Prof. Blaž Likozar is a head of the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC), leading the programme “Chemical Reaction Engineering”, as well as numerous research projects (15 H2020 / 50 in Horizon Europe alone). His expertise lies (among others) in heterogeneous catalysis materials, modelling, simulation and optimization of process fluid mechanics, transport phenomena and chemical kinetics. He worked at the University of Delaware in 2014–2015 as a Fulbright Program researcher. He has authored >400 articles, was cited >10000 times, having a h-index of 61. He is also involved in many industrial projects, amongst others, with TotalEnergies, Evonik Industries, UPM, Novartis, Carbon Recycling International… He is a recipient of Pregl and Zois awards.

Since 2011, Prof. Dr. Dariusz Dziki has held the position of Head of the Department of Thermal Technology at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland. His research primarily encompasses various facets of food processing, including drying, milling, baking, pasta production, food fortification. He has contributed extensively to the academic literature through numerous publications on these topics. Furthermore, Prof. Dziki has been the recipient of several prestigious awards from the Rector of the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, including recognition for the most-cited publication and for the publication with the highest impact factor.

Dr. Alina Magdalena Musuc is a Senior Researcher (2nd degree) and Head of the Chemical Kinetics Department at the Institute of Physical Chemistry - Ilie Murgulescu, Romanian Academy. With over 25 years of experience in the field of chemistry, she earned her B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry (1999), M.Sc. in Environmental Quality Control (2001), Ph.D. in Chemistry (2007), and habilitation in Chemistry (2023). Dr. Musuc has been honored with prestigious awards, including the “Gheorghe Spacu” prize (2018, 2024) by the Romanian Chemical Society and the “Nicolae Teclu” award (2014) by the Romanian Academy. Dr. Musuc has authored over 102 articles in ISI-indexed journals, presented 118 papers at international conferences, and holds 3 invention patents, with 2 additional patent applications pending. She has co-authored four book chapters published by international publishers and one edited book. Her research focuses on the development of biopolymer-based hydrogels enhanced with natural extracts for biomedical and food industries, pharmaceutical formulations using cyclodextrin chemistry, innovative composite methods for energy applications, as well as the physicochemical characterization of biomaterials and composites and kinetic studies.