2024 SPEAKERS

Architect since 1998, he started to dedicate his career to specialized projects since 2003 and became a full-time laboratory designer by experience since then, never losing the focus of this specific area of Architecture, also called Lab Planning. Responsible, since 2003, for more than 70...

As a laboratory automation engineer, Yousef Baioumy has developed a unique set of skills and experience that has made him a valuable asset in the world of scientific research and development. His journey began with a passion for science and technology, which led him to pursue a degree in...

Debbie Bard is a physicist and data scientist with 20 years experience in scientific computing, both as a physicist and supercomputing expert. Her career spans research in particle physics, cosmology, AI and computing, with a common theme of using supercomputing for scalable data analytics. She...

Nathan is a physicist by training and since starting at Johnson Matthey in 2010, he has strived to enable collaborators in R&D to make better decisions, sooner. His current role is to help offer a R&D-wide Lab Informatics Platform to make JM’s chemistry data FAIR.

Claudio graduated from La Sapienza in Medicinal Chemistry in 2008 and obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2012. He spent ca 7 years at the University of Cambridge working in the field of Flow Chemistry with Prof Steve Ley, in collaboration with several companies (including...

As the Managing Director of the Steinbeis Consulting Center for Digital Transformation and Process Automation, I combine a solid engineering education with extensive experience as a software, automation system developer, and architect. In today's digital world, businesses are challenged to...

Deirdre Black is Head of Science and the Sustainability Strategy Lead at the Royal Society of Chemistry, a UK-headquartered publisher and scientific organisation.  She has variously led the organisation’s science policy, international engagement and scientific networks as well as prizes, grants and ...

Alex Böser is the Senior Ecosystem Manager - Chemistry at 5-HT Digital Hub Chemistry and Health, which is part of the German Federal Digital Hub Initiative. He is responsible for managing all corporate and startup activities belonging to the chemistry part of the 5-HT ecosystem, which mainly...

As project manager for need-oriented innovation projects in the field of lab automation I love to contribute to a better future for the healthcare industry. I am tasked with uniting like-minded companies and research institutes to collaborate on conceptualizing and prototyping of digital solutions...

Dominik Brem is Head of the newly established Engineering and Systems Department at ETH Zurich since 1.1.2022. The Engineering and Systems department is ETH Zurich's engineering center for building technology systems, building automation, laboratory technology, energy supply, workshop...

Marshall graduated with his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin before transitioning to academic publishing. Prior to joining Cell Press as the EiC for Device, he was an editor for Nature Chemistry, founded ...

Rob Brown is Senior Director of Product Marketing at Sapio Sciences.  Prior to joining Sapio Sciences he spent eight years at Dotmatics where he held various positions including Head of Global Presales and Head of Product Marketing & Product Management. Earlier in his career he was responsible...

Sean Caffrey is the Executive Director of the Acceleration Consortium, a global research initiative led by the University of Toronto (UofT) that is transforming scientific discovery. The Acceleration Consortium joins materials science with artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced computing to ...

James Connelly, My Green Lab’s CEO, is a visionary sustainability executive with a track record of growing organizations that have transformed industries in multiple sectors, including manufacturing, real estate, tech, and life science. Over his career, he consulted with and developed...

Dana Cortade is a Technical Project Manager at Align to Innovate, a scientific non-profit working at the interface of biology, AI, and lab automation. Born and raised in Arizona, USA, she received her Bachelors in Optical Sciences and Engineering from the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ, USA) and ...

Dr Courtney has 20 years of experience in laboratory instrumentation R&D and marketing, as a former director at PerkinElmer, as well as at Sartorius and Cap Gemini. He is a current director at SiLA (Standards in Laboratory Automation) and leads the European working group on Laboratory Robotics...

Luigi Da Via’ is a Scientific Leader specializing in Analytical Development at GSK. He earned his PhD in photochemistry and catalysis from the University of Liverpool (UK). In 2018, he was elected as a GSK Fellow, acknowledging him as one of the top 5% of R&D staff, celebrated for their...

- PhD in Biophysical Chemistry (University of Munich+UCLA) (2014-2017) - Manager R&D Homogeneous Immunoassays and Lab Systems, Roche Diagnostics (2018-2020) - Senior Manager R&D Core Lab Development, Roche Diagnostics (2021) - Head of R&D Services Germany, Roche Diagnostics (since...

Mark Doerr (Dr.) is a (bio-)chemist, software developer and staff scientist in Prof. Uwe Bornscheuer's protein engineering and biocatalysis group at the Institute for Biochemistry of the University of Greifswald. He is responsible for the institute's robotic protein high-throughput...

Alex Domling studied Chemistry & Biology at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM). He performed his Ph.D. with Ivar Ugi and his postdoc - funded by a Feodor Lynen stipend from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation - with double Nobel Laureate Barry Sharpless. After his habilitation at...

Marc started his professional career with an apprenticeship as a chemical and pharmaceutical process technologist at Roche. After successfully completing his apprenticeship, he continued his education with a vocational baccalaureate. After acquiring a Bachelor and Masters degree in Life Sciences...

Jens is an engineer in electrical science and holds an executive master in business studies. In his professional live he has been active in building management and electrification since more than 25 years, 20 years of these related to the Life Science Industry in different roles. Next to his...

Prof. Ferraz received her veterinary medicine degree in 2010 from the University of São Paulo (Brazil), a master in animal genetics and reproduction in 2013 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and a PhD in 2018 at Utrecht University (Netherlands). She worked as a postdoctoral...

Jeremy Frey is a Professor of Physical Chemistry and the head of the Computational Systems Chemistry Group at the University of Southampton. He is also a pathfinder and work package lead on the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Initiative. Before working at Southampton, he obtained his...

In addition to coordinating Labforward’s Marketing & Communications efforts, Jenny specializes in scientific content writing for the company’s clients, particularly evaluating the implementation efforts and success metrics for Labforward’s Lab Execution System (LES) - Laboperator. She studied...

I am a developer for open-source robot interfaces, primarily PyLabRobot, PyHamilton, and PyLynx. I am currently a PhD student in the Chory Lab at Duke University where I study T cell expansion and differentiation using robots.

Dr Martin Graf-Utzmann is a computational chemist by training. He has been serving as an editor for Wiley’s B2B publications since 2015 and, more recently, for the online portal Wiley Analytical Science. He is responsible for the Laboratory Automation and Equipment channels

Lukasz is a Senior Manager at CSLs' R&D Enabling Technology, leading digital transformation and optimization initiatives across the organization's R&D. He helps the scientists optimize their processes and leverage data by implementing FAIR-data systems to enable seamless data flows...

Dr Stephen Hilton is an Associate Professor at UCL School of Pharmacy. Dr Hilton's diverse research interests range from medicinal chemistry, scale-up synthesis and new technology with an emphasis on the applications of 3D printing and Virtual Reality in Synthetic Chemistry and Pharmaceutical...

Josie Hughes is an Assistant Professor at EPFL where she established the CREATE Lab in the Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 2021. She undertook her undergraduate, masters and PhD studies at the University of Cambridge as part of the Sensor CDT, joining the Bio-inspired Robotics Lab (BIRL). ...

Tilo Hühn is a Geisenheim oenologist (531Riesling.de), FoodArchitect, inventor, developer and implementer of regenerative technological processes in companies. The doctor of natural sciences, organizational psychologist and digital expert has been working in Wädenswil, Switzerland, since...

As the Head of Asset Management at the ETH Immobilien, Andrei leads a team of Project Managers responsible for Campus Hönggerberg with its 50 research and educational buildings of the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), totaling about 500’000m2 in area. Andrei’s team executes over...

Dr Zisis Kozlakidis is the Head of Laboratory Services and Biobanking at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization (IARC/WHO). He is responsible for one of the largest and most varied international collections of clinical samples in the world, focusing on...

Partha started his career as a lab scientist and started to dedicate his career in occupational health and safety after a fatal lab accident at UCLA where he was a postdoctoral fellow. After holding several safety related positions of increasing responsibilities at UCLA, Yale and Harvard, he is...

Michael Langner is a trained biologist. In 2013 he completed his bachelor's degree in microbiology and genetics and in 2015 his master's degree in molecular medicine with distinction at the University of Vienna. Afterwards he spent three years at the University Hospital in Würzburg in the...

Alexei Lapkin graduated with MChem from Novosibirsk State University in 94. He then worked as Junior Research Scientist @ Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, before moving to UK in 1997 to pick up a contract @ University of Bath as a Research Assistant. He completed his PhD at University of Bath in...

Stephen is the Operations & Partnerships Director of the Materials Innovation Factory within the Faculty of Science & Engineering, at the University of Liverpool.  He is responsible for multi-year partner programmes, oversight of day-to-day operations and the management of the Open Access...

Ineke studied Architecture, Building and Planning at the Technical University of Eindhoven and worked for more than 10 years in real estate management and business support. She prefers complex projects with many different stakeholders and interests since connecting people and knowledge in order to...

Tamara counts with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, from the University of Witwatersrand. After graduating, she spent some time working as a process metallurgist for a Mining Research and Technology business before moving into the LIMS industry. She counts with 22+ years’ experience in the laboratory...

Thorsten Nölle is a passionate architect and overall manager, specialized in complex project management. In 25 years of professional experience at major airports, in the public sector and with general planners, he has developed a portfolio of projects in all sectors and of all sizes. He is managing ...

A Senior Operations Support Manager at a cutting-edge biotech in London developing multi-engineered Regulatory T cells for cell therapy. Recent years has involved a key role in helping to build multi-site facilities, a world class team and as a result taking a novel cell therapy product to the...

Renato is a senior quality and compliance professional with extensive experience in validation,  compliance, IT infrastructure qualification, computer systems validation and  implementation of a quality  management system within regulated environments  gained  in  the  over  15  years’  experience  ...

A chemical engineer by training, Brian drifted towards physics and now focuses on a broad spectrum of activities with the aim to improve scientific reproducibility. This includes studies on holistically improving data quality, data collection efficiency and traceability, as well as concomitant...

Dr Samantha Kanza is a Senior Enterprise Fellow at the University of Southampton. She is a pathfinder lead and researcher on the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Initiative. She coordinates the AI 4 Scientific Discovery Network (AI4SD - www.ai4science.network) run out of...

Dr. Vincent Revol is Head of Research and Business Development, Life Science Technologies at CSEM. Responsible of the research roadmap and contacts with key partners and customers, he ensures the strategic alignment of CSEM activities with the Life Sciences market. Engineer and physicist by...

After receiving his Ph.D. in Physical-Organic Chemistry from University of California Santa Barbara with Prof. Donald Aue, and a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSB, Joachim joined BASF SE, Germany in 1990. He has been directing a variety of analytical and research units at BASF SE since. Among...

Patrick Ruch is Senior Research Scientist at IBM Research Europe - Zurich and member of the team developing AI for Scientific Discovery. Dr. Ruch's main research interest lies in exploring and demonstrating concepts for the data-driven and AI-enabled lab of the future. He is also the Principal...

Ali Safavi, founder of Grenova, is on a mission to enable laboratories around the world to become sustainable and waste-free. Ali founded Grenova, which is short for Green Innovation, after working in the life sciences industry and discovering an unsustainable practice within the...

Andrea Sauerwein is the R&D Data Readiness Lead at Johnson Matthey (JM) and a qualified change practitioner. She is passionate aboute leading people through the change digital transformation brings to R&D. With a PhD in chemistry and more than 12 years of experience in various R&D...

Andreas Steinbacher is a trained mechatronic engineer and holds a PhD in Physics. He joined Roche pRED to progress the digitalization in research labs and introduced a global digital lab automation platform. Currently, he is focusing on preclinical data management challenges by advancing or even...

Joan leads the Sustainability Office at EPFL’s School of Life Science since 2021. He has been working in sustainability for almost a decade. Prior to joining EPFL, he worked as a sustainable finance specialist in the private sector and at a global NGO. He holds a masters degree in environmental...

Emrah has been working in a newly created role as Sr. Market Solutions Manager R&D since August 2021 to connect external innovation with Roche problem statements in the pre clinical space.Emrah holds a Bachelor in Business Administration and also an Advanced Federal Diploma of Higher Education...

Kerstin Thurow is Director of the Center for Life Science Automation at the University of Rostock, Germany. She obtained her Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and the habilitation in measurement and control in 1999 from the University of Rostock. In...

Rouan joined Agilent at the start of 2022 as Digital Services Specialist at Agilent Technologies. In the 20 years leading up to this, Rouan had specialised in customising gas chromatography instrumentation, mainly in the alternative energy, oil, gas and chemical sectors. Outside work, Rouan is an...

Thole Züchner studied biochemistry and received his PhD in protein and neurochemistry in Germany and the USA in 2005. After a two-year research stay at Lund University, Sweden, he habilitated in 2013 in Germany in the field of bioanalytics as part of a start-up project. After 4 years in different...