Bio
Wim Dehaen was born in Kortrijk, Belgium. He obtained his Ph D in 1988 under the guidance of Professor Gerrit L’abbé on a study concerning the rearrangements of 5-diazoalkyl-1,2,3-triazole derivatives. After postdoctoral stays in Israel (1988-1990), Denmark (3 months in 1990), the United Kingdom (three months in 1994) and Belgium (most of 1990-1998) he was appointed associate professor at the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1998, becoming a full professor at the same university in 2004. Up to 2024, close to 700 publications (current h-index 66) have appeared in international journals about his work on heterocyclic and supramolecular chemistry.

Bio
Michal Szostak received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2009. After postdoctoral stints at Princeton University and University of Manchester, in 2014, he joined the faculty at Rutgers University, where he is currently Professor of Chemistry. His research group developed the concept of acyclic twisted amide bond activation. In 2022, he edited the book “Amide Bond Activation: Concepts and Reactions”. His research group is focused on the development of new synthetic methodology based on transition-metal-catalysis, NHC ligands, inert bond activation, and application to the synthesis of biologically active molecules. He is the author of over 270 publications.

Bio
Ruilong Sheng received his B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry (2002), and obtained his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry (2008) from Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China. He conducted his postdoctoral research in organic supramolecular chemistry, (Bio-)macromolecular chemistry, and Biomaterials at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, China, then he worked there as an associate research professor of organic chemistry. From 2015 to 2017, he was invited to work at Université de Montréal and McGill University, Canada, working on natural product chemistry and nanobiomaterials as an invited scientist/professor. In 2017, he joined Centro de Química da Madeira (CQM) at Universidade da Madeira, Portugal as a Senior researcher (R4, Research Professor) and group leader. His current research mainly focusing on 1. Natural product-based supramolecular/nano systems for gene/drug/vaccine delivery; 2. Macromolecular/polymer chemistry and physics of functional nanobiomaterials; 3. Molecular optical (bio)chemical sensors and bioimaging; 4. Chemical modification of bioactive small organic molecules/biomacromolecules. He has around 110 research publications (h-index=35, citation: ~4100, google scholar) and serves as an active peer-reviewer in many international journals.

Bio
Prof. Dr. Scott Handy was born in the USA and has moved around to most every region of the country. He received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1991 and participated in research on non-natural nucleotides under Dr. Vasa Nair. He then completed his Ph.D in Chemistry at Indiana University in 1996 under the direction of Dr. Paul Grieco. This work was focused on the use of highly concentrated solutions of lithium salts in organic solvents for the catalysis of organic transformations. After an NIH post-doctoral fellowship under the direction of Dr. Paul Wender at Stanford University, Scott began his independent academic career in 1999 at Binghamton University. In 2005 he moved to Middle Tennessee State University where he has explored the chemistry of aurones, the synthesis of Lamellarin natural products, and the use of both room temperature ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents in organic synthesis. His Current work is focused on rapid and efficient synthesis and direct screening of arrays of potential fluorophores.

Bio
Kenneth K. Laali (BSc, PhD, FRSC) is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at University of North Florida and previously served as the Founding Chair of Chemistry. He completed his PhD in the UK at University of Manchester in 1977 and after postdoctoral stints at King’s College London, University of Strasbourg, University of Amsterdam, and at ETH-Zurich, he moved to University of Southern California to work with Prof. George Olah. He began his independent academic career at Kent State University (Ohio, USA) in 1985, where he went through the ranks and became full Professor in 1996. In 2009, he moved to UNF as Chair/Professor to lead a new chemistry department. He has authored and coauthored over 300 peer-reviewed publications as well as reviews, books, monographs, and patents. Research in the Laali laboratory has focused on multifaceted projects that combine synthetic, structural/mechanistic, and theoretical approaches. Prof. Laali’s research contributions in generation and NMR studies of carbocations, onium ions, and in organofluorine and superacid chemistry are internationally recognized. In the past decade, he has directed much of his attention to synthetic method development and catalysis in ionic liquids, and more recently to drug discovery projects.

Bio
Jernej Iskra received his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1993 and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1998 from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana. He began his research career at the Jožef Stefan Institute in the Laboratory of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry. From 2000 to 2002, he carried out his postdoctoral training as a Marie Curie Individual Fellow at the laboratory Biocis - Molecules Fluorees (CNRS / Université Paris-Sud, where he focused on clean oxidation processes in fluorous media. After returning to the Jožef Stefan Institute, he continued his work as a Senior Research Associate and he has also held part-time appointments at the University of Maribor and the Centre of Excellence for Integrated Approaches in Chemistry and Biology of Proteins. In 2016 he joined the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana as a Professor of Organic Chemistry. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2022. His research is centered on the design of molecules and methods for the functionalization of compounds derived from lignocellulosic biomass and its direct conversion into value-added products. His contributions include the development of green oxidative methods – such as halogenation, oxidation, fluorination, and oxidative cleavage – along with the conversion of lignin into vanillin and the preparation of functional materials from lignocellulosic biomass, including nanolignin, lignin quantum dots, and cellulose hydrogels. He is the author of 82 scientific publications, several patents, and book chapters, publications has h-index of 29 and approximately 2,800 citations. In 2014, he co-founded the startup RGA (Research Genetics and Agrochemistry).