Prof. Michel Armand, born in France and educated in France and USA, he owns a Master in inorganic, organic chemistry and physical chemistry (Paris 1968); Ph.D. in Physics (1978); Fullbright Fellow in 1970. He has been Directeur de Recherche at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) since 1989, Invited senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1982-1983). Professor at University of Montreal (Canada) (1995-2004). Director of the Joint CNRS-UdM International Laboratory on Electroactive Materials (2000-2004). Resumed as Directeur de Recherche at CNRS in Amiens (France). Prof. Armand joined CIC energiGUNE in 2011 as part of the Scientific Committee of the Power Storage; Batteries and Supercaps area while leading the creation of the Polymer Electrolyte research group, currently at the top of European Research on Solid State Batteries. With an h-index of 67 and over 66000 citations, Prof. Armand is acting or has acted as Editorial Board for several journals (Solid-State Ionics, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, Synthetic Metals, J. Power Sources) and Conferences advisory committee and organisation for several international conferences. The Scientific Distinctions and Awards received include both Bronze and Silver Medals from C.N.R.S. (1978, 1989); Royal Society, Faraday Division, Medal Award (1985); Preis fur Umweltteknologie Saarland Länder (1988); Battery Division Award, The Electrochemical Society USA (1988); Pergamon Medal, International Society for Electrochemistry (1995); Volta Award ECS European Section (2000), first recipient; Doctor Honoris Causa from Uppsala University (2006); Galileo Award for polymer electrolytes research (2010); International Senior Researcher, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2011); Aymé Poirson Prize, French Academy of Sciences (2012); Catalan - Sabatier Real Sociedad Española de Química Prize (2012) and Doctor Honoris Causa University from Deakin University (2016). JES Focus Issue on Challenges in Novel Electrolytes, Organic Materials, and Innovative Chemistries for Batteries in Honor of Michel Armand, the Electrochemical Society, (2020).

Dr. Deschamps has more than 30 years’ experience in lithium battery field. He received his PhD of electrochemistry at Grenoble University in 1995 studying “Contribution to the study of the carbon-lithium electrode with polymer electrolyte”.  After his PhD, he spent around 3 years in Japan for Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation working on the development of new liquid electrolytes for Li-ion batteries. He joined Bolloré in 1999 and is the leader of the electrochemical group since. He develops and enhances the Lithium Metal Polymer Battery (LMP) for Bolloré, Batscap and BlueSolutions (Bolloré’s subsidiary companies). In 2011 the LMP became the first all solid secondary battery with Lithium Metal entering the mobility market (blue Car and blue Bus). He has strong knowledge on raw materials, battery design and on battery optimizations for applications. He also participates actively for the tuning of all solid process. He is author of more than 30 patents.

Professor Edström coordinates EU Large-Scale Research Initiative BATTERY 2030+ CSA and the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre (ÅABC). She is professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research comprises studies of lithium-ion batteries but also new battery chemistries and systems. She has published more than 250 scientific papers and she has an H-index of 57. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, honorary doctor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU, and 2018 she received the grand prize from the Royal Institute of Technology KTH. She is since 2019 a Wallenberg Scholar.

Pilar González has a degree in Physical Sciences from the UAM, was number one in her class and has almost 20 years of professional experience in the energy sector. She has been working at IBERDROLA for more than 10 years, where she is currently the Head of Energy Storage within the Innovation, Quality and Sustainability Department. Within IBERDROLA she has developed different functions and has worked, among others, in the CEO´s cabinet and in the International Management of IBERDROLA. She is one of IBERDROLA´s leading experts in energy storage systems and has been a member of the Technical Committee of the European Storage Association (EASE) since 2016. Pilar González is CIC energiGUNE’s Foundation President.

Dr Xiaoxi He is a Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx. Since joining in 2014, she has been conducting technology scouting and bench-marking, doing market research and analysis, providing player assessment and evaluation and offering business insights and opinions on emerging technologies. Xiaoxi has helped multiple customers to understand their technology capabilities for existing and various emerging markets, as well as to find out potential commercial opportunities and strategies.

Xiaoxi obtained her PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. Prior to that, she completed her MSc at the University of Ulm (Germany) on advanced materials and her BSc degree in physics at Shandong University (China).

Xiaoxi is the lead analyst covering energy storage at IDTechEx and she is based in Cambridge UK.

• 2020 – present: AVL List GmbH (Graz)
• Skill Team Leader Systems Engineering and Cell Technology at Battery Development
• 2018 – 2020: Head of Quality Management for HV Battery Systems and Control Units
• 2016 – 2018: Senior Project Management for Battery Management Control Units and integrated E/E Junction Box.
• 2013 – 2016: Quality Management for Motor-ECU´s (incl. SW, HW and Mechanics)
• 2007 – 2013: Head of R&D at E²MS supplier with main focus on Automotive developments
• 2004 – 2007: SW-Development and Project management at E²MS supplier
• 2000-2004: SW-Development and Project management for Motor ECU´s for diesel engines

Roberto Pacios is the Technology Coordinator of the Electrochemical Energy Storage area of CIC energiGUNE as well as the responsible for the research groups of Cell prototyping and Post-Mortem Analysis, and Battery Ageing.
He has had experience in several fields including microelectronics, photovoltaics and energy storage.

He has coordinated research national and european projects with individual budgets over 500k€. He also has strong experience on transferring newly developed technologies to industrial products and services supported by private and public funding.

He has an h-index of 20 with 36 publications and over 2300 citations. He has also supervised 3 PhD thesis.

Dr Felix H. Richter is a junior research group leader in Physical Chemistry, Materials Science and Characterization in the group of Prof. Jürgen Janek at the Center for Materials Research and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Justus-Liebig-University Gießen. He started investigating hybrid electrolytes for solid-state batteries in 2014 in the group of Prof. Peter Bruce at the University of St Andrews and the University of Oxford. In 2017, he moved to the group of Prof. Jürgen Janek. He is particularly interested in concepts that bridge the properties of inorganic materials and polymers. Currently, the Richter workgroup specializes in analyzing the fundamental transport mechanisms of ions across the interfaces of different battery components and the development of hybrid approaches for solid-state batteries. In March 2020, he received the NanoMatFutur funding by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research on the topic of Solid-State Batteries with Lithium Metal and Polymer Protective Coatings.

Steve Visco is an internationally recognized expert in lithium batteries and fuel cells. Dr. Visco currently holds over 100 U.S. patents, more than 200 international patents and has authored close to 100 journal articles, as well as books, monographs and other publications. He has successfully raised $45M in government contracts and grant awards, serves on numerous scientific committees and panel, and directed research leading to recognition of PolyPlus by TIME magazine and a Gold Edison Award in 2012. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a Ph.D in Chemistry from Brown University, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California in Santa Barbara before joining the staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2013 Dr. Visco was selected by the City of Berkeley for a “Visionary Award” for his work in next generation batteries. Steve also serves on the Technical Advisory Boards for the Conrad Foundation and CIC energiGUNE and was awarded the 2011 International Battery Association Award for “Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Lithium-Air and Lithium-Water Batteries.” In May 2015 Dr. Visco was elected a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

Dr. Frederik Vorholt is a Senior Expert at TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH. He received his PhD at the Institute of Production Engineering and Logistics at the University of Kassel studying "Climatically and electrically induced degradation of current-carrying bonded joints". Since joining the Digitalization of Transport & Electromobility division of TÜV Rheinland Consulting GmbH in 2017, he has supported public authorities in the approval, monitoring and review of publicly funded research and development projects in the fields of transportation and digital data-based applications for mobility. As Deputy Head of Accompanying Research on Battery Cell Production, Frederik coordinates the associated project-related activities of TÜV Rheinland Consulting, analyzes developments in the vehicle and battery market, and supports knowledge transfer, community building and stakeholder dialogs.