PLENARY SPEAKERS

Agilio Padua is a professor of physical chemistry at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Lyon, a research-intensive institution on fundamental sciences delivering diplomas at masters and doctoral levels. He studies the molecular interactions, microscopic structure, and thermodynamic and transport properties of ionic liquids and related systems. The main scientific questions are related to solvation and interfaces, leading to the design of solvents and electrolytes. A. Padua has used molecular simulation and developed molecular interaction models to study ionic liquids for more than 20 years. He is the author of 200 publications.

Catinca Secuianu is a Habilitated Professor of Chemical Engineering at the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnologies. She holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and completed postdoctoral research at Imperial College London on Carbon Capture and Storage. Her research focuses on applied thermodynamics, phase equilibria under extreme conditions, equations of state, global phase behaviour, thermophysical and transport properties, and modelling. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers, delivered more than 80 conference presentations, and has led or contributed to numerous national and international research projects. Prof. Secuianu has been deeply involved in the scientific community: she chaired the 2017 European Symposium on Applied Thermodynamics (ESAT) in Bucharest, organized the Romanian International Conference on Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (RICCCE), chaired sessions at major international meetings, and evaluated papers, grant proposals, and master’s and doctoral theses. She also served a four-year term as Vice Dean of her faculty. She is Romania’s National Delegate to the EFCE Working Party on Thermodynamics & Transport Properties, serves on editorial boards, and is a member of the ESAT Steering Committee.

Ellen Steimers studied Energy and Process Engineering and earned her Ph.D. at the Laboratory of Engineering Thermodynamics (LTD) at RPTU Kaiserslautern, Germany, focusing on Advanced Analysis Methods for Quantification of NMR Signals in Reaction and Process. In 2022, she joined BASF SE in Ludwigshafen as a Senior Specialist in the Center of Expertise Physical Properties. Since August 2025, she has been working as a Research Engineer in Process Development for Performance and Care Chemicals.

Hans Hasse is Professor of Thermodynamics at RPTU Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Vice President of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungs­gemeinschaft, DFG). His research bridges molecular thermodynamics and conceptual process design, integrating advanced experimental methods with modeling and simulation. He has a background as a process engineer at BASF.

Prof. Luís Fernando Mercier Franco is Associate Professor at School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Campinas, Brazil. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, under the supervision of Prof. Pedro de Alcântara Pessôa Filho, developing part of the thesis at the University of Notre Dame, as a Visiting Researcher at the group of Prof. Edward Maginn. In 2015, he received the Helmut Knapp Award at the ESAT held in Athens, Greece. From 2016 to 2017, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Texas A&M University at Qatar under the supervision of Prof. Ioannis Economou. In 2017, he was offered a faculty position at the University of Campinas. In 2023, Prof. Franco received the Fulbright Junior Professor Award to spend 4 months in the Reservoir Engineering Research Institute, under the direction of Prof. Abbas Firoozabadi, in Palo Alto, USA. More recently, Prof. Franco received the prestigious PPEPPD Young Research Award. His research is devoted to the application of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, molecular simulations, and molecular-based equations of state to a variety of industrial problems, with special attention to carbon capture and sequestration.

Cummings holds the position of Bicentennial Professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Prior to this, he was the John R. Hall Professor of Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University for just over 20 years, from 2002 to 2022. For 9 years (2013-2022), he held the position of Associate Dean for Research in the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering. For 20 years (1994-2013), he was associated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) at levels of effort ranging from 40 to 50%, most recently (2007-2013) serving as the chief scientist of ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS). His research interests include statistical mechanics, molecular simulation, computational materials science, computational and theoretical nanoscience, and computational biology. He is the author of over 470 refereed journal publications. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineers in 2023. In the US, he was the PI on over $45M in awarded grants, primarily from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Department of Energy (DOE), and National Institutes of Health, and was co-PI on over $240M in awarded grants. He has served on advisory boards to the DOE (the Basic Energy Sciences Committee) and the NSF (the Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee and the Advanced Cyber-Infrastructure Committee). He has been elected fellow of the American Physical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK. He is the recipient of many awards, perhaps the most relevant being the 2013 John Prausnitz award, the most prestigious international research award in chemical engineering thermodynamics, presented every three years at the Properties and Phase Equilibria for Process and Product Design (PPEPPD) Conference.

Sabrina Pricl is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Trieste (Italy). Her research focuses on computational chemistry, molecular modeling, and multiscale simulation applied to polymers, soft materials, nanostructured systems, and biomolecular assemblies. She is the author of more than 350 peer-reviewed publications and the recipient of several national and international awards. Over the years, she has led and contributed to numerous European research projects and collaborates regularly with the European Commission in various evaluation and advisory roles. Her work is widely recognized for bridging fundamental understanding with practical advances across chemistry, materials science, and biotechnology.