Co-Chairs
Prof Lan Fu
The Australian National University
Professor Lan Fu is Head of the Department of Electronic Materials Engineering at the Research School of Physics, Australian National University. Her research focuses on the design, fabrication, and integration of optoelectronic devices, including LEDs, lasers, photodetectors and solar cells, as well as chemical sensors based on low-dimensional III-V compound semiconductor nanostructures, such as quantum wells, self-assembled quantum dots, and nanowires grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). She is a Fellow of Optica and a past recipient of several prestigious awards, including the IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship and Distinguished Lecturer Award, and the Australian Research Council Postdoctoral, ARF/QEII, and Future Fellowships. She currently serves as Chair of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee on Materials Science and Engineering, President of the Australian Materials Research Society (A-MRS), and Chair of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council Chapters & Regional Activities Committee.
Prof Debra Bernhardt
The University of Queensland
Professor Debra Bernhardt is internationally recognised for her contributions to the development of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and thermodynamics including far-from-equilibrium fluids and confined fluids. She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow. Professor Bernhardt has held appointments at the University of Basel, Switzerland; the Australian National University; and Griffith University, where she was founding director of the Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre. Professor Bernhardt’s research interests focus on the use of a range of theoretical and computational approaches to develop a fundamental understanding of the behaviour of matter, and application of these approaches to a wide range of problems including transport in nanopores, fluctuation phenomena, design of materials, gas separation, energy storage and conversion.
Prof Stefan Maier
Monash University Clayton Campus
Professor Stefan Maier graduated with a PhD in Applied Physics from Caltech. He has since held academic positions at the University of Bath, Imperial College London, the University of Munich, and Monash University. Currently, he is Head of School Physics and Astronomy at Monash, and the Lee-Lucas Chair in Experimental Physics at Imperial College London. His research lies in the area of nanophotonics, particularly for imaging and energy conversion. Stefan was elected as Fellow into the Australian Academy of Science in 2026.
Prof Lianzhou Wang
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Professor Lianzhou Wang is Global STEM Chair Professor of Energy Materials at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on semiconductor nanomaterials and nanocomposites for clean energy conversion and storage, including solar fuel production, rechargeable batteries, and next-generation solar cells. He has published over 650 journal papers, holds >20 patents, and has been recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher numerous times. Professor Wang is a former Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and Academia Europaea.