Pierangelo Metrangolo, Chair
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Pierangelo Metrangolo (Lecce, 16 April 1972) is full professor at the Politecnico di Milano since 2011. He also holds a part-time position at the VTT-Technical Research Centre of Finland and from 2015 he is visiting professor at the Aalto University, Finland. He is Co-editor of Acta Crystallogr. B and sits in the Editorial Board of CrystEngComm and in the Editorial Advisory Board of Cryst. Growth Des. He is author of 185 publications with 9266 citations (h-index: 49), 10 chapters in international books, and holds 11 patents. He has given 45 invited lectures at national and international meeting and 26 invited seminars at universities and research institutes. He is currently Titular Member of the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division of the IUPAC. Since 2013 he is the holder of an European Research Council grant to carry with the project “FOLDHALO – Folding with Halogen Bonding”.
Christer B Aakeröy, Associate editor
Kansas State University, USA
Accomplishments: Kansas State University Distinguished Professor. Recipient of the 2016 BCA Prize Lecture; KSU Presidential Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching 2011; Making a Difference Award from the “Women in Engineering and Science Program” at KSU 2006; Segebrecht Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award 2003; Member of the Board of Trustees for the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre 2009-current; Published over 150 articles and delivered over seventy invited presentations at international conferences including twelve plenary/keynote lectures.
What we do and why it matters: We are examining the way in which molecules recognize and bind to each other, and how they communicate and subsequently assemble into solid-state architectures. By mapping out the structural landscape that different molecules inhabit, we can fine-tune and improve physical properties and performance of a range of specialty chemicals such as pharmaceutical compounds, agrochemicals and energetic materials.
Susan Bourne
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Susan Bourne is the Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cape Town. Her PhD, obtained at the University of Cape Town, was a study of organic inclusion compounds undertaken under the supervision of Professor Luigi Nassimbeni. Her research interests include the application of physicochemical methods to inclusion compounds and crystal engineering of metal-organic materials, all with the aim of correlating solid-state structure with physical properties and reactivity. She has published over 120 papers and has supervised 20 postgraduate students. She is the chair of the Structural Chemistry Commission of the International Union of Crystallography, and is a Fellow of the University of Cape Town.
Rahul Banerjee, Associate editor
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India
Rahul Banerjee received his PhD degree from University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad in 2006 under the supervision of Prof. Gautam R. Desiraju. After a postdoctoral work in UCLA with Prof. Omar M. Yaghi (2006-2008), he joined CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India in 2008 as a Scientist. He joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata in September 2017. His research interests include the study of structural chemistry with the flavor of chemical synthesis to design new materials for hydrogen storage, carbon sequestration and catalysis. Additionally, his group is also engaged in design and synthesis of lightweight materials for storage, capture and proton conduction. Prof. Banerjee is an editorial board member and associate editor of CrystEngComm. He has also served as a co-editor of Acta Crystallographica Section E in 2011-2012. Prof. Banerjee has been invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013 in recognition of his significant contribution to Chemical Science and, in particular, to his work on the board of CrystEngComm. He has published more than 100 papers and one book chapter since 2003.
Omar Farha
Northwestern University, USA
Omar K. Farha is an associate professor of chemistry at Northwestern University, Distinguished Adjunct Professor at King Abdulaziz University, president of NuMat Technologies, and Associate Editor for ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. His research accomplishments have been recognized by several awards and honors including the Royal Society of Chemistry “Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division Early Career” Award; the American Chemical society “The Satinder Ahuja Award for Young Investigators in Separation Science; and an award established by the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in his honor: the Omar Farha Award for Research Leadership “awarded for stewardship, cooperation and leadership in the finest pursuit of research in chemistry” and given annually to an outstanding research scientist working in the department. His current research spans diverse areas of chemistry and materials science ranging from energy to defense related challenges. Specifically, his research focuses on the rational design of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous-organic polymers for sensing, catalysis, storage, separations and light harvesting. Prof. Farha has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, holds 13 patents, and has been named a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thomson Reuters in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Georg Garnweitner, Associate editor
TU Braunschweig, Germany
Prof. Dr. G. Garnweitner performed his studies on Technical Chemistry at Vienna University of Technology (Austria). In 2005, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in Colloids Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam (Germany) for his work on the Nonaqueous synthesis and formation mechanisms of transition metal oxide nanoparticles. Since 2007, he works at the Institute for Particle Technology, Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany), where he first held a Junior Professor position, and was appointed Full Professor in 2013. His research interests include the tailored synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles, the stabilisation and surface modification of nanoparticles, and the development of novel applications, specifically in the fields of nanocomposites and functional nanoparticle-based thin films.
Dongfeng Xue, Associate editor
Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, China
Dongfeng Xue is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry. He received his PhD in inorganic chemistry at CIAC in 1998. Following postdoctoral studies at the Universität Osnabrück, University of Ottawa and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, he was promoted to Professor in 2001 at Dalian University of Technology, China. In 2011, he returned to CIAC to assume his professorship in inorganic chemistry. His research interests focus on multiscale crystallization of inorganic matter for energy and optical applications.
Tong-Bu Lu
Tianjin University of Technology, China
Tong-Bu Lu, Tong-Bu Lu was born in 1964. He graduated in Chemistry from Lanzhou University in 1993, and then moved to Sun Yat-Sen University as a Postdoctor. He joined to the Faculty member in the same University, and became Professor of Chemistry in 2000. He moved to Tianjing University of Technology in 2016. He worked as a postdoctor in F. Albert Cotton’s group at Texas A&M University in 1998 and 2002, respectively. His research interest is crystal engineering, including macrocyclic chemistry, MOFs and pharmaceutical polymorphs and cocrystals. Currently he focuses on the study on homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for water splitting and CO2 reduction. He obtained the National Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Youth Scholar in 2006. He has over 200 scientific publications with H-index of 43. Now, he is a fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of CrystEngComm, Current Green Chemistry, Current Pharmaceutical Design, and co-editor of the Journal of Acta C.
