Plenary Speakers

Piero Baglioni has contributed to many aspects of colloids. In his plenary, he will present some of the recent achievements of his research activity focused on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage, and in particular on the application of chemical gels to the conservation of modern and contemporary art.

Francesco Sciortino interests span from the thermodynamic of supercooled water to the physics of glassy systems to colloidal self-assembly, conjugating theoretical and experimental approaches. In the last decade, he has focused on colloidal gelation, exploring the possible routes to dynamic arrest. His plenary will report on the collective behavior of DNA-made nanoparticles, a model system for realizing in the laboratory empty liquids, equilibrium gels, re-entrant gels, swapping gels, and interpenetrating network.

Dror Seliktar has worked to revolutionize regenerative medicine with the introduction of a novel “biosynthetic hybrid” hydrogel for 3D cell culture, cell-therapy, tissue engineering, and bioprinting. He is the inventor of Gelrin™ and founder of the company Regents Biomaterials Ltd. and heads a multi-national collaborative effort to apply biomaterial-based strategies for tissue regeneration and beyond. His plenary will be focused on the recent applications of gels in regenerative medicine, bioprinting, and medical diagnostics.

Weitz received his PhD in physics from Harvard University and then joined Exxon Research and Engineering Company, where he worked for nearly 18 years. He then became a professor of physics at the University of Pennsylvania and moved to Harvard at the end of the last millennium as a professor of physics and applied physics. He leads a group studying soft matter science with a focus on materials science, biophysics, microfluidics, and flow in porous media. Several startup companies have come from his lab to commercialize research concepts.

His activity has been devoted to study of polyelectrolytes – both synthetic and natural, polysaccharide gels and biomaterials. He will present some novel insights into the fundamental steps of gelation of plant and algal ionic polysaccharides.