Prof. Dr. Lutgarde Buydens, Radboud University

Prof. Dr. Lutgarde Buydens is Professor in Analytical Chemistry and dean of the Science Faculty of the Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands). She studied Pharmacy and obtained her PhD at the Free university of Brussels, Belgium (promotor prof. D.L. Massart). After a postdoctoral stay at the University of Illinois in Chicago, The USA with prof. Dunn, she took a position in the department of analytical chemistry and chemometrics at the Radboud University where she became full professor and head of the department in 1995. In 2012 she became vice dean of the faculty of science and from 2016 to 2021 she was the dean of the faculty, responsible for the education and research at the faculty

Her expertise area is chemometrics. She develops novel methods and strategies to interpret complex datasets, as well in an industrial as in a life sciences context. The group focuses on robust analysis of large datasets, spectroscopic analysis and molecular chemometrics

 Prof. Buydens co-authored more the 250 peer refereed papers, published several handbooks on chemometrics and supervised ~ 30 PhD students, is editor of the journal Analytica Chimica Acta and collaborated in, and coordinated several large national and international project including several EC –projects.

She is co-founder and member of the executive board of COAST (Comprehensive Analytical Science and Technology), a Dutch private public network with more than 60 participants from Industry and academia.  

She is member of the Academia Europaea and received for her work in 1992 the Elsevier Chemometrics award for young chemometricians, in 2012 the EAS award for outstanding achievements in chemometrics and in 2018 the CAC  lifetime achievement award for chemomtrics. In 2017 Professor Buydens was knighted to the Royal Order of the Dutch Lion for extraordinary social and scientific contributions to society.

Dr. Jovana V. Milić, University of Fribourg

Dr. Jovana V. Milić is Assistant Professor and Group Leader at the Adolphe Merkle Institute of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. She obtained her PhD in 2017 in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich and she has worked as scientist in the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL, before taking on a group leader position in September 2020 as a Swiss National Science Foundation PRIMA Fellow. Her research focuses on (supra)molecular nanomaterials for energy conversion, with a particular interest in photovoltaics. She has been recognized by the Zeno Karl Schindler Prize for contributions to sustainable development in 2021, Green Talent Award in 2020, and CAS Future Leader in 2019, as well as selected to represent one of the elements (Db) on the Periodic Table of Younger Chemists on the occasion of the centenary of IUPAC. Apart from research and collaboration, she is invested in science outreach, policy, and education, such as through the activities of the European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN), as former Networks Team Leader, as well as Governance Team Member at the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN), dedicated to connecting and supporting young scientists globally.

Professor Lesley Yellowlees, University of Edinburgh

Lesley Yellowlees holds a personal chair in Inorganic Electrochemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Lesley was Head of the School of Chemistry and then Vice Principal and Head of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. She was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2012-14, their first woman president in 175 years. She was awarded an MBE in 2005 for services to science and a CBE for services to Chemistry in 2014.