PROGRAMME

Lithium-Alloy Anodes in Solid-State Batteries PROF. PASTA, Mauro University Of Oxford Prof. Mauro Pasta (FRSC) is Professor of Applied Electrochemistry in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator of the SOLBAT (solid-state batteries) project as part of The Faraday Institution. His research interests encompass electrochemistry and materials chemistry, with a primary focus on developing innovative materials for electrochemical energy storage. With expertise in battery chemistries beyond Li-ion, he has published 95 papers, with an h-index of 44 and over 15000 citations. Additionally, he holds 18 patents and patent applications. As a co-founder of three battery startup companies, Natron Energy, Cuberg and Project K, Prof. Pasta is dedicated to translating his research into real-world solutions.

Autonomous design of products and processes: Generative Chemical Transformer to reinforcement learning-guided combinatorial chemistry PROF. NA, Jonggeol Ewha Womans University Bio: Dr Na is an assistant professor in Chemical engineering at Ewha Womans University. Prior to joining Ewha, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University under the guidance of Prof. Nick Sahinidis. Additionally, he conducted visiting research with Prof. Richard D. Braatz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in 2018 from Seoul National University. His research group focuses on addressing computational challenges in the design and optimization of advanced process systems. Utilizing tools from process systems engineering, machine learning, multiscale simulation, and mathematical optimization, his team tackles specific problem areas. These include the autonomous discovery of innovative process systems designs through artificial intelligence and multiscale simulations, and the conceptual design of novel processes that enhance sustainability in the chemical industry. Dr. Na's research contributions have been recognized widely, with features on the front cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ACS Energy Letters, and the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. His accolades include Best Paper Awards at the AIChE Annual Meeting in 2022 and the Ewha Outstanding Research Award in the same year.