Bio
Monica Magureanu graduated in 1996 from the Faculty of Physics in the University of Bucharest (Romania), received her MSc degree in 1997 from the same University and her PhD in 2002 from the University of Greifswald (Germany). Since 1996 she is employed in the National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics (NILPRP) in Bucharest and since 2008 she is scientific researcher 1st degree in NILPRP, Department for Plasma Physics and Nuclear Fusion. Her research activities are mainly related to experimental investigations of non-thermal plasma for various applications, such as water treatment (i.e. the degradation of organic contaminants in water), plasma agriculture (seed treatment), plasma-catalysis for the oxidation of volatile organic compounds in air, plasma treatment of materials.

Bio
Annemie Bogaerts obtained her PhD diploma at the University of Antwerp in 1996, and is professor since 2003, and full professor since 2012, at the University of Antwerp. She is the head of the research group PLASMANT, which she started “from scratch”, and which currently counts almost 50 members. Her research focuses on plasma chemistry, plasma reactor design and plasma-surface interactions, both by experiments and modeling, for various applications, but mostly for environmental/energy applications (green chemistry, gas conversion, plasma catalysis) and medical applications (cancer treatment). In the field of gas conversion, she focuses on the conversion of small molecules, like CO2, CH4 and N2, into value-added chemicals and renewable fuels, by plasma and plasma catalysis, and tries to understand the underlying mechanisms by modeling. She has about 500 peer-reviewed publications since 1995, and above 17,000 citations, with a H-index of 62 (Web of Science). Furthermore, she has more than 150 invited lectures at international conferences (since 1998) and more than 60 invited seminars at universities/institutes (since 1995), in various countries. She was the supervisor of 42 finished PhD theses (since 2005). She is the recipient of more than 20 scientific awards, and in 2019, she obtained a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant on plasma catalysis, with G. Centi, V. Hessel and E. Rebrov.

Bio
Chris Hardacre is Head of the School of Natural Sciences and a member of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at the University of Manchester. He obtained a PhD from Cambridge University in 1994 and moved to Queen’s University, Belfast in 1995 and was appointed as Professor of Physical Chemistry and became Director of Research of the Centre for the Theory and Application for Catalysis in 2003. In 2016, he moved to the University of Manchester. Through his work in ionic liquids research, he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Encouraging Innovation Award with Merck Chemicals Ltd and was part of the team to win the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education and in 2013 was the inaugural winner of the IChemE’s Andrew Medal for catalysis. His group has strong research interests in catalysis and ionic liquids. Current catalytic projects range from water gas shift and emission control catalysis using thermal and plasma activation to the use of transients to determine gas and liquid phase reaction mechanisms to liquid phase hydrogenations under batch and flow conditions to low temperature fuel cells and clean energy conversion. His research in ionic liquids includes their use in modifying the properties of heterogeneous catalysts, structural determination of ionic liquids, and species dissolved therein, electrochemistry and prediction of physical properties of ionic liquids.