11^th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED MATERIALS

Organized every three years, the ROCAM Conference aims at bringing together scientists, students and industry specialists willing to get an overview of the latest developments in the field, make new contacts or find new cooperation opportunities.

The 10^th international edition is organized in Bucharest, capital of Romania, between July 28 June - 1 July, 2027.

Confirmed Plenary Speakers

Prof. Joachim Maier, Em. Director, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research Stuttgart, Germany Joachim Maier received his PhD at the University of Saarbrücken in 1982, and completed his habilitation at the University of Tübingen in 1988. He has lectured at the University of Tübingen, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a foreign faculty member, at the University of Graz as a visiting professor, and at the University of Stuttgart as an honorary professor. As director of the physical chemistry department (from 1991 to 2024) of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research he co-authored more than 1000 papers on chemical and electro-chemical phenomena that garnered more than 100.000 citations. His major interests are energy research, solid state ionics, electrochemistry and interfaces. Joachim Maier laid the conceptual foundation of the field “nanoionics”. He is a member of various national and international academies and his work received national and international distinctions.
Prof. Joachim Sauer, Humboldt-Universität, Institut für Chemie, Berlin, Germany Joachim Sauer, Humboldt University Berlin, is Senior Researcher at Humboldt University where he was Professor of Theoretical Chemistry from 1993 – 2017. He has got the Dr. rer. nat. degree in Chemistry from Humboldt University in (East-) Berlin in 1974. Currently, he is Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley. Joachim Sauer is known for development and applications of quantum chemical methods in surface science, adsorption and catalysis. He has published 425 research papers, notably in the area of modeling the structure and reactivity of transition metal oxides, zeolites and metal-organic frameworks, and he has given more than 500 invited lectures. Among others, he has received the Schrödinger medal of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists, the Francis Gault Lectureship of the Federation of European Catalysis Societies, and the ACS Award 2023 in Surface Chemistry. He is member of the German National Academy Leopoldina, Foreign Member of the Royal Society and International Member of National Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Magdalena Titirici, Imperial College London, UK Magda Titirici has a PhD from University of Dortmund and a Habilitation from the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces/University of Potsdam. She moved to the UK in 2013 to take up a “Reader” position at Queen Mary University of London to be promoted to full professor one year later. Magda moved to Imperial in 2019 as a Chair in Sustainable Energy Materials. She also holds short visiting research positions in Japan, Sweden and Romania. Magda’s research is on sustainable materials and their implementation in batteries beyond Li ion as well as in electrocatalytic processes including biomass oxidation and O2/N2/CO2 reduction. Magda has been included on the list of highly cited researchers since 2018. Her research was awarded by Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society, Institute of Materials and Mines, Chinese Academy of Science and others.
Prof. Maksym Kovalenko, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Maksym V. Kovalenko is a full professor of Functional Inorganic Materials at ETH Zurich. He studied chemistry at the Chernivtsi National University in Ukraine from 1999 to 2004. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Linz, Austria (2004-2007), and his postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago, USA (2008-2011). He then joined ETH Zurich as a tenure-track professor and was promoted to tenured associate professor in 2017, subsequently becoming a full professor in 2020. Currently, he serves as the head of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry. He is also affiliated with Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology). The research activities of M. Kovalenko and his group focus on chemistry, physics and applications of inorganic solid-state materials and nanostructures. In particular, present research efforts concern: (i) the precision synthesis of highly luminescent perovskite nanocrystals; (ii) nanocrystal surface chemistry; (iii) nanocrystal self-assembly; (iv) colloidal-QD-based quantum light sources; (iv) novel semiconductors for hard radiation detection; (iv) electrochemical energy storage. To date, Maksym Kovalenko has published ca. 500 scientific articlesand is listed as an inventor on 21 patents. He has been a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher since 2018.
Dr. Sixto Malato Rodriguez, Director, Platforma Solar de Almeria, University of Almeria, Spain Sixto Malato is full Professor of Research of the Spain Ministery of Science and Universities, working at Plataforma Solar de Almeria (www.psa.es). Prof. Malato is at the forefront of advanced wastewater treatment, especially in the development of photoreactors. Some of his milestones are: i) fundamentals for solar photoreactors; ii) methodology for combination of AOPs with aerobic treatments; iii) combination of membrane processes with AOPs, iv) treatment methods for the removal of contaminants of emerging concern from wastewater; and more recently v) production of hydrogen using solar photoreactors. He has carried out top-level research, basic for the EU regulation on water reuse (UE 2020/741, applied since 26 June 2023) and the recent Directive (EU) 2024/3019 of 27 Nov. 2024, concerning urban wastewater treatment. More recently, his contributions are significant in photoreforming of organic matter for photofuel production. He is between the most cited authors in Spain, with an H factor of 93 (http://www.scopus.com) and a continuous rise in citations >32,000 citations in June 2025). He has co-authored >320 publications (>200 in Q1) in indexed journals (JCR), and more than 400 contributions to Int. conferences. Director or Co-Director of CIESOL, http://www.ciesol.es, Joint Research Center (Univ. Almería-CIEMAT), since 2006. Director of Plataforma Solar de Almeria 2012-2017. Prof. Malato has been “chairman” of the most important events in the area: “3rd European conference on environmental applications of advanced oxidation processes” (EAAOP3) and “10th European Meeting on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications (SPEA10). Broad participation in EU projects (>30 projects for >15 M€, many of them as leader). has supervised 22 PhDs (3 more under preparation). Editor of 40 special issues in different high IF journals: Appl. Catal. B: Environ., Chem. Eng. J., J. Hazar. Mat., Cat. Today and others. The Jury’s Grand Prix of “European Grand Prix for Innovation Awards”. 11 December 2004, Mónaco. http://www.european-grandprix.com/index_en.htm. Jaime I Price (Most important in science in Spain) in Environmental Protection, 2011.
Prof. Stuart Parkin, Director, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics Halle, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany Stuart Parkin received his B.A. in Physics and Theoretical Physics in 1977 and his Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of Cambridge, UK. Parkin is an elected Fellow or Member: Royal Society (London), Royal Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, German National Academy of Science - Leopoldina, Royal Society of Edinburgh, Indian Academy of Sciences, and TWAS - academy of sciences for the developing world. Parkin’s awards include the Materials Research Society Inaugural Outstanding Young Investigator Award (1991); American Physical Society International Prize for New Materials (1994); Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Solid State Physics (1997); IUPAP Magnetism Prize and Neel Medal (2009); von Hippel Award - Materials Research Society (2012); Swan Medal - Institute of Physics (London) (2013); Alexander von Humboldt Professorship − International Award for Research (2014); Millennium Technology Award (2014); ERC Advanced Grant - SORBET (2015); King Faisal Prize for Science 2021; ERC Advanced Grant – SUPERMINT (2022); 2024 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research; and 2024 Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering. Parkin has received 4 honorary doctorates. Parkin was named a “Highly Cited Researcher” for the years 2018-2025 and a Citation Laureate™ for 2023 by Clarivate.
Prof. Yury Gogotsi, Director, A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA