Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal;
Trained as a Photochemist (PhD in 1988), Luis Arnaut became Professor of Chemistry at the University of Coimbra in 2005. Author of >200 peer-reviewed publications that collected >10000 citations, he is included in the Stanford/Elsevier list of “World’s Top 2% Scientists” since 2020. He is inventor of 10 patent families, founder of two Pharma/Biotech companies, Editor of Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences (Springer | Nature), founding Director of the Coimbra LaserLab, which is part of LaserLab Europe – the Integrated Initiative of European Laser Reasearch Infrastructures – where he serves in the Executive Board. Luis Arnaut was the President of the International Photodynamic Association from 2017 to 2023.

Department of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland;
Prof. Janusz Dabrowski completed his master's degree in biological chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry of Jagiellonian University, and then in 2009 he successfully defended with honors his PhD prepared with collaboration with Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology. Since 2018, he has been an independent researcher at the Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University (habilitation work was awarded by the Prime Minister and the Polish Chemical Society), and currently he is a the professor at the Jagiellonian University. His research focuses on: i) design, physicochemical characterization, and biological evaluation of novel porphyrin and phthalocyanine metal complexes for antimicrobial and anticancer photodynamic therapy (PDT); ii) combination of PDT with immune checkpoint inhibition, particularly targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in cancer immunotherapy; iii) development of nanostructured materials for photodynamic inactivation of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Prof. Dabrowski is the author and co-author of over 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles in the fields of chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, photochemistry, and molecular phototherapy. His research has been cited more than 4900 times, with an h-index of 40.

Inorganic Chemistry Department, University Materials Institute of Alicante (IUMA), University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain;
Maria Angeles Lillo Ródenas has been a Full Professor at the Inorganic Chemistry Department and Materials University Institute at the University of Alicante since 2017. She has authored more than 100 international peer-reviewed publications, over 80 of them in JCR Q1 journals, accumulating more than 7,500 citations in Scopus (h-index = 39) and 10,000 citations in Google Scholar (h-index = 43), and is included in the Stanford-Elsevier Top 2% Highly Cited Researchers list in 2025. Her research focuses on the design, preparation, and application of carbon-based and inorganic materials for catalysis and photocatalysis, targeting environmental remediation, biomass valorization, and sustainable hydrogen production; she is co-inventor of eight patents and has coordinated industry-driven and publicly funded and research projects.

Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria;
Liudmil Antonov is a Professor in Chemistry from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with research in the fields of physical organic chemistry, molecular spectroscopy and tautomerism. Since 2026 he heads The University Centre on Tautomeric Research and Education in Science and Technology (UCTREST) at University of Plovdiv, funded by the National Government. The Centre deals with fundamental aspects of the tautomerism (solvent and structural effects), excited state intramolecular proton transfer for switching and signalling, tautomerism and bioactivity.

University of Strasbourg - CNRS Télécom Physique Strasbourg, Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France;
Stefan Haacke is Professor in Physics at the University of Strasbourg and former director of the Strasbourg Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials (IPCMS). His research is devoted to the development and use of ultrafast spectroscopic techniques for the investigation of the functional properties of molecular materials designed for photo-chemical applications, such as solar cells or photo-catalytic reduction of CO2.

Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering-Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal;
Cláudia Gomes Silva graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 2001 and completed an MSc in Environmental Engineering in 2003 at the same institution. She obtained her PhD degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Porto in 2008. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and a Senior Researcher at the Associate Laboratory in Chemical Engineering (ALiCE). Her main research interests extend into distinct but complementary areas, such as materials science (synthesis, functionalization and characterization of nanomaterials), environmental (photo)catalysis (chemical synthesis, hydrogen production, water treatment) and process engineering (design and optimization of reactors and intensification of chemical processes). She is currently the vice-president of the Iberian Association of Photocatalysis and president of the Industrial Chemistry group of the Portuguese Chemical Society. Webpage: lsre-lcm.fe.up.pt/person/38

Department of Industrial Engineering, University Salerno, Fisciano, Italy;
Vincenzo Vaiano is Associate Professor of Industrial Chemistry at Department of Industrial Engineering of University of Salerno. In March 2006 he received the PhD in Chemical Engineering (Thesis: "Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Selective Oxidation of Cyclohexane"). He published more than 270 papers on International Journals (h-index 55 from SCOPUS). The main research lines are: photocatalysis for sustainable chemistry, photocatalytic and photo-Fenton processes for pollutant removal in wastewater, catalytic combustion of sewage sludge, decomposition and oxidative decomposition of H2S.