Plenary Speakers

Jon Ajuria

Research Line Manager (Dr.)

Title: From Interface Design to Prototyping: A Scalable Pre-Lithiation Strategy for Advanced Lithium-Ion Capacitors

Dr. Jon Ajuria obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of the Basque Country in 2003, where he completed his thesis at the University of Bergen, Norway. Following his graduation, he joined the Energy Department at CIDETEC, dedicating three years to pioneering research on hydrogen fuel cells. In 2007, Dr. Ajuria moved to IKERLAN, where he earned his PhD in 2012 from the University of the Basque Country. His doctoral research focused on the development of hybrid organic-inorganic flexible solar cells with nanostructured electrodes. As part of his PhD work, he also spent four months in Germany at SIEMENS in Dr. Oliver Hayden’s group. Upon completing his PhD, Dr. Ajuria remained at IKERLAN for three years, contributing to several European projects aimed at advancing organic solar cell technology. In 2015, he joined CIC energiGUNE as a post-doctoral fellow in the newly established Hybrid Supercapacitors Research Line. Since 2018, he has served as an Associate Researcher and Project Leader for multiple industrial and public funded projects at CIC energiGUNE. In 2022, he completed an MBA with a specialization in entrepreneurship. Since 2022, he has been the Research Line Manager for the Metal-ion Capacitors Research Line, where his research focuses on the development of metal-ion capacitors, from materials to devices. In 2024, he was also appointed Research Line Manager for Sodium-ion Batteries.

Andrea Balducci

Professor

Title: Development of new methodologies to elucidate the influence of electrolyte in degradation processes occurring in electrochemical capacitors

Prof. Dr. Andrea Balducci took his PhD in Materials Science in 2006 at the Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse, France. From 2009 till 2014, he was the scientific leader of the supercapacitors group at MEET Battery Research Center of the University of Münster, Germany. From January 2015 till May 2016 was working as senior scientist at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), Germany. Since June 2016 is Professor for “Electrochemistry” at the Institute for Technical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry and at the Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry Jena (CEEC Jena) of the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany. He is author of more than 220 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, which have been cited more than 16500 times (H-index 63). He served as Chair in Division 3 of ISE and he is member of the editorial board of several journals (Energy Storage Materials, Electrochimica Acta, Batteries & Supercaps, ChemSusChem, etc.). Since December 2024 he serves as associated Editor of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. He has been working on innovative electrolytes for energy storage devices, with particular focus on high power systems, for several years. His research activities focus particularly on the development of innovative and sustainable electrolytes. Furthermore, he is working on the development of in-situ and in-operando techniques suitable for investigation of the degradation processes taking place in these electrolytes.

Jeng-Kuei Chang

Professor

  • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
  • Email: jkchang@nycu.edu.tw

Title: Electrolyte Formulations and Prelithiated Electrode Design for High-Performance Activated-Carbon Supercapacitors

Prof. Jeng-Kuei Chang received his Ph.D. from National Cheng Kung University. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and serves as Technical Director at the Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. His research focuses on energy storage systems, supercapacitors, rechargeable batteries, hydrogen technologies, and corrosion prevention. Prof. Jeng-Kuei Chang has held visiting positions as a scientist at Pennsylvania State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, and as a visiting professor at Kyushu University in Japan and the Helmholtz Institute Ulm in Germany. He has published 351 SCI-indexed papers and has an h-index of 63. Prof. Chang has received numerous honors, including the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in 2017, Outstanding Research Award from the NSTC in 2020, the Y. Z. Hsu Foundation Scientific Paper Award in 2021, the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from National Cheng Kung University in 2021, and the Cross-Generation International Outstanding Young Scholar Award from NSTC in 2021.

Yoong Ahm Kim

Professor

  • School of Polymer Science and Engineering, Chonnam National University, South Korea
  • Director, Alan G. MacDiarmid Energy Research Institute
  • Distinguished Visiting Professor, Shinshu University, Japan
  • Associate Editor, Carbon, Elsevier
  • Associate Editor, Carbon Letters, Springer Nature
  • Email: yak@chonnam.ac.kr; yak@jnu.ac.kr

Title: Engineering Edge Structures in Porous Carbon: A Versatile Strategy for Optimizing Energy Storage Devices

Education & Career:

Assistant Professor in Shinshu University (2002.12–2004.02)

Associate Professor in Shinshu University (2004.03–2013.08)

Associate Professor in Chonnam National University (2013.09–2016.02)

Distinguished Visiting Professor in Center for Biomedical Sciences, Shinshu University (2013.11–2018.12)

Director of Innovation Center for Engineering Education, Chonnam National University (2020.08–2022.07)

Vice Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Chonnam National University (2020.08–2022.07)

Director of Alan G. MacDiarmid Energy Research Institute, Chonnam National University (2016.03 –2024.02)

Full Professor in Chonnam National University (2016.03 –the present)

Professional Activities:

  1. Associate Editor, CARBON (Elsevier) (2018-the present)
  2. Editorial board member, Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group) (2017-the present)
  3. Associate Editor, Carbon Letters (Springer) (2017-the present)
  4. Editorial Board member, Applied Science (MDPI) (2018-the present)

Publications and Citations:
http://scholar.google.co.kr/citations?user=91PIrw0AAAAJ&hl=en
(Publications: 350, Citation: 26,209, h-index: 81, i10-index: 274)
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4074-7515

Recent Representative Publications:

  1. S. Hong, Y. A. Kim, et al., Carbon 167, 881 (2020)
  2. G. B. Choi, Y.A. Kim et al., Nano Lett. 20, 5885 (2020)
  3. J. W. Wee, Y. A. Kim et al., Carbon 185, 419 (2021)
  4. S. Hong, Y. A. Kim et al., Carbon 184, 207 (2021)
  5. V. Meunier, Y. A. Kim et al., Carbon 195, 272 (2022)
  6. W.Q. Neves, Y. A. Kim et al., Carbon 196, 20 (2022)
  7. G. B. Choi, Y. A. Kim et al., Carbon 204, 587 (2023)
  8. J. H. Kim, Y. A. Kim et al., Constr. Build. Mater. 392, 131983 (2023)
  9. S. B. Seo, Y. A. Kim et al., Carbon 218, 118731 (2024)
  10. B. Youn, Y. A. Kim et al., ACS Nano 18, 24532 (2024)

Hirotomo Nishihara

Professor

Title: 3D graphene materials for advanced capacitors

Hirotomo Nishihara is a full professor at Tohoku University, Japan. Having obtained his academic degrees from Kyoto University (Japan), he spent most of his career working for Tohoku University up to date. He has received numerous scientific awards, including the prestigious Gottfried Wargener Prize in 2019 and the JSPS Prize in 2020. In 2022, he took his innovations into the business sphere by establishing a startup company, 3DC. As the Chief Science Officer, he is dedicated to the industrialization of a novel porous carbon material, graphene mesosponge, which he developed. His research interests include nanoporous materials and carbon-based materials.