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Virginie Chamard is a CNRS research director at Institut Fresnel in Marseille. Together with her group, she develops coherent x-ray and optical ptychography microscopy methods, which she applies to the study of crystalline materials (e.g., biominerals, implanted metals, phase domains, magnetic systems, etc…). She is now focusing on the integration of 3D Bragg ptychography at several synchrotron beamlines, in parallel to leading research activity on the understanding of biomineralization using physical and chemical microscopy methods, with a strong emphasis on bio-crystallisation pathway mechanisms. She received an European Research Council grant in 2017

Associate Professor Raffaella Demichelis leads an emerging team doing research in computational materials chemistry and geochemistry at Curtin University. Her research spans from the study of materials structure to crystal growth and mineral surface reactivity via developing classical, quantum mechanical, and semi-empirical models. She led landmark research that proves a new and more comprehensive theory explaining how minerals form in aqueous solutions, and solved the problems related to understanding how atoms arrange into a number of challenging mineral structures. Raffaella also contributes to develop software and models that are used in academic and non-academic laboratories conducting research in chemistry, materials science, and earth science worldwide.

Originally from Italy, Raffaella has made Western Australia her home for more than 10 years. Aside from her research, she spreads her enthusiasm for science through engaging with outreach and community building activities, and is an active advocate for career accessibility and sustainability  in Australia’s national research system through leading local and national groups and initiatives. 

Raffaella has received several local, national and international recognition for her research and community engagement, including the 2015 Vincenzo Caglioti prize (Italian Academy of Science), the 2022 F.G. Houtermans Award (European Association of Geochemistry), and the 2023 Dorothy Hill Medal (Australian Academy of Science).
 

Professor Marc McKee holds the Canada Research Chair in Biomineralization at McGill University's Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.   He received his Ph.D. degree from McGill University in cell biology, followed by postdoctoral training at Harvard and The Children’s Hospital Boston, and then appointments at the Forsyth Institute in Boston and University of Montreal.

McKee's research focuses on biomineralization in bones, teeth, otoconia and eggshells, and in pathologic ectopic calcification.  With over 250 scientific papers, and over 36,,000 citations of his research, he has received two Distinguished Scientist Awards from the International Association for Dental Research, the Adele Boskey Esteemed Scientist Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, and the C.P. Leblond Award From the FRQS Quebec Network for Bone and Oral Health Research.

Peter Rez was an undergraduate in Cambridge and received his doctorate in Oxford.  His expertise is in the physics of electron and X-ray scattering, mainly applied to electron microscopy and spectroscopy but also applied to radiation detectors and medical physics.  He is responsible for scattering cross sections used in quantitative EELS analsys and was involved in the devlopment of theoretical models to understand EELS inner shell fine structure.  He has also worked on modeling of battery and other materials.  Early thesis work on phonon scattering in electron microscopy has been revived both for quantitative calculations of ADF contrast and to provide a framework for analysing the results for ultra high resolution EELS on the nanometer scale.   Since his 3rd kidney stone he developed an interest in biomineralization, applying advanced microscopy and solid state modeling to urolithiasis, and making the transition from victim to invited speaker in a urology conference in 2 years!  This lead to work on normal biomineralization, the formation of calcite shells. This has been the subject of a long-standing collaboration with the world leaders in this field at the Weizmann Institute.  He has also commented on issues where physics affects society at large, both in the deployment of X-ray based body scanners at airports (since abandoned) and more recently on energy policy that is the subject of his book “The Simple Physics of Energy Use”.  In the last year , after retiring from Department of Physics Arizona State University, he has been testing various hypotheses related to “climate change” using temperature records of rural Arzona.