Invited Speakers
Prof. Francois Aguey-Zinsous
Prof Francois Aguey-Zinsou is heading the MERLin research lab at Sydney University. Francois is an expert in hydrogen technologies. His group has been working for many years on the properties of light metals and their hydrides for hydrogen storage application and commercialization. He is also developing novel technologies for enabling novel fuel cell architectures and advanced catalysts for hydrogen combustion. Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Vice-President of the Australian French Association for Research and Innovation, Co-director of the Australian-French Research Network FACES and the ARC training Centre for Hydrogen GlobH2E. He is also co-founder and CTO of H2potential.
Dr Tom Autrey
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United States
Tom Autrey is a Laboratory Fellow in the Physical and Computational Science Directorate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His current research interests are focused on small molecule activation in catalysis and approaches to energy storage in liquid organic hydrogen carriers. He is the PNNL Principle Investigator on the Hydrogen Materials – Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC), established as part of the Energy Materials Network under the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fuel Cell Technologies Office.
Dr Darren P Broom
Hiden Isochema Ltd, United Kingdom
Dr Patricia de Rango
Patricia de Rango is Research Director at the Néel Institute, a laboratory of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She works in the field of materials for energy, in particular on rare-earth-based permanent magnets and on the development of metal hydrides for solid hydrogen storage.
Her approach is based on the systematic use of in-situ experiments such as neutron diffraction or thermomagnetic analysis under gas flow,…
Hydrogen storage is addressed in its whole, from the synthesis of metal hydrides by mechanical processes and severe plastic deformations, the analysis of thermodynamic properties and mechanisms associated with solid-gas reactions, to the development of instrumented tanks, including the optimisation of heat and mass transfers.
Dr Andrew Dicks
Dr Andrew Dicks has led hydrogen and fuel cell research in industry and universities in the UK, Canada and Australia. He has played an active role in the development of hydrogen industry in Australia since 2008, when he chaired the World Hydrogen Energy Conference in Brisbane. His wealth of knowledge in technology and the international hydrogen industry is exemplified as the lead author of the acclaimed textbook Fuel Cell Systems Explained. Working with the CSIRO, Andrew currently manages the Australian Hydrogen Research Network, is an Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at Griffith University, and advises companies such as Lion Energy in the emerging hydrogen industry. Andrew is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Chartered Chemist.
Dr Martin Dornheim
Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Germany
Dr Michael Felderhoff
Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany
Dr. Michael Felderhoff is a research group leader at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. He works with various metal hydride materials for hydrogen storage, hydrogen-natural gas mixture separation, hydrogen gas purification, and heat storage with high-temperature metal hydrides. Currently, he is also working on heat storage projects to implement research results from laboratory scale into large-scale demonstration projects.
Prof Yaroslav Filinchuk
Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
Dr Jason Graetz
Dr. Jason Graetz is the Manager of the Scaled Nanotechnologies Department at HRL Laboratories, LLC and his research interests include energy storage and conversion, solid-state hydrogen storage, nanostructured and multifunctional materials. He received his PhD in Materials Science from Caltech in 2003 and was a staff Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory until 2012. He has 20 years of experience investigating and developing alternative battery chemistries and metal hydrides for hydrogen storage. He has served as a U.S. Expert on Hydrogen Storage for the International Energy Agency, was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award, and has co-authored over 70 technical papers and 22 granted patents.
Prof. David Grant
University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Prof David M Grant is head of the Advanced Materials Research Group and Director of the University of Nottingham Energy Institute and Propulsion Futures Beacon. His research in materials for hydrogen storage includes fundamental research into multicomponent systems complex hydride and metal hydrides; machine learning approaches to high entropy alloys; modelling thermal management and kinetics of metal hydride systems; high and low temperature metal hydride tanks and metal hydride thermal stores and integrating stores into systems such as fuel cells and electric machines and dual fuel combustion engines.
Prof Evan Gray
Griffith University, Australia
Evan Gray is a Professor of Physics at Griffith University with more than 35 years of experience in research on hydrogen storage materials. Evan’s fundamental research is focussed on hydrogen in materials and encompasses DFT-based modelling, superconductivity and thermodynamics of metal-hydrogen systems. Evan’s applied research spans hydrogen microgrids, hydrogen storage for off-grid electricity supply, metal-hydride compressors for hydrogen vehicle filling stations, hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength alloys such as pipeline steels, techniques for reliable measurement hydrogen uptake and computer modelling of all aspects of renewable energy systems from the device to the enterprise level. He is closely associated with the Sir Samuel Griffith Centre, a solar-powered building that demonstrates hydrogen energy technology and includes massive hydrogen storage in the form of a metal hydride. Evan is Program Leader of Research Program 3: Offshore Renewable Energy Systems in the Blue Economy CRC and leads the CRC’s activities related to hydrogen microgrids.
Prof Hans R Hagemann
Hans Hagemann obtained his PhD in 1984 in the field of Raman spectroscopy on layered crystal under the supervision of Prof. Hans Bill. After a postdoctoral stay at UC Berkeley with Prof. H.L. Strauss and Dr. R.G. Snyder, he returned to the University of Geneva. His research interests are solid state chemistry, lanthanide spectroscopy, hydrogen storage materials and more recently also new battery materials based on borohydrides. From 2011 to 2021, he was also the scientific supervisor of the Chimiscope, the chemistry outreach platform of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Geneva (https://scienscope.unige.ch/chimiscope/).
Prof Bjørn C. Hauback
Professor Bjørn C. Hauback is the Head of the Department for Hydrogen Technology at the Institute for Energy Technology, IFE, in Norway. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Oslo. His main research area during the last 25 years has been on materials for hydrogen storage, and he is a co-author of more than 340 articles in peer-review international journals. Bjørn Hauback has been leading and involved in many national and international, mainly from EU, funded projects during the years. His competence is in particular related to structural characterization of solid materials with neutron and X-ray based methods. He has been working on aluminum-, boron-, nitrogen-based complex hydrides as well as different interstitial metal hydrides. Recently his focus has been on hydrogen storage in high-entropy alloys.
Prof Björgvin Hjorvarsson
Professor Björgvin Hjörvarsson is heading the Materials Physics program (https://physics.uu.se/research/materials-physics+/ ) at the Department of Physics, at Uppsala University. His research concerns the underlying principles of absorption and transport of hydrogen in materials, especially the impact of confinement and composition on the obtained properties. This knowledge is of relevance for storage of hydrogen as well as design of any device where hydrogen has a function or a presence. Changes in physical properties of materials can also be profound upon absorption of hydrogen, e.g. mechanical, magnetic and optical properties. Understanding and utilization of these changes is therefore expected to be of vital importance in the utilization of hydrogen for both energy storage as well as processing of materials. Hjörvarsson is an elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala.
Prof Zhenguo Huang
Professor Zhenguo Huang is leading the Hydrogen Energy Program at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He was awarded a Discovery Early Career Research Award and Future Fellowships by the Australian Research Council. He is a Research Advisor appointed by the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan, a recipient of the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, and a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors. His research is centered on boron chemistry for energy conversion and storage. Research interests are in the fields of hydrogen storage materials, electrolytes, and two-dimensional boron-containing nanosheets.
Prof Jacques Huot
UQTR, Canada
From 1995 to 2004 Professor Huot was a researcher at Hydro-Québec where he studied magnesium-based nanocrystalline alloys for hydrogen storage. Since 2004 he is a professor at UQTR and member of HRI. His expertises are solid-gaz interactions, metal hydrides, and material characterization. He has been invited researcher at the Institute for Energy Technology (Norway), Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan), Université de Bordeaux (France), Institut NÉEL (France), Max Plank Institut fur Kohlenforschung and Helmut-Schmidt University (Germany). He published 180 papers and is co-inventor of 10 patents. In 2018 he received the prize of achievement in research from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.
Prof Craig Jensen
University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States
Dr. Craig Jensen is a full professor at the University of Hawaii in the Department of Chemistry. His research activities are focused on the synthesis and characterization of novel inorganic and organometallic materials as well as catalyst development. He has authored or co-authored 161 peer-reviewed publications and 10 U.S. patents. Prof. Jensen was named the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen program’s “1999 Research Success Story” and recipient with their “R&D” award in 2004. He has been a member of the expert groups of the International Energy Association tasks aimed at the development of improved hydrogen storage since 1997. He was a co-chairman of the 2006 International Symposium on Metal-Hydrogen Systems and the 2007 Hydrogen-Metal Systems Gordon Research Conference. In 2003, Dr. Jensen founded Hawaii Hydrogen Carriers, LLC and has since served as the company president.
Prof Torben R. Jensen
Aarhus University, Denmark
Dr Siva Karaturi
Associate Professor, Australian National University (ANU)
Dr. Siva Karuturi is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University (ANU). He leads the research group ‘Advanced Conversion Technologies for Hydrogen’ (ACT-H2), which conducts translational research on developing advanced (photo-)electrochemical technologies for hydrogen production. He received a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2013 from Nanyang Technological University. Siva worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New South Wales in the School of Photovoltaics & Renewable Energy Engineering before moving to ANU in 2014. Siva was a recipient of the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) grant from the Australian Research Council in 2015.
Dr Nikolai Kinaev
CSIRO, Australia
Nikolai received MSc (Chemistry) from Moscow State University (hydrogen storage in Metal Hydrides) and then worked in various institutions of Russian Academy of Science in different aspects of Materials Science. Later he obtained his PhD (Engineering) from UQ, Australia on the mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steels. He joined CSIRO working on mineral matter chemistry in gasification and subsequently worked with Rio Tinto as a principal advisor in the Energy Technology Group where he was responsible for understanding the current status of whole range of energy-related technologies (incl renewables, fossil-fuel and nuclear based power generation, energy storage, and carbon capture and sequestration), identification of emerging trends and novel technologies in energy and CCS applications. He was a member of the industry steering group for the CO2CRC and the ZeroGen project and has been involved in the Hydrogen Energy California project where he led the technology development plan and technology risk assessment activities. He re-joined CSIRO in November 2021 as a leader of Hydrogen Energy Systems Future Science Platform.
Nikolai’s professional career spans more than 30 years’ experience in research and industry which has equipped him with a unique understanding of both research and industrial activities and approaches in various areas, as well as the role of science and technology in supporting industry.
Prof Henrietta Langmi
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Henrietta Langmi obtained her PhD from University of Birmingham, UK. After a stint as a Postdoctoral Fellow, she became a Research Scientist at University of New Brunswick, Canada. She later joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research as a Principal Scientist and Programme Manager for Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) Infrastructure Centre of Competence. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at University of Pretoria, South Africa. She is a National Research Foundation rated researcher, and recipient of the South African Women in Science Award and the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy David Sanborn Scott Award. She has been awarded highly competitive international research grants including Horizon Europe, and Royal Society-FCDO Africa Capacity Building Initiative Programme Grant. Her research focuses on the development of porous materials with targeted applications being hydrogen storage, gas separation, CO2 capture and utilization, hosts in the fabrication of nanomaterials, and solid-state catalysts for energy-related applications.
Dr Eric May
University of Western Australia, Australia
A/Prof Chiara Milanese
Chiara Milanese is associate Professor at the Physical Chemistry Section of the Chemistry Department – Pavia University (Italy) , where she is the scientific coordinator of the Pavia Hydrogen Laboratory. Her main research activities regard the preparation and characterization of innovative materials (C based materials, reactive hydride composites) for solid state hydrogen storage and energy storage and topics linked to circular economy (recover of waste oils and of metals from batteries for energetic and environmental applications). She is author of more than 220 papers on materials science topics on high impact factor journals (h index 33).
Prof. Shin-Ichi Orimo
Shin-ichi ORIMO received his Ph.D. in 1995. He was a JSPS research fellow, a research associate in Hiroshima University, and a guest researcher in Max-Planck Institute for Metal Research awarded by Humboldt Fellowship and MEXT Fellowship. So far, he received “Metals Meritorious Award”, “The Commendation for Science and Technology, the Minister of MEXT”, “Science of Hydrogen & Energy Award”, “Honda Frontier Award”. He is currently the Director of AIMR (World Premier International Research Center Initiative – Advanced Institute of Materials Research), Tohoku University, also the PI of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “HYDROGENOMICS”.
Dr Vanessa Peterson
Professor Peterson is a Senior Principal Research and Neutron Instrument Scientist at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering where she leads Energy Materials research to understand and develop materials for batteries, fuel cells, and for the separation and storage of gases including hydrogen. Vanessa holds an Honorary Professorial Fellowship with the University of Wollongong.
Vanessa holds roles with the International Centre for Diffraction Data, the International Union of Crystallography, and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Vanessa is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.
Vanessa was awarded the 2022 Nancy Millis medal from the Australian Academy of Science, AXAA’s Bob Cheary Award in 2020, the Australian Neutron Beam Users Group Neutron Award in 2019, and the Society for Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand’s Sandy Mathieson Medal in 2017, being the first woman to win three of these awards.
Dr Marek Polanski
LTC Marek Polański, PhD, DSc – a researcher with 15+ years of experience in mechanochemistry and synthesis of solid-state hydrogen storage materials (SSHSM). His research focuses on magnesium-based materials for hydrogen storage as well as the design of new synthesis and characterization techniques of SSHSM.
Prof. Astrid Pundt
Karlsruher Institut for Technology (KIT), Germany
Prof Paola Rizzi
Department Of Chemistry, University Of Torino, Italy
Prof. Paola Rizzi obtained her PhD in Chemistry in 1998 and she is now associate professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Torino, Italy.
Her research activity is focused on the study of advanced materials for hydrogen storage and of hydrides for solid state hydrogen compression. She is involved in European and national projects for the design of integrated energy storage systems with renewable energy sources. She is co-author of about 100 publications on international journals.
Assoc. Prof Sabrina Sartori
Dr Vitalie Stavila
Sandia National Labs, United States
Vitalie Stavila received his doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry from the State University of Moldova in 2002. He carried out postdoctoral work at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) and at Rice University in Houston, Texas (USA). He is currently a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California (USA), where his research focuses on experimental aspects of materials science geared toward energy storage and nanoscale fabrication. Dr. Stavila is also part of the Hydrogen Materials Advanced Research consortium (HyMARC) developing materials-based hydrogen storage solutions. In his current research Dr. Stavila uses various X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques to solve fundamental and applied materials science problems related to bulk and nanostructured metal hydrides, oxides, chalcogenides, and metal-organic frameworks. A central theme in Dr. Stavila’s research is the rational design of new materials by changing the chemical composition, the arrangement of the atoms or molecules in crystalline or amorphous configurations, and the size, shape, and orientation of nanoparticles, crystals or other nano- or macroscopic units.
Dr Ned Stetson
Dr. Ned Stetson is the Hydrogen Technologies Program Manager within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office. Dr. Stetson has 30 years of experience in hydrogen related technologies, specializing in hydrogen storage materials development. He currently manages a comprehensive portfolio of research and development efforts that encompass hydrogen production, delivery, storage and infrastructure technologies, everything from producing the hydrogen molecule to delivering it to the end-use. Prior to joining the U.S. DOE, Dr. Stetson researched complex hydrides in the group of Professor Klaus Yvon at the University of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, and spent over 10 years at ECD-Ovonics, focusing the development of novel hydrogen storage materials and storage systems, as well as codes and standards development. Dr. Stetson has a Ph.D. in Chemistry, specializing in inorganic, solid-state materials, from the University of California Davis, and a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Vermont.
Dr Petra Agota Szilagyi
Dr Szilagyi obtained PhD degrees in 2008 in Chemistry (University Eötvös Loránd, Budapest Hungary) and in Physics (University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse France). After postdoctoral fellowships in France, the UK and the Netherlands, and academic positions in Australia and the UK, she is currently a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Functional Materials, heading the Advanced Functional Hybrid Materials research group at Queen Mary University of London.
Her research interests revolve around the sustainable synthesis and application of porous materials for energy and environmental purposes.
She is well known for her pioneering research exploiting host-guest interfaces in metal-organic frameworks for energy conversion and storage, for which work she has been awarded with prestigious prizes, including the WES Top50 Sustainability award in 2020. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and elected member of its Materials Division.
Dr Joseph Teprovich
Joseph received his Ph.D in Chemistry from Lehigh University in 2008. He worked at Savannah River National Laboratory as a post-doctoral research scientist from 2009-2011 and was a staff scientist from 2011-2017. Since 2017 he is a professor at California State University Northridge. He has diverse series of publications and patents regarding the use of metal hydrides in a variety of energy storage and conversion applications. This research includes the electrochemical synthesis of alane (AlH3) for portable power systems, boron based hydrides as ion conductors, alantes as high capacity anodes, metal intercalated carbon nanostructures for hydrogen storage, and metal hydrides for thermal energy storage. His research is currently focused on the development of new closo-borate electrolyte composites.
Prof Valeska Ting
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Prof Gavin Walker
University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Dr Brandon C Wood
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Prof Volodymyr A. Yartys
Institute For Energy Technology, Norway
Prof Andreas Zuettel