Speakers
Plenary Speakers
| Professor Ali R. Kamali, FRSCNortheastern University, ChinaAli Kamali is a Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Green Energy and Environmental Materials Research Centre (E2MC) at Northeastern University. He directs the China-UK Joint Research Centre for Advanced Materials, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, FRSC. An alumnus of the University of Cambridge, he is the Founding Director of four materials technology firms, focused on commercialising his inventions on clean technologies for the sustainable production of advanced materials and the recycling/upcycling of waste materials for demanding applications, including energy storage and environmental protection. With over £46 million in research funding, his work has resulted in more than 50 patents, licensed to leading companies worldwide, the publication of around 200 articles in journals, including Green Chemistry, Energy and Environmental Science, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Carbon, Progress in Materials Science, Small, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Applied Energy, and books with publishers such as Springer Nature. Ali has delivered over 60 invited lectures at national and international events and has received several distinguished awards, including the NSFC Excellent International Scientist Fellowship, the International Khwarizmi Award, the Rose Award of Shenyang, and the Armourers & Brasiers Award. He currently chairs the AiScholar Academic Committee and supervises graduate and post-doctoral researchers in China and the UK. He serves on the editorial boards of journals like Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy, and on national grant review boards including the EPSRC Peer Review College. |
Professor Sian MooreAnglia Ruskin University, UKSian Moore is the Deputy Dean of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Business and Law at Anglia Ruskin University. She earned her PhD from Essex University, focusing on gender and class consciousness during industrialisation, and holds a BA in History from the University of York. Before joining Anglia Ruskin, Sian was a Professor in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Greenwich, where she also served as Director of the Centre for Research on Work and Employment (CREW). She was Professor of Work and Employment Relations and Co-Director of the Centre for Employment Studies Research (CESR) at the University of the West of England, and has held roles as Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC) at the University of Leeds. Sian contributed to the Leverhulme Future of Unions Programme at the London School of Economics and spent five years at the Labour Research Department. Earlier in her career, she worked in local government and was an active trade unionist with NALGO (now part of UNISON).She has published extensively on topics related to work and employment, particularly on intersectional relationships, representation, and organisation in the workplace. |
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Keynote Speakers
| Ingo WenderFounding President of Advanced Potash Technologies, BrazilIngo is a high-tech entrepreneur and investor with focus on natural resources conversion processes, with a track record of supporting the development of innovative and sustainable solutions in metal production, soil revitalization, water quality, energy management, and advanced materials. He was the first investor in Boston Metal, an MIT spinout and Bill Gates-backed company, commercialising molten oxide electrolysis for ferro ally and green steel production. His other ventures include pioneering potassium-based nutrients produced from feldspar, to restore degraded soils, producing sustainable potash fertilizers to enhance crop health and improving crop productivity and backing the advancing of cost-effective high-quality graphene for energy storage. As the founder of Cambridge Advanced Holdings, Ingo supports groundbreaking research on recycling waste plastics, promoting a circular economy, and upcycling waste into high-performance materials for energy storage applications and others. |
Dr. Mukesh KumarUniversity of Cambridge, UKDr. Mukesh Kumar is an Associate Professor in Operations Management and the Head of the Industrial Resilience Research Group at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge. Holding a PhD in Risk in Production Networks from the University of Cambridge, Dr. Kumar has cultivated a distinctive academic and professional profile, with experience that includes serving as a MIM Supervisor at Cranfield University (UK) and as a Senior Banking and Finance Analyst with banks in India and Thailand. At Cambridge, he has held key roles such as Chair of Examiners for the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos, Co-leader of the Inclusive Manufacturing Research Theme, and Senior Treasurer of the Cambridge University Eco Racing Student Society. Beyond the university, he has contributed to high-level panels and committees, including the Food Standards Agency, UK. Dr. Kumar's research focuses on critical areas such as the UK-India Critical Mineral Supply Chain Observatory, blockchain applications in nutrition supply chain design, and circular economy practices in manufacturing networks. His work has garnered significant grant funding and is featured in leading journals such as Journal of Cleaner Production, Annals of Operations Research, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. |
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| Professor Minna LammiAnglia Ruskin University, UKMinna Lammi is a Professor of Sustainability at Anglia Ruskin University. Her expertise lies in circular economy, sustainable business models, consumer acceptance, and transition processes toward a sustainable society. Over the past decade, Minna has focused on the emerging circular economy, striving to make a meaningful impact through research aimed at promoting knowledge-based policies and driving societal change toward sustainability. She frequently employs participatory and deliberative methods in her work. Minna regularly collaborates with companies to promote the transition toward a circular economy and sustainable practices. Her research has been funded by several funding bodies, including the Strategic Research Council of Finland, among others. |
