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Lecturers

	Prof. Roger M. Leblanc University of Miami, USA Short CV Prof. Roger M. Leblanc received his B.S. in chemistry in 1964 from Université Laval, Canada, and Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1968 from the same university. He was appointed as professor in 1994 and chair of Department of Chemistry at University of Miami from 1994 to 2002 and again from 2013 to 2021. He was also one of the three editors of Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces from 1998 to 2013. He has published 540 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. As a professor, he has supervised more than 100 M.S. and Ph.D. students. Course Title: Applications of Carbon Dots as Advanced Nanomaterials. Description: Carbon dots (CDs) with an average diameter less than 10 nm have garnered increasing attention in the research of material science and biomedical engineering due to their unique properties such as small size, photoluminescence (PL), high water-dispersity, biocompatibility, low toxicity, and tunable surface functionality. In this presentation, I will begin with the introduction of the methodologies used to synthesize a wide array of CDs. Specifically, three unique CD species that represent both top-down and bottom-up approaches will be scrutinized through extensive structural characterizations to optimize their properties and applications. Then, I will shift focus to the wide scope of exceptional biomedical applications of CDs recently developed in our lab: (1), surface modification nanoarchiteconics of carbon nitride dots (CNDs) for enhanced drug loading and higher cancer selectivity; (2), a drug delivery system of CDs conjugated with memantine for targeting tau aggregation associated with Alzheimer’s Disease; (3), the structure-activity relationship of CNDs in inhibiting tau aggregation (4), difluoromethylornithine (DMFO) derived CDs for the treatment of Neuroblastoma and imaging; (5) metformin-derived CDs showed a unique nucleus targeting property, which suggests a huge potential for future nucleus-targeting drug delivery.
	Prof. Abdelkader Outzourhit Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco Short CV Prof. Abdelkader Outzourhit holds a PhD degree in Applied Physics from the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA (1992), a master’s degree in physics from the same School and a bachelor degree from the Cadi Ayyad University in 1985. He is currently a professor at the department of physics of the Faculty of Sciences, Cadi Ayyad University (in Marrakech, Morocco), the director of the Center for Analysis and characterization His research is centered on the fabrication of novel materials and solar cells, renewable energies and the coupling of various energy resources (hybrid systems). He has participated in several EU-funded projects on renewable energies, desalination and hybrid systems including hydrogen subsystems (JatroMed, HYRESS, ADIRA, ADURES, HYPA). He also led several national projects on renewables (HYBRIDBATH, TAHALAGRID, PPR2 on Novel Solar Cells based on perovskite). He participated in Erasmus° projects QESAMED, AFREQEN and PROEMED. He authored and co-authored more than 250 articles covering thin films, solar cells (a-Si:H, perovskites, kesterites, oxides), renewable energies, batteries, photocatalysis, electrodeposition and anodization. He chaired the Solid-state Physics and Thin Films Laboratory which later became Laboratory for Nanomaterials, Energy and Environment, where he set-up the first chemistry/electrochemistry unit to complement the PVD techniques of the Laboratory (rf-sputtering, evaporation) with chemical and electrochemical deposition techniques. His expertise include scanning electron microscopy (since 200), XRD (including GIXRD, SAX, reflectometry, high resolution, in-stu..), EXAFS, impedance spectroscopy AFM, integration and optimization of renewable energy sources in buildings He served as a reviewer for several journals including solar energy materials and solar cells. He coordinated several graduate and undergraduate programs at the university on renewables and nanomaterials (master degree, DESA, and bachelor). He was a member of the Solar Decathlon SDA2019 winning team (Interhouse). Course Title: .... Description: ....
	Prof. Ashok Vaseashta International Clean Water Institute, Manassas, Virginia, USA Short CV Prof. Dr. Ashok Vaseashta currently serves as the Chief Research Officer, Executive Director of Research at the International Clean Water Institute, USA. Concurrently, he serves as Chaired Professor of Nanotechnology at the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Academician at Euro-Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences, Senior Strategic Research Advisor for several organizations, and Professor at Riga Technical University and Transylvania University of Brasov. Inspired by nature and guided by societal necessities, he strives for innovations to address global challenges such as environment, human safety and security, and sustainability using advanced technological solution platforms. He is a scholar, dedicated futurist and visionary leader who provides strategic leadership to promote and advance research initiatives and priorities using data driven decisions. He received PhD from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA in 1990 followed by Kobe post-doctoral fellowship. Following his PhD, he served as professor and researcher at Virginia Tech and Marshall University. He also served as the Director of Research at the Institute for Advanced Sciences Convergence and International Clean Water Institute for Norwich University Applied Research Institutes. Prior to his current position, he served as Vice Provost for Research at the Molecular Science Research Center in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He served as visiting professor at the 3 Nano-SAE Research Centre, University of Bucharest, Romania and visiting scientist at the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center of Nanoscale Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. He served the U.S. Department of State in two rotations, as strategic S&T advisor and U.S. diplomat. His research interests span nanotechnology, environmental/ecological science, and safety and security. His research on nanotechnology has been on improving the understanding, design, and performance of nanofibers and sensors/detectors, mainly for applications such as wearable electronics, target drug delivery, detection of biomarkers and toxicity of nano and xenobiotic materials. In the security arena, he has worked on counterterrorism, countering unconventional warfare and hybrid threats, critical-Infrastructure protection, biosecurity, dual-use research concerns, and mitigating hybrid threats including fake-news. In addition, he has made numerous contributions in environmental/ecological science including directing research for International Clean Water Institute, pollution monitoring, contamination detection and remediation, and sustainability through green nanotechnology. He has authored over 250 research publications, edited/authored eight books on nanotechnology, and presented many keynote and invited lectures worldwide. He serves on the editorial board of several highly reputed international journals. He is an active member of several national and international professional organizations. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (FAPS), Institute of Nanotechnology (FIoN), and the New York Academy of Sciences (FNYAS). He has earned several other fellowships and awards for his meritorious service including 2004/2005 Distinguished Artist and Scholar award. Course Title: YYYYYY. Description: ZZZZZZ.
	Prof. Hamid Oughaddou CY Cergy Paris University, France Short CV Prof. Hamid Oughaddou is full professor at CY Cergy Paris University. He has pioneered the growth of silicene and phosphorene thin films by molecular beam epitaxy. He is a leader of the 2D material team at ISMO-CNRS, Paris-Saclay University. He has authored or co-authored 80 papers and 1 patent. (h-index = 25, 5000 citations). He is expert in the growth of different 2D materials including graphene, silicene, phosphorene and organic molecules. He is also a specialist of different surface analysis techniques such as STM-STS, nc-AFM, HR-PES, ARPES, SXRD, AES and LEED. He has coordinated different national and international projects. He organized/co-organized the six international meetings on silicene and the six Euro-Mediterranean Conferences on Materials and Renewable Energies (EMCMRE). He has also been member of the editorial board of different journals and conference organizing committees. He was also a guest editor of six international conference proceedings. Website: http://oughaddou.u-cergy.fr. Course Title: Phosphorene: emerging new 2D materia. Description: Phosphorene presents both an intrinsic tunable direct band gap and high carrier mobility values, which make it suitable for a large variety of optical and electronic devices. However, the synthesis of single-layer phosphorene is a major challenge because the principal process currently used to produce phosphorene is exfoliation, which prevents any reproducible measurements or implementation into larger scale electronic circuits. To this end, the use of molecular beam epitaxy process to achieve a fully controlled synthesis of phosphorene is mandatory. In this presentation, I will show the state of the art of this two-dimensional material and highlight some of our recent results.
	Prof. Luis Cadillon Costa I3N, Physics Department, University of Aveiro, Portugal Short CV Luís Cadillon Costa is Professor in the Physics Department of the University of Aveiro, and member of the research laboratory I3N, classified as Outstanding. His research activity has been dedicated to the synthesis and characterization of materials for applications in electronics and electrical engineering. He is member of the editorial board of 3 scientific journals. He is co-author of about 160 papers in journals of Science Citation Index (SCI), 7 books, 16 book chapters and referee in 45 international scientific journals. He has about 400 communications in conferences, being 14 invited plenary talks, about 2000 citations and h factor 23. He participated in 46 I&D projects, being coordinator of 13. He is responsible for the supervising of 53 students, of Bachelor, Master, PhD and PosDoc. He is director of the PhD program in Physics Engineering, member of the Scientific Council of the University of Aveiro and member of the Installation Committee of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Timor Leste. Course Title: Using impedance spectroscopy to characterize materials. Description: Impedance spectroscopy is a very powerful technique to characterize materials. It permits to describe the charge migration and the orientation of permanent dipoles inside them. A large range of frequencies and temperatures must be used, in order to obtain a complete characterization of the dielectric response. The different regimes of the dielectric function can be detected, and the dynamics of the relaxations processes can be found. Impedance spectroscopy provides the measurement of the complex impedance, Z(ω)=Z´(ω)-iZ´´(ω). From this value, it is possible to calculate derived quantities related to it, such as the admittance, Y=Z^-1, that is, Y(ω)=Y´(ω)+iY´´(ω), the complex permittivity, ε(ω)=ε´(ω)-iε´´(ω), and the dielectric modulus, M=ε^-1, M(ω)=M´(ω)+iM. The interrelations between these quantities are simple when it is known the shape and size of the samples where the measurements are made. In this talk, different examples of using impedance spectroscopy to characterize materials are presented, showing the ability of this technique. It offers performances that permit to investigate the fundamental aspects of the electrical properties, yielding a wealth of information about the molecular motions and relaxation processes present in the materials. Several relaxation models are discussed, relating the morphological, structural and dielectric properties of different materials, and the electrical circuits modeling is presented.
	Prof. Marinella Striccoli National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Physical and Chemical Processes, Bari Division, Bari, Italy Short CV Prof. Marinella Striccoli is a Senior Researcher at National Council of Researches - Institute for Physical and Chemical Processes (CNR IPCF) in Bari - Italy. Her expertise covers the optical and morphological characterization of colloidal nanomaterials and hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructures, as well as nanocomposite materials to be used in optoelectronic and energy conversion applications. She has actively worked as PI in several European Projects (H2020 FET, large 7FP EU Projects) and in several National and Regional Projects. In addition, she collaborated in research activities of several National and EU Projects in the field of material science and nanostructures. She is co-author of more than 160 peer-reviewed papers, one patent and 7 book chapters. Course Title: Synthesis and assembly of solution-based nanomaterials towards advanced functionalities. Description: Research on nanomaterials and their technological application is rapidly increasing in the last few years. Currently, colloidal semiconductor quantum dots, lead halide perovskite nanocrystals, metal, metal oxide nanoparticles and heterostructures composed by nanomaterials of different composition or hybrids made associating inorganic nanomaterials and organic molecules are used for application in a plethora of photonic and optoelectronic devices, ranging from commercial TV displays to LEDs, solar cells, miniaturized sensors, biochips, etc. The interest moves from the fact that bulk materials present new and original properties at the nanoscale. In this regime, the electronic structure of materials can be tuned by varying the physical size of the crystal, leading to new phenomena, such as the well-known surface plasmon resonance in metal nanoparticles or the size-dependent band gap of quantum dots, then opening interesting opportunities for device applications. In this scenario, nanoparticles synthesized by solution-based processes can find commercial use as building blocks for inexpensive manufacturing of low cost and large area devices. The synthesis in the presence of surfactants as stabilizers, allows to control in a reproducible manner size, shape and crystalline phase of the nano-objects. Procedures of cation exchange allow the modification of composition after synthesis, while the fabrication of heterostructures with exotic shape and conformations can be driven by a proper choice of precursors and surfactants. In addition, such solution based synthetic strategy allows to obtain NCs functionalized with organic molecules which can be manipulated as macromolecules and modified at room temperature to tune the surface chemistry of NCs. Such approach is widely exploited for the ordered assembly of NPs in thin films where the NPs can be integrated in conventional functional systems or used to manufacture micro/nano devices. Here a summary of the synthetic strategies and the peculiar properties of solution-based nanomaterials will be overviewed, in order to give a panorama of the potentialities of such interesting materials.
	Prof. Mustapha Mabrouki Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni-Mellal, Morocco Short CV Prof. Mustapha Mabrouki is actually Permanent Professor in Sultan Moulay Slimane University. He obtained a doctorate 3rd cycle graduate and state thesis (Thèse d’Etat) from Cadi Ayyad University in 2004. Followed by Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Miami (USA) with Doctor Roger M. LEBLANC in Supramolecular Research Center, he is a professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Technologies Beni Mellal since 1994 and the head and member of the Industrial Engineering Laboratory (LGI). His field of interest is the organic and inorganic materials applied in electronic and optoelectronic areas. His actual work is to understand how the surface is involved in biological adhesion. Professor Mabrouki co-authors more than seventy articles and a hundred papers in national and international conferences. He has participated in several scientific events (conferences, workshops, and meetings) as chairman. He was the chairs of the Third International Symposium on Dielectric Materials and Applications “ISyDMA’2018” (Beni Mellal, Morocco April 17-19, 2018), member or as an organizer. He was also the source of several cooperation projects at national level and international level. He is also a member of many Scientifics associations like European Physical Society (EPS), Moroccan society of Applied Physics (FSSM) Marrakech, and active member in Moroccan society of nanotechnology (MANAT). Course Title: Performance of photovoltaic installations over time case study: FST Beni Mellal. Description: Renewable energies have become a lever for the socio-economic development of several countries. Solar energy is one of the renewable energies that is currently undergoing outstanding development. Photovoltaic energy currently occupies an important place in the renewable energy market, where its annual growth rate quantified at 35% between 2010 and 2019. Solar photovoltaics is expected to be the fastest growing of all renewable energy sources by 2020. In order to meet the expectations of the electricity producers using PV installations in terms of cost-efficiency and reliability, the PV modules must be monitored and maintained. Monitoring makes it possible to analyze the performance of PV installations, and the study of reliability and lifetime allows predicting and avoiding failures in the production sequence. Concretely, consumers are always looking for cheaper products with a high level of reliability and a long-life span. To reassure consumers, the manufacturers of PV modules provide a warranty on the data sheet. They guarantee that the performance does not decrease below 80%, usually during the first 20 years of operation. However, actual operating conditions differ from standard test conditions (STC). Because of this behavior of PV modules, which differs according to weather conditions, the quantification of degradation rates makes it possible to overcome certain constraints in terms of financial and technical risks. Financial risks are associated with the estimation of long-term energy efficiency, particularly due to calculations of the rate of degradation and volatility of solar resources, as reflected in the levelized electricity cost (LCOE) calculations for PV systems. Therefore, it is more accurate to quantify the rate of performance degradation based on actual operating data.
	Prof. Thami Ait-Taleb Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco Short CV Prof. Thami Ait-Taleb has joined the Department of Physics-Chemistry at the Polydiscilinary Faculty of Ouarzazate (Morocco) in 2011. From the Cadi Ayyad University, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Marrakech, (Morocco) he has received his bachelor's degree (Licence) in 1997, and his diploma of advanced higher studies (DESA) in 2001. At the same faculty, he completed his PhD in 2009 in Mechanics and Energy. In 2016, he received the habilitation degree, Specialty: Mechanics and Energy, from National School of Applied Sciences of Agadir, Morocco. His current research interests cover the coupled heat transfers by natural convection, conduction and radiation in different configurations; heat transfer between soil and buildings, solar systems, heat transfer functions for the building elements; natural ventilation of different configurations equipped with solar chimney in different climatic conditions. Course Title: Materials for energy storage. Description: While energy storage technologies do not represent energy resources or energy production, they are becoming an important part of energy supply and utilization infrastructures; they also provide added benefits to improve stability, power quality, and reliability of the energy generation and consumption systems. A great need exists for electrical energy storage, not only for mobile electronic devices such as cell phones and computers, but also for transportation, load-leveling of power grids, and effective commercialization of renewable resources (such as solar and wind power). The purpose of this course is to allow students to have the global vision on the problem of energy storage in its technical, economic and environmental aspects, as well as the different materials used to improve storage capacities. Thus, this course starts with an introduction and basic definitions, the primary and the secondary energy types. We will discuss energy storage techniques including thermal energy storage by sensible and latent heats. Specifications of different energy storage devices will be discussed in terms of stored energy (Wh), maximum power (W), size, weight, initial cost and lifetime.
	Prof. Plamen Petkov University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia, Bulgaria Short CV Prof. Plamen Petkov has received his PhD in physics from University of Chemical Technology, Sofia, Bulgaria. He has worked in postdoc position in I. Physics Institute at Aachen Technological University, Germany, University of Odense, Denmark and University of Bonn, Germany. At present he is a full professor of applied physics at the University of Chemical Technology, head of Physics Department and Thin Film Technology Lab and vice dean of Innovations and scientific projects. Since 2015 he is Chairman of Physics Panel at the Bulgarian National Research Fund. His research activity is mainly devoted to electrical and optical properties of semiconductor materials for various application in the field of electronics and optoelectronics. Course Title: Advanced chalcogenide materials - preparation, characterization and application. Description: Materials play an important role in progress of science and engineering. Throughout the world there is a large need for new types of materials. New materials are necessary because of the limiting of the physical properties of the present materials and increased functionality of the devices. Bulk chalcogenide glasses of Ge-Se(S,Te)-In(Ga,Cu) systems are prepared with melt-quenched technique. The glassy properties – density, microhardness, compactness are determined as a function of the composition. Thermal characteristics: glass transition temperature (Tg), crystallization temperature (Tcr) and melting temperature (Tm) are obtained from the calorimetric investigations. The FIR spectra show reorganization in the glassy network after introduction of the third component (In,Ga or Cu). The main tetrahedral structural units are partially substituted for chain-like structural units due to bonding of the dopants atoms with matrix Se(Te) atoms. The phase transition in Te containing films has been investigated using the temperature dependent sheet resistance method. The dependence of the resistance from the Ga, In or Cu content and temperature has been discussed. The classic optical recording was demonstrated in thin films from selenium containing systems dopant with In. A significant diffraction efficiency was obtained by the film with composition Ge₁₇Se₆₈In₁₅. The sorption properties of thin Ge-S-Ga films on cantilever-based gas sensors upon exposure to water, ethanol, acetone and ammonia vapours was investigated. During the initial experiments with the first three analytes the sensor acted like a resonance microbalance showing the highest sensitivity towards the analyte with the highest molecular weight, i.e. towards acetone. The exposure to ammonia led to modification of the surface of the sensitive layer by chemisorption of the analyte molecules on it. As a result, the sensitivity towards water was increased several times due to the new sites (the chemisorbed NH3 molecules) for interaction with the analyte molecules.
	Prof. Tamara Petkova Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria Short CV Prof. Tamara Petkova completed her PhD in physical chemistry at Central Laboratory of Optical Storage & Processing of Information of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her doctoral thesis is dedicated to new chalcogenide materials as optical storage medium. She won the competion for Research Associate of the Institute of electrochemistry and Energy Systems - BAS. After a postdoctor scholarship at the University of Patra, Greece in the field of solid state physics, she has been promoted and currently she is full professor at Institute of electrochemistry and Energy Systems. She is Head of Solid State Electrolytes department in IEES. The research interests include investigation of amorphous and crystalline materials for application in energy conversation and storage. Course Title: Advanced oxide materials for energy application. Description: Transition metals, when combined with other elements, can form variety of compounds which range in chemical bonding from ionic (oxides), through covalent (sulfide, arsenide) to metallic (carbides, nitrides). This range in valence character promises a great variety of energy band structures and transport processes and offer rich field for theoretical and experimental investigations. Mixed metal oxides have been attracting more attention recently because of their advantages and superiorities, which can improve the electrochemical performance compared to the single metal oxides. These advantages include structural stability, good electronic conductivity, and reversible capacity. Spinels, with the bivalent ions occupying the tetrahedral sites in the cubic spinel structure and trivalent ions occupying the octahedral sites are functional materials used widely in production of catalysts, sorbents, battery materials, sensors etc. The oxides are prepared using various techniques (melt-quenching, sol-gel, hydrothermal, precipitation) and characterized structurally by means of XRD diffraction, IR and XPS spectroscopic techniques. The materials characterizations both physic chemical and electrochemical demonstrate the opportunities of materials application for energy conversion and storage.
	Prof. Cyril Popov Institute of Nanostructure Technologies and Analytics Center for Interdisciplinary Nanostructure Science and Technology, University of Kassel, Germany Short CV Prof. Cyril Popov has received his MSc in Chemical Engineering in 1990 and PhD in 1994 from the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia, Bulgaria. In the period 1995-1997 he was a postdoc at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan and at the Central Laboratory of Photoprocesses, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, working on preparation and investigation of novel materials in the ternary system B-C-N. In 1998 he joined the Institute of Nanostructure Technologies and Analytics (INA), University of Kassel, where at the present he is professor and leader of the Nano Diamond Group. His current research interests cover the deposition, characterization and applications of nano- and ultrananocrystalline diamond films. Course Title: Properties and applications of diamond films. Description: Diamond possesses various unique properties such as extreme hardness, low friction coefficient, chemical inertness, high electrical resistance, excellent thermal conductivity and good biocompatibility. Upon doping it becomes a large band-gap semiconductor with an extremely high breakdown voltage and a high carrier mobility. It is transparent over a wide wavelength range and can withstand high electromagnetic radiation power fluxes from X-ray or laser sources. These outstanding properties make diamond of potential interest for a wide spectrum of applications including wear resistive and transparent protective coatings for optical components, heat spreaders, novel semiconductor devices, etc. However, the diamond coatings prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques are in most cases rough and non-uniform over large areas. The high surface roughness is a major problem, for example, for applications of diamond films as wear resistant or optical coatings, in the latter case it causes attenuation and scattering of the transmitted light. It also hinders the application of polycrystalline diamond films as coatings for bioimplants. A route to overcome the roughness problem is the decrease of the size of the diamond crystallites composing the films, depositing nano- (NCD) and ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films with grain sizes of several hundred nanometers or up to 10 nm, respectively. We have prepared both types of films by hot filament CVD and microwave plasma CVD and investigated comprehensively their basic properties, namely morphology, topography, crystallinity, chemical bonding nature. We have studied also the application relevant properties of the NCD and UNCD coatings: mechanical, optical, electrical and biological. Based on the achieved results diverse applications of these films can be foreseen, some of them will be discussed in the lecture.
	Prof. Mustapha Jouiad University of Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV), Amiens, France Short CV Prof. Mustapha Jouiad is currently professor at the university of Picardie Jules Verne and Laboratory of Physics and Condensed Matters. His focus area is in nanostructured functional materials and advanced characterization. Prof. Mustapha Jouiad obtained his PhD in Materials Science and his Master degree in solid state physics from the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France in 1996 and 1993 respectively. Prior to serving as professor in Materials Science & Engineering program in Masdar Institute, UAE, he worked as postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) and Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL). Recently, Prof Jouiad research interests are related to the development, modification and characterization of nanostructures, 2D materials, oxide perovskites for solar energy harvesting, photocatalysis, photodetectors and gas sensing. Course Title: Nanomaterials engineering for solar energy. Description: The inherent increasing demand in clean energy solutions and new technologies has prompted scientists to custom the materials design and properties for targeted application. Most of the emerging materials such as 0D, 1D and 2D materials that demonstrate promising properties, are complex with more and more reduced dimensions. Special fabrication techniques as well as advanced multiscale characterization in conjunction with modelling, have emerged to make the processing of these materials possible and easily tuneable to meet the targeted application. In this course, examples of nanoengineered materials exhibiting high optical performances that can serve as high-yield photocatalysts for solar energy harvesting or as photodetectors will be tackled with special emphasis to the physics underlaying their performances.
	Prof. Alberto Vomiero Division of Materials Science, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden Short CV Prof. Alberto Vomiero is a chair professor in Experimental Physics at the Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden and chair professor in Industrial Engineering at the Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. He was awarded his PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Trento in 2003 and his Degree in Physics from the University of Padova in 1999. His main interests are in the development of composite nanomaterials for energy and environmental applications, with emphasis on solar cells, luminescent solar concentrators and electrochemical systems for solar fuel production. He is former Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow of the European Commission, Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, of the Swedish Foundations, of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), of the Institute of Physics (UK), of the Institute of Nanotechnology (UK) and other professional Societies, former chair of the Italian section of the American Nano Society and member of the Global Young Academy. He has published more than 250 works in peer-reviewed Journals, which collected more than 11.000 citations (h-index: 59). He has been the chair of the steering committee of the doctoral degree in Science and Technology of Bio and Nanomaterials, a joint initiative of Ca’ Foscari and the Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan. He is associate editor of Nano Energy (Elsevier) and member of the Advisory Board of Small (Wiley). Course Title: Composite nano-systems for energy harvesting. Description: Composite nanostructures can be efficiently applied for Sunlight detection and conversion and, more in general, for energy harvesting and generation of solar fuels. In most of the applied systems, like photodetectors, excitonic solar cells and (photo)-electrochemical cells to produce solar fuels, nanomaterials can play a critical role in boosting photoconversion efficiency by ameliorating the processes of charge photogeneration, exciton dissociation and charge transport. Critical role in such processes is played by the structure and quality of the interface, which needs to be properly assembled to obtain the desired functionality. Several strategies can be pursued to maximize energy harvesting and storage, including broadening of light absorbance to reduce solar light losses, fastening exciton dissociation and charge injection from the photoactive medium to the charge transporting materials, reducing charge recombination during charge transport and collection at the electrodes. In this lecture, a few examples of application of nanocomposites will be discussed, including all-oxide coaxial p-n junction nanowire photodetectors and solar cells, core-shell quantum dot fluorophores for high-efficiency luminescent solar concentrators, composite sulfides for hydrogen generation, and oriented carbon nanotube forest dispersed in polymer matrix as efficient low-temperature thermoelectric composite. Emphasis will be given to the role of interface engineering in improving the efficiency of energy conversion in different systems, spanning from electric power generation from Sunlight, to chemical fuel production, to conversion of heat lost through thermoelectric materials.

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