Dr. Parvez Alam
The University of Edinburgh, UK
Speech Title: Architects of Matter: Designing Materials with Unique Mechanical Properties and Behaviours
Parvez Alam is a Reader in Mechanical Engineering at The University of Edinburgh. He also holds Adjunct Professorships at AAU, Finland and at UGM, Indonesia. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and a Chartered Mechanical Engineer. His activities and interests are in the fields of biomimetic design, mechanical metamaterials and composites engineering. He researches a number of different biological organisms from a structure-properties perspective, and is active in developing mechanical materials and multi-body systems.
Prof. Heechae Choi
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Speech Title: Theory model and simulation of photochemical reactions and catalysis of semiconductor heterointerfaces and grain boundaries
Dr. Heechae Choi is a professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He previously spent several years at the University of Cologne, Germany, where he launched his independent academic career as one of only 13 recipients of the prestigious MOPGA-GRI Fellowship (2018–2022). Prior to his academic work in Germany, he founded two venture companies, Virtual Lab Inc. and Materials Lab, providing materials simulation platforms and consulting services to leading manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, 3M, SK, and MiCo.
Prof. Choi has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 32, Google Scholar, June 2025) and has led numerous industry-focused projects in theory-driven materials processing, including Apple iPhone antenna materials, Samsung capacitor lifetime, network devices, electrostatic chucks, ceramic heaters, and artificial diamond fabrication. His research interests span semiconductor processing, multi-scale simulations, photochemistry, fundamentals of catalytic reactions with electromagnetism and fluid dynamics considerations, and simulation platforms for functional materials manufacturing.
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Prof. Ting Liao
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Speech Title: Coordination Engineering in Nanomaterials Design for Energy Applications
Ting is a tenured Associate Professor in QUT’s School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering. She received her PhD in 2009 from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since then, she has been awarded four Research Fellows and has worked at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science, The University of Queensland, Australia, and University of Wollongong, Australia. In 2017, she joined QUT as Senior Lecturer and ARC Future Fellow, and in the second year she was promoted to Associate Professor. Ting has received honorary positions, such as the Editorial Board Member (Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group) and Guest Editor (Sustainable Materials and Technologies, Elsevier Publisher). Her current research interests include theoretical design of nanomaterials in targeted energy applications including photovoltaic, nanocatalytic and energy conversion and storage.
Her research has been focusing on computational design of low-dimensional materials in diverse energy applications, including photovoltaics, catalysis and energy storage. Inspired from the uniqueness of theoretical computation in providing useful insights into experimental phenomena, and the ability to predict new materials, Ting began designing novel nanomaterials not yet in existence, but are expected to be created with the advancement of technology.
