Parak obtained his Ph.D. at the LMU München, Germany (1999), in the group of Prof. Dr. Hermann Gaub. After a postdoctoral stay at the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, in the group of Prof. Dr. Paul Alivisatos, he returned to Munich in 2002 as Assistant Professor. From 2007 – 2017 he was Full Professor at the Philipps Universität Marburg, German. Since 2017 he is Full Professor at the Universität Hamburg, Germany.

The research of Wolfgang Parak is dedicated towards the development of new surface chemistries of inorganic nanoparticles and towards the characterization of their physicochemical properties. In particular, the development of an amphiphilic polymer coating is nowadays used by many different groups worldwide. Nanoparticles with such high colloidal stability are the bases of experimentally correlating their physicochemical properties with their interaction will cells (involving uptake and cytotoxicity), which has been the research topic of the Parak group for the 2 decades. The group also uses polymeric polyelectrolyte capsules fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly for biological applications (in vitro sensing and delivery).

Parak is Associate Editor of ACS Nano and Nanotoxicology. He is in the advisory board of the following journals: Angewandte Chemie, Theragnostics, Nanomaterials, ChemNanoMat, Colloids and Interface, Science Communications, Particle & Particle Systems Characterization, Nanotoxicology, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, The All Results Journal, Journal of Nanobiotechnology, Recent Patents on Nanotechnology, and Journal of Nanobiosensors in Disease Diagnosis.

He has several awards: 2009 “Nanoscience” – award 2008 from the Association of Nanotechnology-Centres Germany (AGenNT); 2011 Ranked #59 in Top Materials Scientists of the past decade by Essential Science Indicators; 2012 Awarded Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists; 2014 Highly cited in the category materials sciences; 2018 Bioconjugate Chemistry Lectureship Award; 2019 SPIE Community Champion 2020;  Highly Cited Researcher 2020; Fellow American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

ICREA Research Professor Josep Nogués earned his degree from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 1986. After obtaining his PhD at the Kungliga Tekniska Höskolan (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1993, he moved to the University of California San Diego (USA) to complete his postdoctoral studies. Four years later he returned to the UAB as an associate researcher, becoming an ICREA research professor in 2001 and a founding member of the former Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN) shortly thereafter.
His Magnetic Nanostructures group was formally integrated into the ICN structure in 2006.

Prof. Nogués has published 251 articles (including eight reviews), with over 18,500 citations and an H-index of 58. He is the author of three patents and his work has given rise to over 245 invited talks at international conferences and workshops.

Prof. Laura M. Lechuga received her PhD in Chemistry from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) in 1992. She is Full Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Head of the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona (Spain) and at the Networking Biomedical Research Center (CIBER-BBN). She has been Adjunct Professor at The Artic University of Norway (2012-2016) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Campinas (Brazil) (2013- 2017).

The main focus of its research program is in the area of nanodiagnosis and silicon photonics, with the technological development of nanophotonic and microfluidic biosensors and their integration into portable point-of-care platforms, as well as its application in clinical and environmental diagnosis.

She has published over 260 articles, book chapters and proceedings, has 8 families of patents, and has presented her work worldwide in more than 360 invited talks. She has co-founded two spin-off companies. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of several national and international high-level research centers and has taken part in numerous international evaluation panels.

She has received several prizes and recognitions along her career, such as the Prize of Physics, Innovation and Technology from the Spanish Royal Society of Physics and BBVA Foundation in 2016 or the Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) Award in 2014. In 2020 Prof. Laura Lechuga received three prestigious awards: King Jaume I Prize, “Juan de la Cierva” National Research Award and Ada Byron Prize

Professor Aitziber L. Cortajarena earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Universidad del País Vasco in 2002. Then, she joined the group of Prof. L. Regan at Yale University, USA, as a Postdoctoral Fellow. She worked on protein design, structure, and function. In 2006, she was Visiting Scientist at the Weizmann Institute, Israel, with Dr. G. Haran working on single molecule spectroscopy. Then, continued her work at Yale University, as an Associate Research Scientist with Dr. Regan. She joined IMDEA Nanociencia as Group Leader in 2010 to established her independent research group focused on protein engineering toward the generation of bio- functional nanostructures and bioinspired materials for applications in nano-biotechnology and nanomedicine. In 2016, she joined CIC-BiomaGUNE in 2016 as Ikerbasque Research Professor to lead the Biomolecular Nanotecnology group focused on the development of modular versatile platforms for the fabrication of multiple protein-based hybrid functional materials. She holds an Associate Scientist position at IMDEA-Nanociencia. She joined CIC-BiomaGUNE in 2016 as Ikerbasque Research Professor to lead the Biomolecular Nanotecnology group focused on the development of modular versatile platforms for the fabrication of multiple protein-based hybrid functional materials.

Prof. Cortajarena has published more than 120 articles, with over 3350 citations. Currently, she is the Scientific Director at CIC biomaGUNE.