Keynote/Invited Speakers

Note to keynote/invited speakers and presentations

Presentations must be loaded in the central computer room 15 minutes before the start of the corresponding session.

Keynotes

Prof. Elisabeth Engel

Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies

Dr. Elisabeth Engel got her PhD in 2003 in bone metabolism diseases in medical school. She was awarded with a postdoc fellow from the Ministry of Science at the Technical University of Catalonia in Biomaterials for bone tissue regeneration and since 2010 has been professor at this university. She was appointed principal investigator of the group of Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies at IBEC in September 2012. The research conducted in the last 10 years brings together basic research and a strong effort in transference and translation, with several projects in collaboration with pharma and industry partners. The combination of the materials and controlled manufacturing processes has allowed the development of new customized biodegradable systems for different clinical applications such as ophthalmology, nervous system, skin, tendon, bone and cardiac tissue. Prof. Engel has published around 80 papers in JRC journals and many invited lectures, and received an award for technological research (Barcelona City Award).

Prof. Daniel J Kelly

Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Daniel Kelly is Professor at Trinity College Dublin and former director of the Trinity Centre for Biomedical Engineering (TCBE). He is also one of the founding Principal Investigators of the Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) centre based in Dublin. Prof Kelly has been a recipient of a Science Foundation Ireland President of Ireland Young Researcher Award, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar grant (at the Department of Biomedical Engineering in Columbia University, New York) and three European Research Council awards (Starter grant 2010; Consolidator grant 2015; Proof of Concept grant 2017). His research focuses on developing novel tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting strategies to regenerate damaged and diseased musculoskeletal tissues. To date he has published over 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Amir A Zadpoor

Biomaterials & Tissue Biomechanics

Dr. Amir Zadpoor is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor, the Chaired Professor of Biomaterials & Tissue Biomechanics, and the founding director of the Additive Manufacturing Laboratory at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). At Leiden University Medical Center, he holds another professorial chair in the Department of Orthopedics. He specializes in the development of advanced machine learning and 3D/4D (bio)printing techniques for the design and fabrication of metamaterials with unprecedented or rare mechanical, physical, or biological properties as well as tissues and organs. Moreover, he is a world recognized expert in origami and kirigami-based (bio)materials that are made by combining shape shifting (e.g., self-folding) with additive manufacturing (3D/4D printing). Developing biomaterials-based approaches for the prevention and treatment of implant-associated infections is an integral of his research where he uses physical forces and nano-scale features to both kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria and modulate the immune response. Prof. Zadpoor has received many awards including an ERC grant, a Vidi personal grant, a Veni personal grant, the Jean Leray scientific achievement award of the European Society of Biomaterials, and the Early Career Award of the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. He has served as the (associate) editor and editorial board member of international journals (e.g., Acta Biomaterialia, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, Bioactive Materials), on the review panels of funding agencies, and as a member of award committees.

Invited

Dr. Jennifer Patterson

Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine

Dr. Jennifer Patterson officially joined the IMDEA Materials Institute as a Researcher in February 2021. She leads the Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine research group. Originally from Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA), Dr. Patterson completed her B.S.E. in 2018. from her in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey, USA), and in 2007 her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington (Seattle, Washington, USA). He completed his bachelor’s thesis on the characterization of self-assembled fibers formed by de novo proteins designed using combinatorial strategies, under the supervision of Prof. Michael Hecht, and his doctoral thesis dealt with the development of release systems based on hydrogels – and microspheres – to stimulate targeted bone regeneration, in the laboratory of Prof. Patrick Stayton. During her doctoral research, she also collaborated with Prof. Xingde Li to use optical coherence tomography (OCT) for non-invasive monitoring of bone healing and angiogenesis in a rat calvarial critical size defect model.

Assoc. Prof. David Grossin

Materials Chemistry

Dr. David Grossin is Associate Professor of the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse (University of Toulouse, France). He is a teacher in Materials Chemistry in the Engineering school INP-ENSIACET and team leader of “Phosphates, Pharmacotechnics, Biomaterials ” research group of the CIRIMAT Carnot Institute in Toulouse. He received his PhD Materials Chemistry (2006) from the University of Caen for his work concerning the “development of microwave heating process in order to elaborate ceramics with particular electric properties”. From this to 2007, Dr. Grossin occupied a position of Contractual Assistant-Professor at the Cherbourg School of Engineering, his research activity in the LUSAC concerned mainly inorganic materials processing and shaping. Since 2007, His main research activity concerns the investigation of calcium phosphate compounds (characterizations, shaping, additive manufacturing, coating), in particular of biomimetic nanocrystalline apatites, and substituted hydroxyapatite for medical application. He has led 10 international project and he has generated 4 880 k€ from successful research proposals in national and European research agencies (including ANR, MNT Era-Net, PHC, Carnot, H2020). 

Prof. Anne L Leriche

Materials Chemistry

Dr. Anne Leriche received her PhD degree based on thesis work in Engineering ceramics at Mons (Belgium) and at Leeds (UK) universities, with “summa cum laude” in 1986. She joined the laboratory advanced ceramic materials and processes from the University of Valenciennes (France). She became full professor in 2005. She led the lab from 1999 to 2016, leading numerous researches sponsored by European Union. She advised 26 PhD students, authored 208 peer-reviewed research papers and had been co-inventors of 3 patents. She has made outstanding contributions in the field of Engineering Ceramics and lately on Bioceramics.  Another notable contribution has been to process calcium phosphate bioceramics with tailored porosity and interlocking microstructure, using a combination of pore former, freeze casting and additive manufacturing. She served as President of French Ceramic Society (2006-2016), President of ECerS (2013-2015) and President of JECS Trust (2010-2011; 2015-2017). She organized a series of ECerS summer schools, since 2013. Prof Leriche is an elected Fellow of the European Ceramic Society, World Academy of Ceramics and American Ceramic Society. She also received ECerS Stuijts Award (2017) and the first ECerS-ACerS Award (2020).

Assoc. Prof. Andrés Díaz Lantada

Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Andrés Díaz Lantada is an Associate Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at UPM in 2009, with a PhD thesis on smart polymers, directed by Prof. Pilar Lafont. He has worked for 20 years as a researcher at the Mechanical Engineering Department of this University and collaborated actively with its UPM Product Development Laboratory, which he leads since 2015, both in research and teaching tasks. His current research interest focuses on the design of innovative medical devices, combining additive manufacturing technologies, CAD & engineering tools, and smart materials for improving their diagnostic and therapeutic abilities. These include advanced tissue engineering scaffolds and active implants within the INKplant and BIOMET4D EU projects, in which he leads the participation of UPM, and 4D printed medical devices within the iMPLANTS-CM synergy project from Madrid’s Government, which he coordinates. He also pursues international cooperation in the field of medical devices and is involved in collaborative projects and educational actions, between the EU and Africa, for the promotion of open-source freely available medical devices for all, being also co-creator of the UBORA “Wikipedia” of medical devices. He has been awarded the Medal of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering to researchers under 40 and different educational and research prizes. In 2022 he received the “Juan López de Peñalver” award, given annually by the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering to one Spanish researcher in all fields of engineering. In 2023 he was awarded an “International Excellence Fellowship” from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Prof. Javier Llorca

Material Science

Dr. Javier Llorca is scientific director and founder of the IMDEA Materials Institute, where he leads the research group on Bio/Chemo/Mechanics of Materials, and professor and head of the research group on Advanced Structural Materials and Nanomaterials at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. A Fulbright scholar, Prof. LLorca is Fellow of the European Mechanics Society and of the Materials Research Society, member of the Academia Europaea and has held visiting positions at Brown University, Indian Institute of Science, China Central South University, Yanshan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he is currently Visiting Chair Professor. He has received the Leonardo Torres Quevedo National Research Award in Engineering, the Research Award from the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, the Morris Cohen Award of TMS, the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Structural Materials Division of TMS, the Research Award from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Career Award from the Spanish Society of Materials (SOCIEMAT). His current research interests – within the framework of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering – are aimed at the design of advanced materials for engineering applications in transport, health care (implants) as well as energy (catalysis), so new materials can be designed, tested and optimized in silico before they are actually manufactured in the laboratory.