09.15 | Prof.dr. Rao Vutukuri (University of Twente, Active Soft Matter group)
Designing Life-Like Matter: From Swimming and Swarming to Shape-Shifting Vesicles Biography
I am an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Twente, where I lead the Active Soft Matter Group. My group explores how simple physical principles generate life-like behaviours such as autonomous motion, dynamic self-organization, and adaptability. To address these questions, we develop biomimetic model systems, including artificial microswimmers and active lipid vesicles, to study matter far from equilibrium. By combining soft matter physics, biophysics, materials science, and real-space imaging, we aim to uncover fundamental mechanisms and translate them into reconfigurable, adaptive, bioinspired materials. Supported by prestigious grants including an ERC Consolidator Grant and an NWO-M1 grant, our research has been published in leading journals such as Science, Nature, PNAS, Nature Physics, Nature Communications, and ACS Nano. | 
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10.00 | Prof.dr. Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres (International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory)
Harnessing Phonon-based Interactions in Nanostructures Biography
Prof. Dr. Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres is an internationally renowned physicist and expert in nanotechnology, phonon engineering and nanoscale heat transport. She obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Manchester and has held academic positions in the UK, Germany, Ireland and Spain. From 2007 to 2023, she was an ICREA Research Professor at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Since 2023, she has been Director General of the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Braga, Portugal. Her research focuses on phonons, nanofabrication and novel approaches to controlling information and heat at the nanoscale. | 
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16.30 | Prof. Peter Budd (University of Manchester)
Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs) and their applications Biography
Peter Budd is a Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the University of Manchester. He studied at Manchester for his BSc in Chemistry (1978) and his PhD in Polymer Chemistry (1981). After eight years as a research chemist at the BP Research Centre, Sunbury-on-Thames, he returned to Manchester in 1989. His research involves the development of novel polymers for a variety of applications, including molecular separations by membrane processes. He is a co-inventor of the class of polymers referred to as Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIMs). https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/Peter.Budd/ | 
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