director in 2011. Her current research directions include the synthesis and characterization of new electrode materials for Li-ion and for post-Li systems (Na-, K-, Ca-ion batteries), the improvement of their performance by playing on nano-structuration, electrode formulation, and the confinement in the carbon matrix. She was very active in thematic group M-ion of the European network ALISTORE-ERI and the French network RSE2. She has also had numerous collaborations with industrial partners (Saft, Umicore, Total S.A., Hutchinson, Nanomakers, Renault, Pellenc, SNAM, ROSI).

Prof. Mauro Pasta

(University of Oxford, UK)

Prof. Mauro Pasta is a Professor of Applied Electrochemistry in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the SOLBAT (solid-state batteries) project as part of The Faraday Institution. His research interests encompass electrochemistry and materials chemistry, with a primary focus on developing innovative materials for electrochemical energy storage. As a co-founder of three battery startup companies, Natron Energy, Cuberg and Project K, Prof. Pasta is dedicated to translating his research into real-world solutions.

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Associate Prof. Jelena Popović-Neuber

(University of Stavanger, Norway)

Prof. Jelena Popović-Neuber is an associate Professor of Battery Technology at University of Stavanger. Her scientific interests lie in the cross-section of experimental and theoretical materials science and electrochemistry, focusing on physicochemical investigation and development of materials for electrochemical energy storage. Before joining University of Stavanger, Jelena was a staff scientist at Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and earned her PhD at University of Potsdam/Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces.

Associate Prof. Yang Xu

(University College London, UK)

Dr Yang Xu is an Associate Professor in Energy Storage in the Department of Chemistry at University College London (UCL). He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He carried out his postdoctoral research at Boston College (US) and the University of Alberta (Canada) and then worked as a Senior Scientist at Technical University of Ilmenau (Germany), where he started his research on potassium from 2016. He is leading a team at UCL Chemistry working on next-generation battery materials and chemistries, particularly potassium-based, focusing on cation intercalation mechanism, metal anodes, and anionic redox activity. He has received research fundings from various funders including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Faraday Institution, the Royal Society, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Leverhulme Trust, and UCL. He was awarded the MINE Outstanding Young Scientist Award (2019), the EPSRC New Investigator Award (2020), and the STFC Early Career Award (2023).

Assistant Prof. Guiomar Hernández

(Uppsala University, Sweden)

Guiomar Hernández is an Assistant Professor at the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre at Uppsala University (Sweden) since 2022. She obtained her PhD at the University of the Basque Country (Spain) in 2017 on redox-active polymers for energy storage applications. Currently, she is leading a team working on polymeric materials and electrolytes (solid and liquid) for safe and sustainable next-generation batteries.​

Dr. Fabian Jeschull (Group Leader)

(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, IAM-ESS, Germany

Fabian Jeschull is leading the ‘Electrolytes and electrochemical Methods’ group at the Institute for Applied Materials – Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). His research focuses on liquid and solid electrolytes for post-Li batteries, with a special focus on degradation processes at electrode interfaces in potassium batteries. He worked previously as a postdoc at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland in the Novák group and received his PhD in chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden, under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Brandell.