Gang Chen is the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He served as the Department Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT from 2013 to 2018. He obtained his PhD degree from the Mechanical Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. He was a faculty member at Duke University and UCLA, before joining MIT in 2001. He received an NSF Young Investigator Award, an R&D 100 award, an ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, an ASME Frank Kreith Award in Energy, a Nukiyama Memorial Award by the Japan Heat Transfer Society, a World Technology Network Award in Energy, an Eringen medal from the Society of Engineering Science, and the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellences in Mentoring and Advising from MIT.  He is a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Guggenheim Foundation.  He serves on the board of the Asian American Scholar Forum (aasforum.org).  He is an academician of Academy Sinica, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and a member of US National Academy of Science.

Christos Markides is Professor of Clean Energy Technologies, Head of the Clean Energy Processes Laboratory, and leads the Experimental Multiphase Flow Laboratory, which is the largest experimental space of its kind at Imperial College London. He is also, amongst other, Editor-in-Chief of journal Applied Thermal Engineering, and a founding Director and CEO of Imperial spin-out company www.solar-flow.co.uk. He specialises in applied thermodynamics, fluid flow and heat/mass transfer processes in high-performance devices, technologies and systems for thermal-energy recovery, utilization, conversion or storage. He has published >350 journal and >400 conference articles on these topics. He has won multiple awards, including IMechE’s ‘Donald J. Groen’ outstanding paper prize in 2016, IChemE’s ‘Global Award for Best Research Project' in 2018, and received Imperial College’s President Awards for Research Excellence in 2017.

Naoki Shikazono received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1994. The topic of his thesis is “turbulence modeling of scalar flux based on correlation coefficient”. From the accomplishment of his thesis, he received Young engineer’s Award from the Heat Transfer Society of Japan. After joining Hitachi, Ltd. in 1994, he developed heat exchangers and fan systems for air conditioners. By the development of novel micro-fin tube, he received Award for Technical Achievements from the Heat Transfer Society of Japan in 1999. He had engaged in 11 product developments in Hitachi, and has more than 70 patent applications in the field of air conditioning technology. From 2002, he joined the University of Tokyo as an associate professor, and started researches on solid oxide fuel cells and heat pump cycles. Since 2010, he is a full professor at the Institute of Industrial Science. From his contributions to the research fields in solid oxide fuel cells and heat transfer, he was awarded JSME Medal for Outstanding Paper in 2010, Scientific Contribution Award of the Heat Transfer Society of Japan in 2011 and Thermal Engineering Achievement Award from JSME in 2018, JSRAE Academic Award in 2022, etc. He is also serving as board members in various academic societies such as SOFC Society of Japan, the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), Japan Society of Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (JSRAE), Heat Transfer Society of Japan (HTSJ), etc.

Prof. Wang was born in China in 1964. He obtained his PhD at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1990. He is now a distinguished chair professor at SJTU and a leading scientist in energy efficiency and energy conversion worldwide. His research interests are: heat pumps, green building energy systems, and energy-water-air nexus.

Prof. Wang is known worldwide for his creative and globally impactful work. His breakthrough research on sorption refrigeration has significantly advanced the technology of utilizing low-grade thermal energy for generating highly efficient cooling. His seminal contributions to desiccant-based heat pumps have doubled the energy efficiency for cooling and heating. His innovative air source-based heat pump for steam generation represents a revolutionary approach for industrial heating. His transformative innovation on Energy-Water-Air Nexus has bridged the gap between materials & thermal engineering, which brought significant achievement on thermal management and energy storage. His innovative research achievements have been applied in industries both China and overseas.

He has published above 700 papers, 187 international conference papers, 51 review papers and 14 books, with a H index 85 and citations more than 30,000. He has won Chinese National Research Awards two times and also received many prestigious academic awards worldwide, such as the J & E Hall International Gold Medal from the Institute of Refrigeration (UK), the Nukiyama Memory Award from Japanese Society of Heat Transfer, the IIR-Gustav Lorentzen Medal from the International Institute of Refrigeration, and the IEA-Rittinger International Heat Pump Award. In 2023 he has become The Global Energy Prize laureate in the New Ways of Energy Application category.

Prof. Wang is currently the director of the Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics of SJTU, and the deputy editor-in-chief of Energy, Associate editor of International Journal of Refrigeration.

Prof. Changying Zhao is the Chair Professor, the Director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, and the Dean of China-UK Low Carbon College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Prof. Zhao is the Principal Investigator for quite a few major research projects sponsored by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Ministry of Science and Technology of China. Prof. Zhao’s research interests mainly cover micro/nanoscale thermal radiation and metamaterial energy devices, advanced thermal energy storage and hydrogen storage, and heat transfer in porous media. He has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed high quality journals like Nature Materials, Physical Review Letters, Nano Letters, IJHMT, Annual Review of Heat Transfer, Energy and Environmental Science, Chemical Engineering Journal, etc., which are cited around 20000 times in total. Prof. Zhao has also been recognized as one of the Most Cited Chinese Researchers by Elsevier every year since 2014. He was awarded the William Begell Medal in 2023 for Excellence in Thermal Science and Engineering, the Shanghai Natural Science Award (First Class) by Shanghai Municipal Government in 2020, and the Best Paper Award of the ASME Micro/Nanoscale Heat and Mass Transfer International Conference for twice, in 2013 and 2019, respectively. Prof. Zhao serves as a member of the Scientific Council of International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer (ICHMT), a Founding Fellow and Executive Board Member of Asian Union of Thermal Science and Engineering (AUTSE), Vice-Director of the Heat and Mass Transfer Society of China, as well as a Board Member of the Nukiyama Memorial Award. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Carbon Neutrality, Associate Editor of Thermal Science and Engineering Progress, as well as Editorial Board Members of several other international journals.