Prof. Alexander Korsunsky
Trinity College, Oxford University, UK

Alexander Korsunsky received his degree of Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) from Merton College, Oxford, following undergraduate education in theoretical physics. His current appointment is Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and Trinity College. He has given keynote plenaries at major international conferences on engineering and materials. He has developed numerous international links, including visiting professorships at Universitá Roma Tre (Italy), ENSICAEN (France) and National University of Singapore.

Prof Korsunsky’s research interests concern developing improved understanding of integrity and reliability of engineered and natural structures and systems, from high-performance metallic alloys to polycrystalline ceramics to natural hard tissue such as human dentin and seashell nacre.

Prof Korsunsky co-authored books on fracture mechanics (Springer) and elasticity (CUP), and published over 200 papers in scholarly periodicals on the subjects ranging from neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction analysis and the prediction of fatigue strength to micro-cantilever bio-sensors, size effects and scaling transitions in systems and structures.

Support for Prof Korsunsky’s research has come from EPSRC and STFC, two major Research Councils in the UK, as well as also from the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), NRF (South Africa), DFG (Germany), CNRS (France) and other international and national research foundations. Prof Korsunsky is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Strain Analysis published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK (IMechE).

Prof Korsunsky is consultant to Rolls-Royce plc, the global aeroengine manufacturer, whom he advises on company design procedures for reliability and consistency. He spent a period of industrial secondment at their headquarters in Derby, UK (supported by RAEng), and made recommendations on R&D in structural integrity.

Prof Korsunsky plays a leading role in the development of large scale research facilities in the UK and Europe. He is Chair of the Science Advisory Committee at Diamond Light Source (DLS) near Oxford, UK, and Chair of the User Working Group for JEEP (Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing) beamline at DLS. These activities expand the range of applications of large scale science to problems in real engineering practice.

Prof Korsunsky’s research team at Oxford has involved members from almost every part of the globe (UK, FR, DE, IT, China, India, Korea, Malaysia, South Africa).
 

Prof. Alfonso Maffezzoli
University of Salento, Italy

Alfonso Maffezzoli received his master degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1987 and the Ph.D. degree in Materials Technology at University of Naples in 1991, working also as associate researcher at University of Washington (Seattle, USA). In 1991 he won the Young Scientist Award of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS). In 1992 he joined to the University of Salento as lecturer and presently he is full professor at the department of engineering for innovation. He leads a research group of about 20 people operating in the area of technology of polymers, composites, ceramics and biomaterials, working on many research project either supported by public institutions either supported by private companies. His didactic activity covered the general aspects of materials science and technology and polymer science at the engineering faculty. He is actually teaching courses on composites science and technology and process modelling. In the last years he chaired the course of materials engineering and was the director of the Department of Engineering for Innovation, being actually the coordinator of the Ph.D. program in “Materials and structure engineering and nanotechnology”. His research interests are related to polymer, composites and biomaterials. Original contribution were developed in the field of thermoplastic and thermosetting matrix composite processing, photopolymerization, rapid prototyping, cure monitoring of thermosetting resins, rotational moulding, polymer recycling, ultrasonic characterization of polymers and polymer matrix nanocomposites. He is author of about 200 papers on international journals besides to several patents and many presentations at international conferences. He acts as reviewer for more than 20 international journals. He participated to project evaluation for EU M-ERA.NET consortium, the Swiss Science Foundation and the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica of Chile, Agency for Science, Technology & Research of Singapore, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia, the Italian Ministry of University and Research and several Italian regional authorities.
At the June 2018 he had an h-index, according to Scopus equal to 36 and according to Google scholar equal to 40. According to Scopus he received more than 4400 citations.
 

Prof. Julio Ramírez-Castellanos
Universidad de Complutense de Madrid, Spain

Julio Ramírez-Castellanos studied Inorganic Chemistry at Complutense University with a specializing in Solid State Chemistry. He graduated with a BAS (Bachelor of Science degree), and studied new related perovskite type oxides. He continued with the same department in order to complete his PhD degree, and worked with Prof. Jose M. Gonzalez-Calbet´s group on the synthesis and structural characterization of high Tc superconducting materials. This PhD served as an introduction to many chemical methods needed for the preparation of new materials, and the application of electron microscopy techniques used to characterize and understand the relationships between structure and properties. Dr. Ramirez-Castellanos also visited/worked at/studied at several European research centers, including the Laboratoire de Cristallograhie (CNRS) in Grenoble (FR). He was an active participant in Prof. Maximo Marezio´s working group, under the supervision of Dr. J. J. Capponi in the preparation of new superconducting materials. Ramirez-Castellanos also joined at Prof. S. Palmer's group, at Physics Department in Warwick University, Coventry (UK). Furthermore, Dr. Ramirez-Castellanos studied the determination of crystal structures, and the processing of electronic images obtained through electron microscopy with Prof. Sven Hovmoller, in Arrhenius Laboratory at Structural Chemistry Department, Stockholm University (SE).

Dr. Ramirez-Castellanos graduated with a “cum-laude” honors Doctorate Degree, entitled “System Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O: reactivity, stability and reproducibility of Superconductor Phases”, in early 1994. For several years after that, he completed research with a postdoctoral fellowship in order to study with Dr. Yoshio Matsui at the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (N.I.R.I.M) in Tsukuba (JP). Dr. Ramírez-Castellanos completed his research and studies on new materials (e.g., high Tc Bi based superconductors; obtained at high pressure, zirconium oxide gels; and thin films materials with diamond structure), using a Hitachi H-1500 high resolution and ultra-high voltage transmission electron microscope (U-HRTEM), operated at 1300 kV. At the same time, he also collaborated with Prof. Ryozo Yoshizaki at the Applied Physics Institute and Cryogenic Center in the Faculty of Engineering at Tsukuba University (JP); and studied the microstructure and physical properties of superconducting high Tc single crystals.

Dr. Ramírez-Castellanos returned to Madrid in 2001, and joined the Inorganic Functional Materials Group (Prof. Jose M. Gonzalez-Calbet). His research mainly based on the synthesis, optical properties and structural/microstructural characterizations of nanomaterials. Currently, he is Professor at Inorganic Chemistry Department in Universidad de Complutense de Madrid (UCM).