Scientific Program

Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech republic

Senior group leader at IOCB Prague. He studied MSc at the University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, PhD at St. Andrews University, United Kingdom and postdoc at the University of Southern California, United States. Since 2007 he is a research group leader at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Prague. He is a recipient of Alfred Bader Prize in organic chemistry (2013) and Royal Chemical Society Fluorine Prize (2017). His research interests are methodology development in organofluorine chemistry and the chemistry of main group elements, investigation of reactive intermediates (nitrenes, carbenes, carbanions, radicals) and reaction mechanisms.

University of Oxford, UK

Véronique Gouverneur secured a PhD in chemistry at the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN, Belgium) under the supervision of Prof. L. Ghosez. In 1992, she moved to a postdoctoral position with Prof. R. Lerner at the Scripps Research Institute (California, USA). She accepted a position of Maître de Conférence at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France); during this period, she worked with Dr C. Mioskowski and was Associate Member of the “Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires” led by Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn.

Véronique started her independent research career at the University of Oxford in 1998 in the the Department of Chemistry and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2008. Since her appointment in Oxford, she has held a tutorial fellowship at Merton College Oxford, where she taught organic chemistry. Since 2022, she is the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry (Magdalen College). Her research aims at developing new approaches to address long-standing problems in the synthesis of fluorinated molecules including pharmaceutical drugs and probes for molecular imaging (Positron Emission Tomography), and a new programme on sustainability and circularity. She has coordinated European ITN projects and received funding from numerous bodies including two ERC Advanced Grants (2019–2024 and 2025–2029). She is the (co)author of >230 peer-reviewed publications and 10 patents.

Her research has been disseminated at numerous conferences and rewarded by multiple prizes and distinctions, including the 2015 ACS Award for Creative work in Fluorine Chemistry, the 2016 RSC Tilden Prize, the 2016 Tetrahedron Chair, the 2019 RSC Organic Stereochemistry Award, the 2019 Prelog Medal, the 2021 Henri Moissan Prize, the 2022 Arthur C. Cope Award, the 2022 EuChemS Female Organic Chemist of the Year Award, the 2024 Prous Institute - Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery and the 2024 Davy Medal.

Véronique has also been elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) in 2017, Fellow of the Royal Society in 2019 and International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022.

Politechnico di Milano, Italy

Pierangelo Metrangolo is full professor of chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” of Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he is also Rector’s Delegate for Sport Activities. He is also Affiliate Member at the International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (WPI-SKCM2) of the Hiroshima University in Japan. His awards include the 2005 ‘‘G. Ciamician’’ medal of the Italian Chemical Society, the 2005 Journals Grant Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the 2009 IUPAC Young Chemist Award, the Fluorous Technologies Award 2019, and the 2021 “G. Modena” medal of the Italian Chemical Society, among others. He is currently the Immediate Past-President of the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division (I) of the IUPAC. He is also Co-Editor of Acta Crystallogr. B (IUCr), and member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Cryst. Growth Des. (ACS), the J. Fluorine Chem. (Elsevier), and Sci. Rep. (Nature). He is co-author of 280 international peer-reviewed publications with 26182 citations (H-index: 69) and holds 6 granted patents and 11 patent applications. In 2013 and 2018 he received two grants from the European Research Council for studying the relevance of biomolecular halogen bonds. His research interests include nanomedicine, green chemistry and sustainable development, supramolecular chemistry, crystal engineering, fluorine chemistry and biomimetic materials. In particular, his work focuses on the study of the self-assembly properties of halogenated hydrocarbons and their interactions with biomolecules for applications in the field of functional materials, environmental chemistry, and nanomedicine.

Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, China

Feng-Ling Qing obtained his doctoral degree in 1990 from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1992 to 1995, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Wyeth Research in the United States. In 1997, he was promoted to professor at SIOC of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 1999 to 2009, he served as the director of Key Laboratory of Organofluorine Chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since 2023, he has been serving as the director of the State Key Laboratory of Fluorine and Nitrogen Chemistry and Advanced Materials at SIOC, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2000 to 2022, he was a professor at Donghua University. He was selected as Cheung Kong Scholar Professor by the Ministry of Education of China in 2001, received the Distinguished Young Scholars Fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2003, and was awarded the National Natural Science Award (2nd class) in 2019. His research focuses on organofluorine chemistry and fluorinated materials. Since starting independent research in 1995, he has published over 320 research papers.

Dexyan Global, USA Comeall Technology, China

Dr.Dexi Weng earned a Ph.D. Degree from New York University in Polymer Science. He earned a bachelor degree from Harbin University of Science and Technology in Electronics Engineering. He earned an MBA degree from Northeastern University. He is one of the founders for Dexyan Global Poly Research Institute and All-Optical Network Global Consortium, all in USA and Comeall (Shanghai) Technology CO., Ltd.

He has been developing & promoting perfluorinated polymer based Gi-POF (graded index polymer optical fiber) technology for super-high speed data communications and all optical networks (AON).  He proposed English words, FIBER, OPTICAL, and OPTICALize as verbs, & OPTICALization as noun derived thereof to conceptualize, lead and encourage the on-going paradigm shift from ELECTRONic to PHOTONic means/ways in data world in an effort to further improve performance in big-data world.  OPTICALization is categorized into 5 phases which are concurrently being carried out all-over the world: 1) Data Transmission Media, 2) Data Ports, 3) Data Interconnects, 4) Data Processing/computing and 5) Data Visualization/Feedback.  Chemistry plays a vital part in the data OPTICALization. 

In this talk, Dr. WENG will present the concept of OPTICALization, technologies and Fluorine Chemistry’s role therein, market prospects in USA and China.

Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Engineering, University of Kansas, USA

Mark B. Shiflett is a Distinguished Foundation Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Kansas (KU). He is the director of the new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center – EARTH, which stands for Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub.  He is also the director of the Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Engineering at KU and the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Ionic Liquids.  He is also cofounder and Chief Science Officer for two companies, Icorium Engineering Company and Pvera Tech, LLC.  Professor Shiflett joined KU as a Foundation Professor in August 2016 after retiring from the DuPont Company.  Professor Shiflett worked for DuPont for 28 years and was a Technical Fellow in the Central Research and Development organization which is located at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. Professor Shiflett was also an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Professor Shiflett received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2001 and 1998. He received his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from N.C. State University in 1989. Professor Shiflett is an inventor on 48 U.S. patents and has published 150 articles with over 10,000 citations on his research in both academia and DuPont. He was awarded the DuPont Bolton Carothers award in 2005, the ACS Hero of Chemistry award in 2006, and the University of Delaware presidential citation in 2007 for his development of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant mixtures to replace chlorofluorocarbons, which were linked to the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer. Professor Shiflett was elected in 2014 to be a Fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, in 2016 to be a Division Fellow in the American Chemical Society, and in 2018 to be a Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors for his significant professional accomplishments and contributions to the chemical engineering profession. Professor Shiflett received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Institute award for Industrial Research in 2016 for the development of non-ozone-depleting refrigerants, which have led to the healing of the Earth’s ozone layer, new applications using ionic liquids, and mentoring and educating chemical engineers.  Professor Shiflett is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Delaware and his research at KU focuses on developing sustainable processes and products. To learn more about Professor Shiflett and his research group you can visit their website: https://shiflettresearch.com.

Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

Florian Kraus studied chemistry at the universities of Regensburg, Germany, and San Diego, USA, and finished in 2003 with his diploma and in 2005 with his Ph.D. thesis. Starting his own research in the field of inorganic fluorine chemistry in 2006 at the Technische Universität München, he obtained the venia legendi in 2011. In 2014 he moved to Philipps-Universität Marburg as a Heisenberg full professor of inorganic chemistry.

Kraus focuses on inorganic solid-state fluorine chemistry and uranium chemistry. His current research interests are in basic science: chemistry of the highly reactive halogen fluorides XF3, and XF5 (X = Cl, Br); Mn(IV)-based fluoride phosphors such as K2SiF6:Mn; chemistry with fluorine plasma and the metal hexafluorides MF6; dry chemistry recycling of platinum and coinage metal compounds; chemistry of thorium and uranium; chemistry in water-like solvents such as NH3, BrF3, HCN, HF, and SO2.

He serves on the boards of the GDCh's Division of Solid-State Chemistry and Materials Research and the Fluorine Chemistry Working Group, is a DFG Review Board Member for Inorganic Solid State Chemistry and Materials Synthesis, and is a member of the DFG-Leopoldina Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Related Research.

Newcastle University, UK

Matthew Hopkinson studied chemistry at the University of Oxford (UK) and conducted doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Véronique Gouverneur on gold-catalysed coupling reactions and novel fluorination methodologies for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. During this time, he was funded by a CASE award from GlaxoSmithKline and at various times conducted research at their Clinical Imaging Centre (CIC) in London. For his postdoctoral studies, he moved to the group of Prof. Frank Glorius at the WWU Münster in Germany, where he was awarded a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation. His research there focused on transition-metal and photocatalysis, specialising in methodology development using visible light as an energy source. In 2016, he started his independent career at the Freie Universität Berlin as a Junior Professor before moving back to the UK in 2021 to take up his current position as a Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at Newcastle University. His group works on synthetic methodology development focusing on organofluorine chemistry, organocatalysis and photochemistry.

Universität Bielefeld, Germany

Currently, Berthold Hoge holds the position of Professor (W2) at the University of Bielefeld. Prior to this role, he served as a Lecturer at the University of Cologne from 2004 to 2009 and as a Visiting Lecturer at the Technical University of Aachen between 2004 and 2005. He completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Aachen between 1998 and 2004, where he conducted research on "Strategies for the synthesis of chiral, bidentate bis(perfluoroorganyl)phosphane ligands" under the supervision of Prof. D. Naumann at the University of Cologne. Before that, he completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Southern California, working on "Synthesis and properties of hypervalent halogen oxides and oxide fluorides" with Prof. K. O. Christe from 1997 to 1998.

He earned his PhD in 1997 at the University of Wuppertal, focusing on "Synthesis and properties of fluoroalkyl derivatives of cadmium, copper, and silver," under the guidance of Prof. R. Eujen. His academic foundation was laid during his Master’s studies at the University of Wuppertal, where he researched the "Synthesis and NMR spectroscopic characterization of difluoromethyl derivatives of tin and cadmium" with Prof. R. Eujen, and during his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the same institution from 1988 to 1994.

Freie University of Berlin, Germany

Professor Beate Koksch received her diploma in Chemistry and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Leipzig. She pursued her postdoc as a DFG research fellow in the laboratories of Professors M R Ghadiri and C F Barbas, III at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California. In 2000, she started her independent career under the mentorship of Professor Dr K Burger at the University of Leipzig. Since 2004, she is professor of organic and natural product chemistry at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her group studies complex folding mechanisms that occur in neurodegenerative diseases, develops new multivalent scaffolds and investigates the impact of fluorine on amino acids, proteins and bacterial cells. For her contributions to fluorine chemistry at the interface of chemistry and biology as well as protein science and engineering she received the ACS Award for Creativity in Fluorine Chemistry 2021.

Kyoto University, Japan

He studied chemistry at Kyoto University where he received his PhD degree in 2004. He extended his research areas as a postdoc at Aichi Institute of Technology, McMaster University, and Kyoto University. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 2010 at Kyoto University and was promoted Associate Professor in 2015. His research interests are in inorganic fluorine chemistry and electrochemistry including structural characterization of new chemical species, synthesis and application of ionic liquids, and evaluation of electrolyte and electrode materials for electrochemical devices and processes.

Institut Charles Sadron (UPR 22) University of Strasbourg, France

Marie Pierre Krafft’s research focusses on the design, engineering and investigation of fluorocarbon-promoted molecular self-assemblies, colloids and interfaces, including nanoemulsions, microbubbles, micelles and vesicles, life-mimicking active droplets, microfluidic droplets, and fluorocarbon-based therapeutics. She is also concerned with PFAS-related environmental remediation issues, including remediation of heavily polluted sites. She published over 200 papers, holds 12 patents, delivered over 100 invited lectures in International Meetings. She received Awards from the French Académie des Sciences, Chemical Society of Japan, Fluorous Technology Committee, is a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science and sits on the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports and of Frontiers in Soft Matter. She led several projects with potential benefits for the society in the medical field and in material science that were supported by the European Commission, National Agency for Research, CNRS-Innovation and by Industry (Areva, Superbranche, TotalEnergies).

University College Dublin, Irland

Cormac studied biochemistry at Queen’s University Belfast (1994) followed by a PhD investigating biological fluorination and defluorination in Streptomyces cattleya (1998).  After postdoctoral work in Dalhousie University, Canada and St Andrew’s University, Scotland he was appointed as an assistant lecturer in the Department of Industrial Microbiology in University College Dublin.  He is currently a professor in the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and is the Head of School.  His research investigates biotransformation of fluorinated xenobiotic compounds such as PFAS in microorganisms, in particular the fungus Cunninghamella elegans.