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Ellen Backus is professor for physical chemistry at the University of Vienna since 2018. Her research focuses on the molecular structure and (ultrafast) dynamics of various solid-liquid and liquid-air interfaces by using surface-specific vibrational spectroscopy. The current research themes of her group are centered around understanding the fundamentals of catalytic processes, atmospheric systems, and wetting. She obtained her PhD in 2005 at the Leiden University. After postdoctoral research at the University of Zurich and at AMOLF in Amsterdam, she started in 2012 as a groupleader at the Max Planck Institute for polymer research in Mainz.

Bert Weckhuysen, a Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), received his Master and PhD degrees from Leuven University (Belgium) in 1991 and 1995. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Lehigh University (USA) and Texas A&M University (USA). He has (co-) authored more than 750 scientific journal publications and has received many scientific awards, including the Royal Dutch Chemical Society Gold Medal, the Netherlands Catalysis and Chemistry Award, the Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis, the International Catalysis Award, the Bourke Award from the ÂÜÀòÉç, the Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the Kozo Tanabe Prize for Acid-Base Catalysis, and the Chemistry Europe Award. He is a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and an elected member of a.o., the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW), the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts (KVAB), and the European Academy of Sciences. The Weckhuysen group aims to build a powerful “camera” to record what actually happens in a working catalytic solid under relevant reaction conditions. The aim of this work is to bring the necessary science and technology to a level that enables imaging catalytic processes at macro, meso and micro scales, from the reactor down to interactions between atoms and molecules. This approach allows to unravel the activation and deactivation mechanisms of various catalytic processes, of relevance to make the fuels and chemicals from renewable resources, including CO2, biomass and plastic waste. 

Prof Angel Cuesta graduated in Chemistry from the University of Zaragoza in 1992, and obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Madrid in 1996. He was then a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof D.M. Kolb at the University of Ulm between January 1998 and September 2000. In July 2001 he was appointed Provisional Staff Scientist at the Institute of Physical Chemistry “Rocasolano” (CSIC) in Madrid, where he promoted to Staff Scientist in December 2002 and to Senior Scientist in March 2010. He moved to the University of Aberdeen in July 2013, where he was promoted to a Personal Chair in August 2018.