HyPT-4 2025

Chair: Prof Meg Tao

Chair: Dr Zhiwei Sun

Chair: Prof Meg Tao

Dr. Ashley Roberts evaluates technical and commercial aspects of low-emission energy technologies and developments. She is particularly interested in the commercialisation of new technologies and applying insights from life cycle assessments to guide critical, early-stage investment and policy decisions.

Ashley holds a PhD in Materials Science from Monash University and a dual MBA/MS in Engineering Physics from Appalachian State University. She has worked as a research scientist, business strategist, energy analyst, and commercialisation officer for industry, government, and start-ups in Australia, Europe, and the USA.

Ashley recently joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as a Senior Technical Leader.  EPRI’s Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI) is targeting advances in the production, distribution, and application of low-carbon, alternative energy carriers and the cross-cutting technologies that enable their integration at scale.

Bill Tumas is the Associate Laboratory Director for Materials, Chemical and Computational Science (MCCS) at NREL leading fundamental and applied R&D for renewable energy and energy efficiency. He oversees NREL's solar, hydrogen and fuel cells, basic energy sciences, advanced computing, and ARPA-E programs. Tumas has been actively engaged in collaborative research and technical leadership positions for over 30 years in industry and at national laboratories.

He has helped create a number of multi-institution and international collaborations, including the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), was director of two Energy Frontier Research Centres (EFRCs), helps drive the RD20 collaboration led by Japan’s AIST (rd20.aist.go.jp). Bill is the US lead for and helped create the newly formed Mission Innovation Sunlight to X global innovation community (http://mission-innovation.net/platform/innovation-community-on-sunlight… ). He is also on the management team for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA, www.liquidsunlightalliance.org ), a DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences solar fuels hub.

Prior to NREL, Bill was at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 17 years, where his last position was Program Director for Applied Energy Programs. He started his career at Dupont Central Research after postdoctoral research at Caltech. His research activities include materials discovery, solar energy conversion, hydrogen storage, catalysis, supercritical fluids and alternate reaction media, green chemistry, and waste treatment technology development and assessment. He has over 65 peer-reviewed publications, 12 patents, and has given over 125 invited presentations. Bill received a B.A in Chemistry from Ithaca College and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Christian Sattler studied chemistry in Bonn, Germany and joined the German Aerospace Center DLR in 1997. He was guest scientist at Unversidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil. From 2015 to 2022 he was professor for solar fuels production at TU Dresden, Germany, from 2021 to 2023 Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport of DLR, and since 2021 he is Director of the DLR Institute of Future Fuels and professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He is Vice-President of the Hydrogen Europe Research association and as an ASME lifetime fellow member of the ASME Clean Energy Technology Group. 

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Ellen B. Stechel is Co-Director, ASU LightWorks®; Professor of Practice, Molecular Sciences; and Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab, and Fellow in the Institute for the Future of Innovation in Society. She has built and coordinated research programs at a national laboratory, in the automotive industry; at a U.S. government agency; and now in academia. Her current research focuses on materials and systems design for concentrating solar technologies for producing sustainable liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, hydrogen from advanced water splitting, clean water, renewable ammonia, and for thermochemical energy storage.

Dr Stechel holds numerous positions of an advisory or editorial capacity, nationally and internationally, and has published over 100 peer reviewed articles. Recently a project team, in which she is a co-PI, won the U.S. Department of Energy 2021 R&D award for Hydrogen Production Technologies.

Prof. Francesca M. Toma is the Director of the Institute of Functional Materials for Sustainability at Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon and a Distinguished Helmholtz Professor at Helmut Schmidt University. Her research centers on the synthesis and characterization of sustainable materials for renewable energy and biological applications. She also holds a position as a Visiting Professor at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the International School of Advanced Studies in Italy in 2009, and acquired postdoctoral experience at the University of Trieste, before moving to the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Marie Curie Researcher in 2011, and to the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. For nearly a decade, she was as a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where she served as the Program lead of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance and as the Photoelectrochemistry Technology Lead for HydroGEN. In 2022, she also served for a year as a Detailee in the Catalysis Science Program of the Basic Energy Science of the Department of Energy.

Prof. Toma's has co-authored 120 publications, focusing on (photo)electrocatalysis, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. Her work has garnered international recognition with several awards. She was honored as one of the "100 Women of Materials Science" by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2018 and received the "Rising Star" Award from the American Chemical Society in 2021. She was also awarded the “Alfredo di Braccio Award” by the Italian Academy of Science. In 2022, she was selected as an Oppenheimer Fellow by the US National Laboratory Directors' Council in 2022, underscoring her contributions as a leader to advancing scientific research. The Division of Energy & Fuels of the American Chemical Society selected her as a finalist for the 2025 Energy Lectureship for the Mid-Career category.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he leads the MERLin (Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale) group – School of Chemistry and with 20 years’ experience one of the leading experts in hydrogen technologies advising many key stakeholders including as part of the ISGP hydrogen future pathways and the UN secretary as a Global Expert of the International Science Council.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Co-director of the Australian-French Research Network FACES and the ARC Training Centre for Hydrogen GlobH2E. He is also the President and CTO of H2potential.

Dr Hannah Johnson is a Senior Engineer in the Materials Engineering department at Toyota Motor Europe based in Belgium. She has been working on solar fuel production for the past 6 years with topics including hydrogen production, CO2 conversion and CO2 capture. For hydrogen production, there are three pathways under investigation – photoelectrochemical, photocatalytic and photovoltaic combined with electrolysers.

For photoelectrochemical hydrogen production, she is coordinator of the European Horizon 2020 project, Sun-To-X, which, for solar hydrogen, focuses on development of transparent, porous and conductive photoelectrode supports and methods to deposit semiconductors onto them.

Jinjia WEI is a professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research interests include solar thermal/ chemical conversion and utilization, and two-phase flow and heat transfer. 

He is the national Coordinator of Task II, Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems (Solar PACES), International Energy Agency, the council member of International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer, and the editorial board member of 5 international journals.

He has published more than 300 peer reviewed international journal papers, and gave 27 invited presentations in international conferences. He was authorized more than 30 national invention patents and one international invention patent.

Jon Gluyas has over 43 years of expertise in geoenergy delivery, technology and research. Much of that experience is in petroleum development and production. In the past 14 years he have worked extensively in carbon capture and storage including well operations. He has also 14+ years’ experience in geothermal energy including drilling two deep research wells. From 2012, Jon co-led the team which developed and successfully tested a model for helium exploration, delivering the first new helium province in decades. 

Derived from the work on helium, Jon now researches on natural hydrogen generation, migration and accumulation. His research interests also include human induced seismicity and earth movements. Jon has co-founded 14 companies operating in the energy and resources industries.

Dr. Murray Thomson is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He received a BEng from McGill University (1986) and PhD from University of California, Berkeley (1994). He was made a Fellow of the Combustion Institute in 2018, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers in 2016, and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2012. He is the Canada National Director, Lead of the methane pyrolysis theme, and on the executive committee of the Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center which is a collaboration of researchers from Canada (NSERC), USA (NSF), Australia (CSIRO) and the United Kingdom (UKRI).

He is also Cofounder and Chief Science Officer of Aurora Hydrogen, a company that is developing hydrogen production from microwave-driven methane pyrolysis. Dr. Murray Thomson’s research is in the area of methane pyrolysis, hydrogen production and carbon material synthesis. He has supervised the thesis research of 105 graduate students and published 142 journal publications.   

Natasha Beydokhti holds an M.Sc. in Electrochemistry from the University of Calgary, where her research focused on electrochemical cell design, specifically, minimization of non-uniform potential distribution in thin-layer electrochemical cells. After completing her studies in 2000, she worked as a research electrochemist at the Alberta Research Council, on the development of a direct methanol fuel cell for smaller power applications. She then joined Hydrogenics Corporation in Toronto Canada, as a research scientist working on fuel cell and electrolyser stack design from 2003-2021.

She transitioned to strategic and technical sourcing in 2021 and has been the electrolyser stack sourcing team lead at Accelera, a business unit within Cummins Inc. focused on zero emission technologies,  where she leads the stack sourcing team to develop and implement sourcing strategies for electrolyser stack components, aiming to improve quality, reduce cost, enhance innovation, and ensuring alignment between sourcing strategies, technical roadmaps, and global and regional Hydrogen policies.

Sophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She is a member of EPFL’s research award commission and of EPFL’s Academic Strategic Committee. She has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), the Raymond Viskanta Award on Radiative Transfer (2019), and the Yellott award (2024). She is a co-founder of the startup SoHHytec aiming at commercializing photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. She is the former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Solar Energy Division (2018), a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum (2016-2022), a member of the scientific board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, and a member of the Ethics Board of Arete Ethik Invest.

Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modeling and demonstrations. Her research interests include: thermal sciences and radiative transfer, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales.

Dr. Suriati Sufian has served as an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) since 2014. She earned her BEng (Hons.) in Chemical Process Engineering with Fuel Technology from the University of Sheffield, UK, MEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland, Australia, and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from UTP in 2010. Dr. Suriati has completed several professional attachments, including with PETRONAS Operational Excellence (Nov 2019 to May 2020), Tenaga Nasional Generation Bhd. in 2003, and a research placement at the University of Nottingham, UK, in 2007. Her research contributions include over 100 indexed journal publications with an H-index of 42. Her primary research interests encompass hydrogen production and storage, CO₂ utilization, waste-to-energy, and wastewater treatment. She has successfully supervised 12 PhD and 14 MSc graduates and currently oversees 10 PhD students as both a main and co-supervisor. Dr. Suriati has also mentored exchange students and interns from France, the USA, Thailand, Australia, India, and New Zealand.

She has received numerous research grants from national and international sources, including the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of Malaysia, and the Murata Science Foundation (Japan). Dr. Suriati is a Professional Engineer and serves on the Trustee Committee of The Malaysian Association of Hydrogen Energy (MAHE) for 2021-2023.

As a certified and accredited trainer (under Human Resource Development Corporation). Dr. Suriati Sufian has led various short courses and training programs, including training sessions on Biochar Feasibility Studies, Hydrogen Economy, Technology & Business Cases, Gas Treatment & Processing and Offshore Renewable Energy. In addition, she has taught several undergraduate courses such as Petrochemical Processing, Gas Process Engineering, Renewable Energy II, Reaction Engineering II, and Energy & Process Utility Engineering. For Master’s programs by coursework, she has taught courses in Synthesis Reaction & Separation Systems.

Takashi Hisatomi received his PhD in engineering from The University of Tokyo in March 2010. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne from April 2010 to March 2012. He moved to the University of Tokyo in April 2012 as a postdoctoral fellow and acquired an assistant professor position in August 2012.

He moved to Shinshu University as an associate professor in April 2018 and was promoted to professor in April 2023. He has been cross-appointed to Okayama University since January 2025. His major research interests include semiconductor photocatalysts for overall water splitting, kinetics of photoexcited carriers in semiconductors, and reaction systems for solar hydrogen production.

Dr. Thomas I. Valdez reports to the Chief Technology Officer at Plug Power Incorporated, Latham, New York.  His focus is on tracking hydrogen generation technology.

Thomas has over 30 years of experience in advanced power systems for military, space, underwater, and commercial applications.  His career began at NASA's famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he was a major contributor to the JPL Fuel Cell Group and Power Systems Section.  After a 25-year career at JPL, he transitioned to Teledyne and continued to develop advanced fuel cell technologies such as what is featured in the Teledyne Subsea Supercharger®.

His educational background starts with being a student of Mr. Jaime Escalante, whose teachings were the basis of the Hollywood movie Stand and Deliver.  Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Materials Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.  He completed his doctorate in Materials Science under Professor Florian Mansfeld, winner of the Electrochemical Society Vittorio de Nora Award, at the University of Southern California.  Thomas also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland

Yushan Yan is the Henry B. du Pont Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Founding Director of the Center for Clean Hydrogen (CCH) at the University of Delaware (UD). CCH is a partnership of UD, Chemours, Plug Power, West Virginia University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

He is also the Founder and CEO of Versogen, a pioneer in AEM innovations, and a Cofounder of RepAir, a carbon capture technology company. His research is in the area of electrochemical engineering with a focus on green hydrogen, fuel cells, and carbon capture using polymer anion (hydroxide) exchange membranes.

His recognitions include being a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science. He received his BS in Chemical Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

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Greg is a Professor of Chemistry and Acting Director of the Centre for Energy Technology (CET) at the University of Adelaide. He established and convenes the international Hydrogen Production Technology (HyPT) series of forums running since 2019. He is also the Australian Director of the NSF-CSIRO Global Center for Hydrogen Production, a sub-task leader for the IEA Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP) Task 45: Renewable Hydrogen Technology, and Australian lead for the Mission Innovation Sunlight-to-X Innovation Platform.

His research uses light sources from lasers to synchrotrons, across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, investigating a range of molecular phenomena to discover new molecules and explore their properties. He heads the Metal Cluster Laboratory which focuses on the exploration of the physical and chemical properties of sub-nanometre sized metallic particles underpinned by advanced computational modelling, the advancement of novel catalysts based on metal clusters, and building novel apparatus and instrumentation including pioneering work developing photocatalytic reactors that operate under concentrated solar radiation. This work has led to the establishment of the company Sparc Hydrogen for which he continues as the lead researcher.

Interim Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources; Research Program Director, HILT CRC

Gus Nathan is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide, a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Combustion Institute and Engineers Australia, a recipient of a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council and an ATSE KH Sutherland medallist. He was the bid leader for, and is now the Research Director of, the national $215m Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre, the HILT CRC. Overall, he has led the development of six technology platforms, three of which are in ongoing commercial use and include the flame for Sydney Olympic Relay Torch, while three are currently being upscaled to decarbonise heavy industry.

His work in hydrogen includes the development of a novel methane pyrolysis platform in partnership with 1414 Degrees and a low NOx hydrogen combustion industrial burner with FCT. He has developed two novel concentrating solar thermal technologies to TRL-4 and contributed to understanding of the viability of the direct use of concentrated solar thermal energy for industrial process heat. He has published more than 300 papers in international journals, 250 in peer reviewed conferences, 50 commissioned reports and 13 patents.

Centre for Energy Technology, the University of Adelaide

Cameron aims to use fundamental chemistry and materials science to find solutions to environmentally relevant problems such as the destruction of pollutants or the generation of renewable fuels.

Sunlight is the most abundant energy source on Earth yet it is still underutilized in chemical synthesis. Photocatalysis is the key to unlock the potential of light in a range of applications. 

Dr Meng Tao joined Arizona State University in 2011 as a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and now heads the Physical Electronics and Photonics Program. His research focuses on sustainable solar technologies, from materials and devices to systems and applications. He played a critical role in the initiation and launch of the US. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium under SEMATECH.

He has been the lead organiser for the Electrochemical Society symposium series on Photovoltaics for the 21st Century for over a decade. He is an editor of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology. He was awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy Technology and was invited to the 2017 Nobel Award Ceremony in Stockholm.

Simon is the South Australian State Chair of Petroleum Geoscience in the Discipline of Earth Sciences, School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide. With his colleague Rosalind King, he leads the Stress, Structure & Seismic (S^3) Research Group; this is a multidisciplinary group of academics, research staff and HDR students working mostly on applied GeoEnergy problems related to structural geology and geomechanics in sedimentary basins. Current research foci include the development of rapid methods for evaluating the geomechanical impacts of CCUS at basin scales, the quantification of uncertainty associated with stress magnitude determination and the geomechanical impacts of cyclic hydrogen storage. He has a long-standing interest in magmatism in sedimentary basins, with geographic focus on the rifted margins of Australia and NW Europe. This research seeks to understand the impacts of magmatism on petroleum systems and evaluate the potential for subsurface gas storage, and specifically the permanent storage of carbon, in buried volcanic rocks.

Centre for Energy Technology, the University of Adelaide

Dr Woei Saw is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Adelaide (UA). He has demonstrated a good track record in the development and demonstration of novel technology in the decarbonisation of high-temperature industrial processes. For example, he has developed a patent on net-zero steam alumina calcination, which allows steam generated from the alumina calcination process to be recovered and utilised in the bauxite digestion within the Bayer process. Currently, he is leading a HILT-CRC project to perform a preliminary assessment of technical and economic feasibility of low carbon alumina calcination via electrification or hydrogen pathway.

Dr. Zhiwei Sun works on laser diagnostics in combustion and other challenging reacting flows. In his research, novel optical, laser-based techniques are used to visualize the key parameters in flames/flows in high spatial and temporal resolution. He also focuses on the development of unique new techniques for quantitative measurements of reacting flows that are reacting or under high radiation.

Victoria is Centre Administration Officer for the Centre for Energy Technology (CET). 

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Dr. Ashley Roberts evaluates technical and commercial aspects of low-emission energy technologies and developments. She is particularly interested in the commercialisation of new technologies and applying insights from life cycle assessments to guide critical, early-stage investment and policy decisions.

Ashley holds a PhD in Materials Science from Monash University and a dual MBA/MS in Engineering Physics from Appalachian State University. She has worked as a research scientist, business strategist, energy analyst, and commercialisation officer for industry, government, and start-ups in Australia, Europe, and the USA.

Ashley recently joined the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as a Senior Technical Leader.  EPRI’s Low-Carbon Resources Initiative (LCRI) is targeting advances in the production, distribution, and application of low-carbon, alternative energy carriers and the cross-cutting technologies that enable their integration at scale.

Professor Christian Sattler studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is Acting Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Director of DLR’s Institute of Future Fuels, and Professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Professor Sattler serves as Vice President of the Association Hydrogen Europe Research representing the European research institutions in the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership. He is the national representative to tasks of the IEA’s SolarPACES Implementing Agreement, and member of the ASME’s Clean Energy Technical Group.

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Ellen B. Stechel is Co-Director, ASU LightWorks®; Professor of Practice, Molecular Sciences; and Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Lab, and Fellow in the Institute for the Future of Innovation in Society. She has built and coordinated research programs at a national laboratory, in the automotive industry; at a U.S. government agency; and now in academia. Her current research focuses on materials and systems design for concentrating solar technologies for producing sustainable liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, hydrogen from advanced water splitting, clean water, renewable ammonia, and for thermochemical energy storage.

Dr Stechel holds numerous positions of an advisory or editorial capacity, nationally and internationally, and has published over 100 peer reviewed articles. Recently a project team, in which she is a co-PI, won the U.S. Department of Energy 2021 R&D award for Hydrogen Production Technologies.

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Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he leads the MERLin (Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale) group – School of Chemistry and with 20 years’ experience one of the leading experts in hydrogen technologies advising many key stakeholders including as part of the ISGP hydrogen future pathways.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Vice-President of the Australian French Association for Research and Innovation, Co-director of the Australian-French Research Network FACES and the ARC Training Centre for Hydrogen GlobH2E. He is also the President and CTO of H2potential.

Hai Wang is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Prior to his appointment at Stanford, he was the Northrop Chair in Engineering and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at USC.  He received his Ph.D. in Fuel Science from Penn State in 1992.  He was a Professional Research Staff at Princeton University from 1994 to 1996 before starting his faculty career at the University of Delaware.  He is best known for his work on the mechanisms of PAH and soot formation in combustion and development of chemical kinetic models for fuel combustion.  He has made contributions in the application of ab initio quantum chemistry and reaction rate theory in chemical kinetics. He developed stochastic methods for detailed modelling and uncertainty quantification. 

He contributed to the transport theories of nanoparticles and large molecules, atmospheric heterogeneous chemistry, and nanomaterials synthesis and its applications in solar cells and lithium ion batteries.  He was the recipient of the AIAA Propellant and Combustion Award in 2018, and the Humboldt Research Award in 2019.  He is a Fellow of ASME and an inaugural Fellow the Combustion Institute. He currently serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science and the Vice President (President-Elect) of the Combustion Institute.

Jean-Louis Kindler is CEO of Ways2H, a leading commercial provider of Waste-to-Hydrogen solutions for mobility and grid applications. Jean-Louis and his team are developing projects that transform the world’s worst waste - MSW, plastics, medical refuse - into clean energy and fuel.

A 30-year veteran of the cleantech industry with work experience in Europe, Asia and North America, Jean-Louis led the development of various technologies including electrochemical water treatment, bio-based waste-to-energy as well as fuel cell components manufacturing.

Jenny has a PhD from the University of Sydney in computational chemistry and has expertise techno-economic, economic, chemical and biological modelling. She has worked in interdisciplinary environments to provide analysis on issues of future strategic significance.

Jenny is a principal research scientist in CSIRO Energy. She leads research projects on technology cost projections and the models she has developed are used to project the cost of electricity generation, energy storage and hydrogen production technologies for AEMO and the Australian Government. Jenny has made economic modelling contributions to roadmap and renewable energy projects, including CSIRO Energy Storage Roadmap, the Federal government’s 2020 Low Emissions Technology Statement, the CSIRO National Hydrogen Roadmap and the Low Emissions Technology Roadmap.

She has contributed to studies undertaken by CSIRO on different parts of the hydrogen value chain, transport, biofuels, energy storage, remote area power systems and all types of electricity generation and fuel conversion technologies. Dr Hayward’s focus is on developing new methods and modelling approaches to provide robust projections of the capital costs of existing and emerging electricity generation and fuel conversion technologies. She is a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Mission Innovation international clean energy initiative.

Jinjia WEI is a professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research interests include solar thermal/ chemical conversion and utilization, and two-phase flow and heat transfer. 

He is the national Coordinator of Task II, Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems (Solar PACES), International Energy Agency, the council member of International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer, and the editorial board member of 5 international journals.

He has published more than 300 peer reviewed international journal papers, and gave 27 invited presentations in international conferences. He was authorized more than 30 national invention patents and one international invention patent.

Jonathan has a PhD in Electrochemistry and 25 years RD&D experience in the international solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) industry. Jonathan joined QUT in 2018 to participate in the QUT led H2Xport project with research interests in fuel cells, electrolysers and renewable hydrogen. Jonathan is currently commissioning a 50kW scale testbed for researching solar energy conversion to renewable hydrogen production including thermal integration for optimised energy and water efficiency.

Prior to becoming an academic, Jonathan held key leadership positions in Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) and collaborated internationally on R&D SOFC projects. Jonathan is an award-winning industrial researcher as co-recipient of the Australasian Industrial Research Group (AIRG) Medal for Australasian SME Technological Innovation in 2012 with key members of the BlueGen™ Development Team at CFCL.

Ms. Judy Hua Yang is the Business Development Manager of PERIC Hydrogen Technologies in charge of international market development, project management and international standards’ compliance. Judy has managed the international projects with, such as, Air Liquide (Singapore and Taiwan), AMM Power (USA), Engie (Australia) and TEZCAN (Turkey), etc. She graduated from Renmin University in 2014 with a Master in English Language & Literature.

In Australia, Judy and PERIC have worked with local partner like Dimer Technologies in successfully signing the turn-key electrolyser contracts with Engie Yuri Project in WA (10MW), Lion Project in QLD (1.2MW) and Uni Melbourne Project (Pilot H2 Plant supported by the Gates Foundation).  Meanwhile, PERIC is engaged in the tenders of 10MW in NSW and 40MW in QLD, as well as taking part in FEEDs, FS and Designs of four more large projects of green hydrogen and green ammonia rated at 100MW, 400MW and 1GW, respectively. 

Linda Stalker is a Senior Principal Research Scientist who obtained a BSc. (Hons) in Applied Geology (University of Strathclyde, Scotland), and a PhD on the contribution of sedimentary organic matter to the generation of oxygenated species (including CO₂) in North Sea oilfields at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After a post-doctoral study into organosulphur compounds trapped in coals at the University of Oklahoma (USA) she relocated to Norway to work at Statoil, in E&P including 2 years on the Sleipner Field.

She joined CSIRO as leader in gas geochemistry, conducting research on natural gas, coal seam gas as well as CO₂ related research with CO2CRC. She also conducted research in monitoring and verification, with particular focus on chemical tracers. Linda has been Science Director of the National Geosequestration Laboratory (NGL) since 2012.

In more recent times she has been applying her gas geochemistry expertise to the emerging area of exploration for naturally occurring hydrogen and parallels between hydrogen and other forms of gas storage.

She maintains her research activities through contributing to major projects in Carbon Capture & Geological Storage, in areas of geochemistry, monitoring, social licence to operate and education.

Dr Meng Tao joined Arizona State University in 2011 as a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and now heads the Physical Electronics and Photonics Program. His research focuses on sustainable solar technologies, from materials and devices to systems and applications. He played a critical role in the initiation and launch of the US. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium under SEMATECH.

He has been the lead organiser for the Electrochemical Society symposium series on Photovoltaics for the 21st Century for over a decade. He is an editor of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology. He was awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy Technology and was invited to the 2017 Nobel Award Ceremony in Stockholm.

Dr. Peter Loutzenhiser is an Associate Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT). He joined the faculty of GIT in May 2012 and is pursuing research in the area of Solar Thermochemistry and Technology, and he has directed research in this area funded by the U.S Department of Energy and NASA.  He was the recipient of the ASME Solar Energy Division’s prestigious Yellott Award in 2018, and he was elected Fellow of the ASME in 2023. He also serves as an Associated Editor for Solar Energy and is on the editorial board of Materials. Dr. Loutzenhiser received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University in May 2006.

Research for his PhD was performed at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) and focused on Building Physics.  Dr. Loutzenhiser was a post-doctoral researcher at the Paul Scherrer Institute, applying his extensive solar experience to the field of Solar Thermochemistry. He continued his research at the ETH Zurich in Solar Thermochemistry where he was a Lecturer and Research Associate prior to moving to GIT.

Sophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She is the vice president of EPFL’s research award commission (since 2021). She has published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award on Radiative Transfer (2019), and is a recipient of the Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014). She is a co-founder of the startup SoHHytec aiming at commercializing photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. She is the former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Solar Energy Division, a former Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum, and a member of the scientific board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance.

Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and demonstrations. Her research interests include: Thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. 

Tanya Hodgson is an Investment Manager at the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), focused on accelerating the development of a commercial hydrogen market in Australia. She works closely with entities from start-ups to incumbents to progress early-stage hydrogen technologies ranging from R&D to trial, demonstration, and deployment. ARENA’s industry exposure provides unique perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the hydrogen market in Australia, across the value chain.

Tanya has a technical background in the sciences, holding a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Applied Biology, as well as a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of Cape Town. Prior to ARENA, she worked for a top tier management consulting firm, developing robust strategic and Private Equity skillsets, working with over 20 companies across South Africa and Australia.

Dr Tara Hosseini is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO in Australia and contributes to solving the greatest energy challenges in Australia. Since joining CSIRO in April 2022, she works on the design and development of tailored energy solutions for various industries seeking to decarbonise their sectors. She is also contributing to a couple of projects related to the decarbonisation of heavy industries in the HILT CRC. She received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Monash University in 2016 and since then she has worked on research and development of renewable and low-emission energy technologies. Dr Hosseini has worked on different aspects of the hydrogen supply chain including hydrogen production technologies, hydrogen distribution, end-use and integration of intermittent renewable energies with hydrogen production, storage and supply to hydrogen users. She is also experienced in the thermochemical conversion of coal and biomass into hydrogen and other low-emission fuels through pyrolysis, co-pyrolysis and gasification. 

Before joining CSIRO, she worked at the University of Adelaide as a research fellow (2019-2020) and Lecturer (2020-2022). She completed a couple of projects for the Future Fuels CRC. She also has experience of work at Monash University as a research fellow working on the design and development of low-emission energy technologies including hydrogen from pyrolysis and gasification (2016-2019).