PLENARY SPEAKERS

An Italian national, graduated in Diplomacy from the University of Trieste, with a Master in European Studies from the University of Brussels, Silvia Forni is a European official with over 15 years’ experience in the field of the European internal market. She is currently working at the Environmental Department of the European Commission. Previously, she has worked as parliamentary assistant in the European Parliament and at the Secretariat-general of the European Commission, then, at its Transport Department.

Minna Hakkarainen is professor in Polymer Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. She got her M.Sc. in Polymer Chemistry from University of Helsinki in Finland in 1992 and Ph.D. in Polymer Technology from KTH in 1996. Since 2011 she is full professor and since 2012 the Head of the Division of Polymer Technology at KTH. Her research interest is sustainable polymers including design of biobased, (bio)degradable and/or recyclable polymers.  

Michael A. R. Meier studied chemistry in Regensburg (Germany) and received his Ph.D. from the Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) in 2006. After further stays in Emden and Potsdam, he was appointed as full professor at the Karlsruhe institute of Technology (KIT) in 2010. He has received several awards and is associate editor of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. His research interests include the sustainable use and derivatization of renewable resources for polymer chemistry as well as the design of novel highly defined macromolecular architectures.

Andreia F. Sousa is currently an Assistant Researcher at CICECO of the University of Aveiro, where she leads a team on Sustainable Furan Polymers (after 3rd CEEC award). Her research interests focuses on the design of sustainable polymers (renewable, biodegradable and recyclable), within a circular economy mind-set. Based on her scientific contributions, she became Associate Editor for Reactive and Functional Polymers (Elsevier) besides being member of several journal editorial boards (e.g., Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy from Elsevier, Polymers from MDPI). She is the Chair of a Pan-European COST Action on furans, the FUR4Sustain network (CA18202: European network of FURan based chemicals and materials FOR a Sustainable development).

PhD in Materials Engineering, Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering (DICAM), she works in the field of synthesis and characterization of polymers, with a focus on bio-based polymers, valorization of by-products of agro-industries and agro-wastes and on the end of life of plastics. Responsabile for UNIBO of the H2020 projects NoAW, Agrimax, Usable Packaging and Preserve, WP leader in PROLiFiC and involved in Terminus and Agriloop projects. She is author of about 110 publications and 6 patents.