Günther Rupprechter is a full professor of surface and interface chemistry and Head of the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien. He is renowned for his contributions to physical chemistry, surface science, nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly in the area of catalytic surface reactions on heterogeneous catalysts, identifying fundamental reaction steps at the atomic level by in situ and operando spectroscopy and microscopy. From 2011 to 2019, he was Speaker/Coordinator of the FWF-funded Special Research Program (SFB) “Functional Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces (FOXSI)”.

Ulrike Diebold is a professor of surface physics at TU Wien. She conducts research in experimental surface science with an emphasis on metal oxides. She is particularly interested in the atomic-scale properties of these complex materials, and in unravelling their (defect)structure/reactivity relationship. The main tool, Scanning Probe Microscopy, is complemented by area-averaging surface spectroscopies and first-principles calculations. Her research on fundamental interactions between water and oxide surfaces is supported by an ERC Advanced Grant, and she is the coordinator of the FWF-funded Coordinated Research Center TACO.

Stefan Freunberger is a professor at ISTA and heading the research group Material Electrochemistry. His research interests embrace new materials and understanding reaction mechanisms in electrochemical energy storage, focusing on the redox chemistry of main group elements. This includes alkaline-ion, metal-oxygen, and metal-S batteries, as well as organic electroactive materials and electrocatalysis. The group develops in-situ and ex-situ techniques based on spectroscopy, diffraction, and microscopy to understand the basic physical chemistry occurring at the bulk and interfaces. His research has been supported by an ERC Starting and Proof of Concept grant.

Leticia González is a full professor of Theoretical/Computational Chemistry and Scientific Computing at the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Vienna. She is renowned for her research on electronic excited states, including the development of nonadiabatic molecular dynamical methods (the SHARC package). She and her group perform high-level quantum chemistry calculations, both with ab initio wavefunction theory and DFT, carry out dynamics simulations, including classical molecular dynamics, nonadiabatic dynamics and multiscale methods, and apply machine learning to accelerate some of these processes. The interface of all fields is leveraged to predict molecular structures with desired properties and gain a mechanistic understanding of chemical processes, in molecules, biological systems and materials.

Julia Kunze-Liebhäuser is a professor at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck. Her group investigates interfacial processes to elucidate reaction pathways and mechanisms that take place at the solid/liquid interface during electrochemical energy conversion and storage processes. The research approach of the group is based on the development and application of in-situ and ex-situ analysis techniques, which are applied to systems with increasing complexity, ranging from single-crystalline model electrodes investigated under idealized conditions to more complex but well-defined nanostructured materials that could be applied in real fuel and electrolyzer cell or battery environments.