The 1st International Online Conference on Gels
The 1st International Online Conference on Gels
Part of the International Online Conference on Gels series
Event's Timezone: Central European Time
4 August 2025
4 September 2025
28 November 2025
Colloidal Gels, Polyelectrolyte Gels, Biopolymer Gels, Smart Gels, Protein and Biological Gels
Announcements:
IOCG 2025 will be FREE for Participation!
Join us today to register and submit your abstract, and be part of cutting-edge discussions and networking opportunities!
Welcome from the Chair
It is my pleasure to announce the 1st International Online Conference on Gels (IOCG 2025). This conference has been organized by the MDPI open access journal Gels (ISSN 2310-2861, Impact Factor 5.3) and will be held online from 3 to 5 December 2025.
The conference will provide an opportunity for scientists and engineers in academia and industry to present their latest research and to participate in discussions and exchange ideas to advance the development of materials with a three-dimensional network structure. The themes of the conference include the following:
- The supramolecular structure and properties of gels;
- Hydrogels, organogels, xerogels, and aerogels;
- Gels in agriculture and food;
- Gels in medicine, regenerative medicine, pharmacy, and personal care products;
- Gels in electro-magneto-mechanical devices, 3D printing, and manufacturing;
- Gels in chemical processing, energy, and environment.
This event will solely be an online conference, which allows for the participation of scientists from all over the world without travel limitations. Participation in this online conference is free of charge.
We look forward to your participation.
Kind regards,
Prof. Dr. Esmaiel Jabbari
Biomimetic Materials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
The chair of the 1st International Online Conference on Gels
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Event Chair
Biomimetic Materials and Tissue Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
Esmaiel Jabbari is Tenured Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at University of South Carolina. Prof. Jabbari’s laboratory specializes in the creation of multi-cellular tissue models for skeletal tissue engineering and cancer drug delivery. He received Berton Rahn Award in 2012 from AO Foundation and Stephen Milam Award in 2008 from Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation. He was elected to the College of Fellows of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2013. Prof. Jabbari has authored >250 articles and presented >100 invited lectures. He serves as the Academic Editor for PLOS ONE and Associate Editor of Gels.
Session Chairs
Dr. Paula M. T. Ferreira
Center of Chemistry, University of Minho, Gualtar Campus, Braga, Portugal
Session Chair
Paula M.T. Ferreira is an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Minho with a PhD in Chemistry. She has extensive expertise in peptide synthesis and the preparation of non-proteinogenic amino acids. Over the past five years, her research has focused on the development of supramolecular hydrogels based on dehydropeptides and the synthesis of peptide constructs for medical imaging. She has led multiple research projects funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Agency for Innovation. Paula is the (co)author of over 100 international publications in organic, materials, and medicinal chemistry and has (co)supervised more than 30 PhD and MSc theses.
Prof. Dr. Sidi A. Bencherif
Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, USA
Session Chair
Prof. Dr. Luis Alfonso Trujillo-Cayado
Department of Chemical Engineering, Higher Polytechnic School, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
Session Chair
Prof. Dr. Luis Alfonso Trujillo Cayado is a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad de Sevilla’s Escuela Politécnica Superior. He received his International PhD in Chemistry in 2016 from the University of Seville, with a focus on hydrogel networks and nanoemulsion systems for environmental and food applications. His research interests include nanoemulsions, biopolymer‐based encapsulation, colloidal rheology and sustainable gel formulations for agriculture and food. He has authored over 57 JCR articles (h-index 21) and currently leads projects on bio-based nano-emulgels and functional hydrogel matrices.
Prof. Dr. Aline F. Miller
Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Session Chair
Dr. Vincenzo Guarino
Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy, Naples, Italy
Session Chair
He is Research Director at the institute of Polymers, Composite and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy and Head of Electrospinning and Microscopy labs at the Naples site. His main research interests include biomaterials, scaffold design and additive technologies including electro fluid dynamics (i.e., electrospinning/spraying/atomization) for the fabrication micro/nanostructured bio functional devices, particles and capsules for different applications in biomedical area. He was appointed as PI of several international projects - in collaboration with international academies, research institutes, agencies and R&D companies, member of scientific committees, project review panels and editorial boards of international journals. He is author/co-author of over 200 international publications on the material/biomaterials subjects (November 2025, H-index 49 Scholar source) and he was included in the World’s Top 2% Scientists list by Stanford University ranking since 2021.
Dr. Annarosa Gugliuzza
Institute on Membrane Technology-Research National Council, CNR-ITM, Rende, Italy
Session Chair
Dr Annarosa Gugliuzza is a senior researcher at the Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM), wihich is part of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). She holds a degree with honors in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemical Science from University of Calabria, Italy. She is a lecturer and member of the Doctoral School Committee for the STFCM PhD program at the University of Calabria, Italy. She is a member of the scientific advisory committee for the CHrossLAB that works on cultural heritage recovery and safeguard as part of the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology (DSCTM) of CNR. Skilled in nanomaterials and nano-assembly technologies, her current research interests are mainly in membrane design dedicated to water desalination and reuse, cultural heritage assets, agrofoods, environmental remediation, gas separation, smart surfaces and interfaces, membrane-actuators. Engaged in many editorial activities, she serves as an associate editor and editorial board member for various scientific journals and is the editor of five books on membranes and related technologies. She served as a chair of Workshops and chair of Sessions for various international conferences on materials science, membranes and membrane processes.
Event Committee
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Braga, Portugal
Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Polytechnic University of Milan, Milan, Italy
Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany
College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai, China
Department of Chemical Kinetics, “Ilie Murgulescu” Institute of Physical Chemistry, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary University, Gurugram, India
Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Institut Charles Sadron, UPR 22, CNRS-University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China
Macromolecular Chemistry Group (LQM), Department of Physical Chemistry, University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain
Pharmaceutical and Biomaterial Engineering, School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, UK
Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Technology, Lawrenceville, USA
Department of Textile Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Minho, Guimares, Portugal
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Polytechnic University of Torino, Torino, Italy
Department of Chemistry and Physics, Scientific Technical Building of Chemistry, University of Almería, Spain
National Research & Development Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry - ICECHIM Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Tier II Canada Research Chair in Food Nanotechnology, Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy, Naples, Italy
Department of Biological Sciences and Technologies, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
School of Natural Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
School of Pharmacy, Drug Delivery Division, University of Camerino, CHIP Research, Camerino, Italy
Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Renewable Resources for Sustainability (CERES), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow , UK
Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Keynote Speakers
Innovative and sustainable gels for the preservation of works of art
David Chelazzi received his Master's Degree in Chemistry (2003) and his PhD degree in Science for Cultural Heritage Conservation (2007) at the University of Florence (Italy). He is Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry at the University of Florence (Department of Chemistry and CSGI). His main research involves advanced and nano-materials for art conservation and the industry, and he is involved in European and national projects on such topics (FP7, H2020, HORIZON EUROPE). He is author and co-author of more than 100 papers in the field of physical-chemistry, conservation science, and environmental science.
Invited Speakers
Carlo Diaferia, Ph.D is Researcher at the Department of Pharmacy and the Research Center for Bioactive Peptides (CIRPeB) at the University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy). His research activities are related to supramolecular chemistry and peptide self-assembling as molecular tools for nanomaterials developments. Diaferia's projects span from the design of peptide-based hydrogels and nanogels for drug delivery and regenerative medicine to the development of nanostructured probes for diagnostic and optoelectronic scopes. He is a member of the ItPS (Italian Peptide Society) and GFPPS (Groupe Français des Peptides et des Protéines) and winner of the IV Edition of the Vittorio Erspamer Award for Young Researchers.
Sessions
S2. Hydrogels, Organogels, Xerogels, and Aerogels;
S3. Gels in Agriculture and Food;
S4. Gels in Medicine, Regenerative Medicine, Pharmacy, and Personal Care Products;
S5. Gels in Electro-magneto-mechanical Devices, 3D Printing, and Manufacturing;
S6. Gels in Chemical Processing, Energy, and Environment.
Registration
The registration for The 1st International Online Conference on Gels will be free of charge! The registration includes attendance to all conference sessions.
If you are registering several people under the same registration, please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual university email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
Please note that the submission and registration are two separate parts. Only scholars who registered can receive a link to access the conference live streaming. The deadline for registration is 28 November 2025.
Instructions for Authors
Important Deadlines
1. Deadline for abstract submission: 4 August 2025.
2. Announcement of oral and poster abstract results: 4 September 2025. You will be notified of the acceptance of an oral/poster presentation in a separate email.
Certificates of Participation are available in your logged-in area of Sciforum.net, under “My Certificates” after the conference.
1.The abstract structure should include the introduction, methods, results, and conclusions sections of about 250–300 words in length.
2. All abstracts should be submitted and presented in clear, publication-ready English with accurate grammar and spelling.
3. You may submit multiple abstracts. However, only one abstract will be selected for oral presentation.
Detailed Requirements:
1. The submitting author must ensure that all co-authors are aware of the contents of the abstract.
2. Please select only one presenter for each submission. If you would like to change the presenter after submission, please email us accordingly.
Note: We only accept live presentations.
The slot for the oral presentation is 15 mins. We advise that your presentation lasts for a maximum of 12 mins, leaving at least 3 mins for the Q&A session. Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the abstract. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly on the website using the proprietary slide viewer at Sciforum.net. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results are presented. Slides should be converted to PDF format prior to submission so that they can be converted for online display.
Poster should include the title, authors, contact details and main research findings, as well as tables, figures and graphs where necessary.
- File format: PDF (.pdf).
- Size in pixel: 1080 width x 1536 height–portrait orientation.
- Size in cm: 38,1 width x 54,2 height–portrait orientation.
- Font size: ≥16.
Examples of successful submissions can be viewed here at the following links: (1), (2), (3).
You can use our free template to create your poster. The poster template can be downloaded HERE.
All posters will be permanently exhibited online in the Poster Gallery.
We will reach out to you closer to the dates of the conference with more information.
It is the author's responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Any financial support for the study must be fully disclosed in the "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting an abstract to this conference, you retain the copyright to the work, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this abstract online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your full paper (with the abstract) to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher if required.
Publication Opportunities
Participants in this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the conference's Special Issue (to be updated) published in Gels (ISSN: 2310-2861, Impact Factor 5.3), with a 20% discount on the publication fee. Please note if you have IOAP/association discounts, conference discounts will be combined with IOAP/association discounts. Conference discounts cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers. All submitted papers will undergo MDPI’s standard peer-review procedure. The abstracts should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper.
All accepted abstracts will be published in the conference report of the 1st International Online Conference on Gels in the Materials Proceedings (ISSN: 2673-4605 ) if you wish to publish an extended proceeding paper (4-8 pages), please submit it to the same journal after the conference.
Proceedings submission deadline: 19 January 2026.
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must be formatted as follows:
Title;
Full author names;
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses;
Abstract;
Keywords;
Introduction;
Methods;
Results and Discussion;
Conclusions;
Acknowledgements;
References.
IOCG 2025_proceeding_paper-template.dot
Event Awards
To acknowledge the support of the conference's esteemed authors and recognize their outstanding scientific accomplishments, we are pleased to announce that the conference will provide 6 awards including Best Oral Presentation Awards and Best Poster Awards.
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 6
The Best Oral Presentation Awards are given to the paper judged to make the most significant oral contribution to the conference.
The Best Poster Awards are given to the submission judged to make the most significant and interesting poster for the conference.
Each winner will receive CHF 200 and a certificate.
Sponsors and Partners
For information regarding sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please click here.
Organizers
Media Partners
Conference Secretariat
Ms. Aily Hu
Mrs. Ioana Banu
Email: iocg2025@mdpi.com
For inquiries regarding submissions and sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to contact us.
