Prof. Matthew Baker: "Leveraging dynamic interactions for advanced biomaterials"
Maastricht University, Netherlands

Matthew Baker received his B.S. in chemistry (2006) at Clemson University and his PhD in 2012 in Physical Organic Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. Ronald K. Castellano at the University of Florida. After his PhD, he moved to Eindhoven University of Technology to design and characterize water-soluble supramolecular polymers under guidance of Prof. E. W. Meijer. Here he started a foray into regenerative medicine with supramolecular hydrogelators for extracellular matrix (ECM) mimics. In 2015, he joined the MERLN institute at Maastricht University to develop polymeric and supramolecular materials for tissue engineering and started the BioMatt group as assistant professor in 2017. His research interests include the synthesis and characterization of novel and dynamic materials to mimic the cellular environment and to influence cellular behavior. Of particular interest is the use of reversible supramolecular interactions (e.g. host-guest, supramolecular polymers, hydrogen bonding) to build these materials, the use of fabrication technologies (e.g. 3D printing) to create relevant 3D tissue constructs, and the design of biomimetic mechanophores.

Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini: "Advances in Bioactive Materials and Biofabrication: from Bone Tissue Engineering to Soft Tissue Repair"
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Aldo R. Boccaccini is Professor of Biomaterials and Head of the Institute of Biomaterials at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He is also Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. His research activities are in the broad area of glasses, ceramics and composites for biomedical applications. He has pioneered the use of bioactive composite scaffolds incorporating bioactive glasses for tissue engineering. Boccaccini has co-authored more than 850 scientific papers. His work has been cited more than 43,000 times (h-index = 92, Scopus®, h-index = 108, Google Scholar®) and he was included in the “Highly Cited Researchers” list (Clarivate Analytics) in 2014 and 2018. Boccaccini is a Fellow of four international organizations: the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (UK), the American Ceramic Society, the Society of Glass Technology (UK) and the European Ceramic Society. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Materials Letters” and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Open Access journal “Biomedical Glasses”. Boccaccini has received numerous international awards, including the Materials Science Prize of German Materials Society and Turner Award of International Commission on Glass. He is also a member of the World Academy of Ceramics, and the National Academy of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Germany. A native from Argentina, Boccaccini is an advisor to Argentina’s Science and Technology Ministry. He serves also in the Executive Committee of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) (since 2016) and in the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) (since 2015).

Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna: "Future of Biomaterials- Intelligent Biomaterials"
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, FREng, FBSE, Everest Chair (https://www.linkedin.com/in/seeram-ramakrishna/; https://blog.nus.edu.sg/seeram/) is a recognized top researcher in Materials Science at the National University of Singapore. He is also among the five leading researchers of Singapore (http://www.webometrics.info/en/hlargerthan100; https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-afternoons-work-analysis-scientific-output-scientists-loh/?trackingId=trackingId237). He is listed among the top three scientists of the world in Biomedical Engineering based on career-long impact of researchers or c-score. Thomson Reuters identified him among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. His Google Scholar shows over 120,500 citations, 160 h-index, and over 1010 i10 index. Clarivate Analytics recognized him among the Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in the world in materials science as well as cross-fields categories. Microsoft Academic ranked him among the top 50 out of three million materials researchers worldwide based on saliency, publications, citations and h-index. He received PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is an elected Fellow of UK Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng); Singapore Academy of Engineering; Indian National Academy of Engineering; and ASEAN Academy of Engineering & Technology. He is also an elected Fellow of American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS); ASM International; American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME); American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE); Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IMechE and Institution of Materials, Minerals & Mining, IoM3, UK; ISTE, India; and International Union of Biomaterials Science & Engineering (FBSE). He is senior member of IEEE. He co-authored books An Introduction to Biomaterials Science & Engineering; Medical Devices- Standards, Regulations and Practices; Biomaterials- A Nano Approach; and An Introduction to Bio-composites. He is the Biomaterials Section Editor of Elsevier Journal Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering. He is an editorial board member of Springer NATURE Scientific Reports, and BMC Biomedical Engineering. He is an Associate Editor of eScience journal. He is a plenary speaker at 6^th Euro BioMAT 2021. He teaches Materials in Medicine course to the graduate students. 

Dr. Ulyana Shimanovich: "Self-assembled protein-based biomaterials"
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Ulyana Shimanovich is a group leader in the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science, Faculty of Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her interests focus on better understanding the structure-property relationship in protein-based materials, which would potentially broaden our understanding of and influence the development of therapeutic approaches for human diseases. She obtained her PhD degree in 2013 at Bar-Ilan University. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. In 2016 she joined the Weizmann Institute of Science as a Senior Scientist (eqvivalent to Assistant Professor).