Pedro Luis Arias
Full Professor, Escuela Superior de Ingeniería de Bilbao (EHU)

BIO
Pedro Luis Arias graduated in Chemical Engineering (Ingeniero Industrial Químico) from the Bilbao School of Engineering in 1981 and obtained his PhD from the University of the Basque Country (EHU) in 1984. Following postdoctoral research at Imperial College London, he returned to Bilbao in 1986 as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 1990. Over four decades of academic activity, including research stages at the MIT and Carnegie Mellon University, he has combined teaching and research in Chemical Engineering. His main research contributions have focused on the development of sustainable catalytic processes for the production of hydrogen, liquid fuels, and value-added chemicals, as well as on the valorization and recycling of industrial waste.

Olga Gómez de Miranda Jiménez de Aberasturi
Senior Reseacrher, Tecnalia

BIO
Dr. Olga Gómez de Miranda Jiménez de Aberasturi holds a Master’s and a PhD in Chemical Engineering. She specializes in the development of technologies and research projects focused on chemical synthesis, study of catalytic organic reactions and downstream processing. Her core expertise lies in the development of sustainable processes and the synthesis of building blocks and other high-value products derived from biomass and renewable feedstocks.

Her work has led to applications across multiple sectors, including adhesives, coatings, biofuels, and the synthesis of chemical building blocks for various intermediates and end-products, as well as the mitigation of environmental pollutants. Dr. Gómez de Miranda has authored 24 international publications and is a co-inventor of three patents related to bio-product synthesis and environmental purification technologies.

Pablo Beato
Ikerbasque Research Professor, Centro de Física de Materiales – Materials Physics Centre (CFM-MPC)

BIO
Pablo Beato is an Ikerbasque Research Professor at CFM-MPC in Donostia–San Sebastián, where he is establishing the ACTIVE Site Group. Before joining in 2026, he spent around two decades at Topsoe in Denmark, working on industrial catalyst development, particularly zeolite-based catalysts. His research combines catalyst synthesis and testing with in situ and operando spectroscopy to understand structure–performance relationships in heterogeneous catalysis.

Max Garcia-Melchor
Ikerbasque Research Professor – CIC energiGUNE

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BIO
Max García-Melchor is an Ikerbasque Research Professor at CIC energiGUNE, where he leads the Atomistic & Molecular Modelling for Catalysis group. His research combines quantum-chemical simulations, microkinetic modelling, high-throughput screening, and machine learning to understand and design catalysts for sustainable energy conversion and chemical synthesis. Prior to joining CIC energiGUNE, he was an Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin. He has secured numerous competitive national and European research grants, received several national and international awards and distinctions, and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.

Fernando López-Gallego
Ikerbasque Research Professor – CIC biomaGUNE

BIO
Fernando López-Gallego is IKERBASQUE Research Professor at Biomaterials Center CIC-biomaGUNE (San Sebastián, Spain). After obtaining her PhD at the University Autonoma of Madrid in 2007, he did an academic post-doc in the laboratory of Prof. Schmidt-Danner at the University of Minnesota, working on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, and an industrial postdoc in the Technology Lab of REPSOL (Madrid). In 2019 became the group leader of the Heterogeneous Biocatalysis Laboratory at CIC biomaGUNE. This laboratory investigates how to spatially organize biological systems across synthetic solid materials to create advanced technological platforms to be applied in chemical manufacturing, biosensing, and enzyme therapy.

Ana Beloqui
Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor  – Polymat

BIO
Ana Beloqui joined Polymat in 2020 as a RyC researcher and, since 2025, has been an Ikerbasque Associate Professor leading the PolyZymes research group. Her research focuses on designing and engineering enzyme-laden materials for biomedical applications, biosensing, and biocatalysis.

Hugo Salazar
Post-Doctoral Researcher, BCMaterials

BIO
Hugo Salazar received his PhD in Materials Engineering in 2022 from University of Minho (Portugal), with a work based on the development multifunctional nanocomposite membranes for water remediation, comprising the synthesis and functionalization of inorganic materials, the preparation of polymer-based membranes, and the application of heavy metals and organic compounds removal from water by adsorption and photocatalytic-based processes. In 2022 he joined BC Materials as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, in the research area of Advanced Functional Materials and Surfaces. His research is focused on the development of ceramic-based composite functional materials for energy storage applications, by using novel low temperature and energy sintering processes.

Jon Meléndez Rey
Technical Director, H2Site

BIO
He graduated in Chemistry at Universidad de Navarra in 2009 and with more than 12 years of experience working with metallic membranes , he obtained his PhD in Materials Engineering from the University of the Basque Country (EHU) in 2017, focusing on the development and performance of palladium-based membranes. Since then, he has worked on scaling up this technology, joining H2SITE in 2020 as a founder and Head of Membrane Development. Over the last six years, he has led the development and industrialization of Pd membrane technology, addressing scale-up challenges and new developments for different industrial applications.

Iker Aguirrezabal
SBS

BIO