Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy;

University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain;

Institute for Materials and Processes, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, UK;
Vasileios Koutsos, CEng MIMechE, FIMMM, FHEA, MInstP, is Professor in Soft Materials and Surfaces at the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, Deputy Head of the Institute for Materials and Processes, and Deputy Director of Mechanical Engineering. His main research interests lie in polymers, composites, surfaces and interfaces, colloids, nanomaterials, biomaterials, fibres, thin films, coatings, mechanics, adhesion, friction, wetting and evaporation. VK has authored over 100 international journal publications. He has over 5000 citations and an h-index of 45 (Google Scholar). He has given over 70 invited and keynote talks at international conferences, meetings, and seminar series.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China;
Dr. Chi-wai Kan is now Professor in the School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Kan graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a BSc and PhD in Textile Chemistry. He had worked in private and public sectors in the area of textile evaluation and safety and health management for more than five years before joining the School. His main duties in the School are in the area of teaching coloration and finishing. Dr. Kan’s research interests are also in the area of (i) Textile coloration and finishing, (ii) Surface treatment of textile materials, (iii) Textile products evaluation, (iv) Textile testing instrumentation, (v) Safety and health management and (vi) Environmental management. Dr. Kan holds the professional qualification of Chartered Chemist, Chartered Colourist and Chartered Textile Technologist; also Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Society of Dyers and Colourists and The Textile Institute, U.K. In addition, Dr. Kan is the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Institution of Textile and Apparel (HKITA) and Fellow of HKITA. Recently, Dr. Kan published more than 300 SCI journal papers and 350 conference papers in his research area. Since 2020, Dr. KAN is ranked in World’s Top 2% Most-cited Scientists 2024 lists compiled by Stanford University.

School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China;
Prof. Bocong Zheng has extensive expertise in discharge plasma simulation, gas discharge mechanisms, and plasma technology applications. His research covers particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision models, plasma fluid dynamics, electron kinetics, E×B plasmas, and plasma-surface interactions. After completing his PhD at Dalian University of Technology (2016), he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University and as a research scientist at Fraunhofer USA before joining Beijing Institute of Technology as a professor in 2022. He has published over 70 research articles in these fields.