Invited speakers
Invited speakers

Yuval Golan, PhD
Professor at Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Professor Yuval Golan obtained his PhD in the Department of Materials and Interfaces, the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1996. He then spent over 3 years as a postgraduate researcher at the Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1999 he joined the Department of Materials Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and in 2010 he was promoted to full professor and appointed Director of the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at BGU. His research interests are in the area of Nanomaterials at Interfaces and include surfactant assisted synthesis of nanomaterials, combinatorial materials science and chemical epitaxy of semiconductor thin films. Prof. Golan has published over 170 research papers in peer-reviewed scientific international journals and supervised some 40 junior researchers. Since 2016 Prof. Golan has been serving as Chairman of the Synchrotron Committee of the Israeli Academy of Science. In 2020 Golan was appointed deputy vice-president and dean for research & development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Lucian PREJBEANU
CEA Research Director
Lecture title: Spintronic innovations for frugal and agile digital technology
Lucian PREJBEANU is a CEA research director, CEA fellow and director of SPINTEC research laboratory. Pioneer of thermally assisted MRAM work, awarded the European Descartes Research Prize in 2006, he participated in the creation of the start-up Crocus Technology and ensured the technology transfer, awarded in 2012 by the SEE-IEEE Brillouin prize. He is currently working on new MRAM and sensors concepts, multifunctional spintronic-CMOS hybrid devices and ultrafast hybrid spintronic-photonic circuits in the framework of several EU and industrial funded projects. Author of more than 150 publications and inventor of more than 50 patents, he is coordinator of the memory pillar of the European STF network, running member of the AdCOM of IEEE Magnetics, IEEE Senior member, co-director of the PTA, one of the 5 main academic nanofabrication platforms of RENATECH, member of the research committee of the Grenoble-Alpes University, member of the steering committee of the Federation of Micro and Nano Technologies in Grenoble, leader of the spintronics pillar of the EQUIPEX+ Nanofutur project and coordinator of the CPER AURA SPINFAB project, coordinator of the CEA national FOCUS thesis program on low power devices for microelectronics (fifteen funded PhD thesis). He is the co-director of the national exploratory program on spintronics, recently financed In France for a 8 years duration (2023–2031), for a total amount of more than 38M€ and of a joint French-Japanese Grant ASPIRE for top scientists, jointly with Professor Yoshichika Otani.

Dr. Joan-Josep Suñol
Professor in Applied Physics at the University of Girona, UdG, Spain
Dr. Joan-Josep Suñol is a full professor in Applied Physics at the University of Girona, UdG, Spain (2010-xx). He works in the Physics Department of the Polytechnic Engineering School. He obtained a PhD Degree at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1996. Regarding the scientific dissemination, more than 250 articles in indexed (SCI) journals and more than 350 communications in scientific congresses. Dr. Suñol is the former president of the Spanish GECAT (Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry group) and the Head of the Materials and Thermodynamics research group of UdG.
He coordinates the Educational Innovation in Physics group of the UdG and is a member of scientific board committees and an associate editor of three indexed journals.
The research is linked to new materials for energy applications, including Fe-based nanocrystalline and amorphous alloys for soft and hard magnetic applications, alloys with magnetic shape memory for magnetic refrigeration, and alloys for hydrogen storage.
ORCID: 0000-0002-7653-3415

Christophe Couteau
PhD in physics from the University of Paris-Saclay
Christophe Couteau obtained his PhD in physics from the University of Paris-Saclay in 2006 working on quantum optics with quantum dots. He then spent 3 years as a post-doctorate fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Canada working on quantum cryptography and the foundations of quantum mechanics. He is now a Professor and since 2009, he works at the French University of Technology of Troyes (UTT) in France. He works on quantum photonics, nano-optics and quantum nanodevices. He also spent some time at the University of Oxford and was an adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for 4 years, from 2012 to 2016. During this time, he was also a CNRS researcher. He is currently the director of the Laboratory Light, nanomaterials & nanotechnologies, a joint research unit between the UTT and the CNRS and a visiting fellow at the Department of Physics at Oxford University in the UK. He is currently involved in the European University of Technology – EUT+ and he is in charge of the European Research Institute EUTINN on Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies within this consortium of 9 European universities.

Pr. Dr. Ing. Olivier ISNARD
Univ. Grenoble Alpes France and Institut Néel, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, CNRS, BP166X, 38042 Grenoble cédex 9,
Pr. Olivier Isnard – Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France & Institut Néel, CNRS.
Expert in materials for energy applications such as hydrogen storage and magnetic materials, including intermetallic phases and oxides. Leads a team involved in synthesis and structure investigations using X-ray (lab/synchrotron) and neutron scattering.
The team also focuses on magnetic, electrical, magnetocaloric, and thermal property measurements.
Research domains:
Soft/hard magnetic materials, permanent magnets, rare earth–transition metal intermetallics, crystallography, synchrotron spectroscopy (XANES, XMCD), high magnetic field studies, neutron scattering, time-resolved diffraction.
Education:
• 1999 – Habilitation, Université Joseph Fourier
• 1993 – PhD in Physics of Materials, Institut Laue Langevin / UJF Grenoble I
• 1995 – Postdoc, Universiteit van Amsterdam, with Pr. K.H.J. Buschow
• 1989 – Engineering, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Grenoble (INPG)
Distinctions:
• 2000 – Honorary Member, Institut Universitaire de France
• 2014 – Doctor Honoris Causa, Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca
• 2017 – Doctor Honoris Causa, Universitatea Tehnică Cluj-Napoca
Experience:
• 2015–2021 – President, French Federation of Materials (FFM)
• 2011–2025 – Deputy President, FFM
• 2006–2014 – Director, HERCULES Course (Synchrotron & Neutrons)
• Co-organiser – European School on Magnetism (1999–2022)
• 1997–2009 – Responsible for D1B diffractometer, Institut Laue Langevin
• Organiser of numerous international symposia (e.g. JEMS)
• Visiting Professor in 9 universities/institutes across EU, US, and South America
Scientific output:
• 22 PhD supervisions
• 520+ peer-reviewed publications
• 3 book chapters
• 47 invited talks, 30 oral communications, 90+ posters
• 8000+ citations (ISI WoS), h-index = 40
ffmateriaux.org
