Prof. Andrea Lazzaretto is a Mechanical Engineer and he is currently a Full Professor of Energy Systems at the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Padova since 2019. During his 30-year academic career, he is continually searching for new methods and their engineering applications. His main research interests concern experimental and theoretical aspects related to the energy-economic-environmental simulation and optimization of the design and operation of energy production and recovery systems powered by renewables and fossil fuels, such as supercritical CO2 cycles, combined cycles, fuel cells, and others. Recently, the main focus of his research is on “multi-energy” conversion systems composed by several conversion and storage units. He has applied the proposed methods to a wide variety of systems fed by traditional and renewable sources. He has authored or co-authored more than 280 publications, 115 of which in main peer-reviewed energy journals.

Michael is a co-founder and Executive Director at ERINN Innovation in Ireland with responsibility for all pre-award services. He has over 20 years’ experience in research and innovation (R&I), having worked in developing concepts, putting together consortia, raising funds and managing R&I projects. Michael has coordinated 10 European funded projects in the fields of clean energy and alternative water sources, and has been directly involved in hundreds of other projects, proposals and grant funding courses. He holds a Ph.D. on reverse electrodialysis for heat-to-power conversion from University of Palermo, he has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and he is a co-inventor of 6 patents.

Dr. Miguel Ramirez holds a Ph.D. on high-temperature heat pumps (2023). Over the past 15 years, he has worked across various research organizations (UK, Spain, the Netherlands) focusing on renewable energy technologies and industrial processes. He is currently an R&D engineer at the Energy and Materials Transition unit of TNO, where he specializes in the integration of sustainable technologies, with a particular focus on decarbonization of industrial processes. His experience includes participation in several EU-funded research projects involving industrial heat pumps, thermal energy storage and waste heat recovery systems, including Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) solutions.

Dr. Panagiotis Stathopoulos studied Mechanical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens and holds a Ph.D. on process engineering from ETH Zurich (2013). In the last 12 years he has been working at TU Berlin and DLR in Germany performing research on the decarbonization of industrial processes. He is currently Head of the Department for high temperature heat pumps at DLR Institute for low carbon industrial processes, developing unique concepts. This research unit is the largest research department in Europe that is solely dedicated in the R&D and demonstration of high temperature heat pumps. At the beginning of 2025, Panagiotis has been appointed Professor at Brandenburgische Technische Universität (BTU) Cottbus-Senftenberg – Chair of high temperature heat pumps.

Christoph Wieland is a Professor of Energy Process Engineering and Energy Systems at the University of Duisburg-Essen (since 2023) and serves as the Scientific Director of the Gas- und Wärme-Institut Essen e.V. Trained as a mechanical engineer with a specialization in energy and process engineering, he completed his Ph.D. at the Chair of Energy Systems at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), focusing on coal combustion and associated particulate matter emissions. Following his doctorate, he established a research group on thermodynamic power cycles at the Chair of Energy Systems starting from 2011. From 2018 to 2021, Christoph Wieland also served as Managing Director of the Munich School of Engineering, where he contributed to the coordination and strategic development of TUM’s energy research.

Dr Guillermo Zaragoza has a PhD in Physics, he is director of Plataforma Solar de Almería, a centre of the Spanish research organization CIEMAT, and director of the Sustainable Desalination Living Lab. He is board director of EDS, ambassador of Water Europe and leader of the Expert Group on Desalination. He is also co-leader of the “Desalination and Photosynthesis” R&D Unit of CIESOL (joint centre of University of Almería and CIEMAT). His main research is focused on the application of solar energy to desalination in the water-energy-food nexus and has extensive academic experience and participation in international R&D&I projects.