Jonathan Nitschke received his bachelor's degree from Williams College (USA) in 1995 and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 under the supervision of T. Don Tilley. He then undertook postdoctoral studies with Jean-Marie Lehn in Strasbourg under the auspices of a US NSF fellowship, and in 2003 he started his independent research career as a Maître-assistant (fixed-term independent PI) in the Organic Chemistry Department of the University of Geneva. In 2007 he was appointed University Lecturer at Cambridge, where he now holds a Professorship. He is the recipient of the Izatt-Christensen Award in Supramolecular chemistry (2022), a Wolfson Research Merit Award of the UK Royal Society (2017), the International Award for Creative Work of the Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry (2016), the Bob Hay Lectureship of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2013), the Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize in Supramolecular Chemistry (2012), the Corday-Morgan Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2011), the Dalton Transactions European/African Lectureship (2011), the Werner Prize of the Swiss Chemical Society (2007) and the European Young Chemist Award at the first EuCheMS Congress (2006). He won an ERC Starting Grant (2011-2016) and an ERC Advanced Grant (2017-2021). His research program investigates the self-assembly of complex, functional structures from simple molecular precursors and metal ions. These research pathways are realized in the Nitschke Group at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge (UK).

Prof. David Écija is the founder and head of the Nanoarchitectonics on Surfaces Group at IMDEA Nanoscience. He is an expert in condensed matter physics, surface science and molecular science, focused on the design of functional nanomaterials on surfaces amenable to scanning probe microscopies and photo-electron spectroscopies. His research comprises the engineering of novel organic, inorganic, metal-organic or organo-metallic compounds and nanostructures on surfaces, trying to unravel complex physico-chemical phenomena at interfaces. He is particularly focused on the design and understanding of nanomaterials for optoelectronics, quantum nanoscience, nanomagnetism, sensing and catalysis. In addition, he is also keen on introducing novel chemical reaction pathways on surfaces, while deciphering unique reaction mechanisms, thus developing the field of on-surface synthesis. He also pays strong attention to the valorization of small molecules on surfaces, targeting to rationalize energy-related chemical reactions. Immediately after obtaining a double "Licenciado" degree in Physics, he enrolled at the Research & Development department of Telefónica, where he acquired fundamental knowledge about the prospection of high-technologies. Simultaneously, he pursued a Ph. D. degree in Physics at Miranda´s lab centered on the fabrication and inspection of inorganic ferromagnetic nanoarchitectures and organic-charge transfer complexes. After receiving a competitive Marie-Curie Fellowship, he moved to Barth´s laboratories at the Technical University of Munich, where he learnt and pioneered the fundaments of molecular self-assembly on surfaces during a five year period. From January 2014 to December 2018 he held an independent tenure-track position at IMDEA Nanoscience, being promoted to tenured Professor in May 2019. Notably, he is the recipient of a Ramón y Cajal fellowship 2012 and of the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant 2018, being involved in numerous regional, national and international scientific and technological projects. Since January 2022 Prof. David Écija is the coordinator of the ultra-high vacuum facilities at IMDEA Nanoscience.

Alexey Kimel obtained his PhD from the Ioffe institute in 2002. He pioneered the ultrafast research on antiferromagnetic materials already 20 years [PRL 89, 287401 (2002), Nature 435, 655–657 (2005)] and his works in a large extent defined the development of ultrafast magnetism during the last two decades. Alexey Kimel is a co-inventor of ultrafast all-optical magnetic recording [PRL 99, 047601 (2007)] and inertia of spins in antiferromagnets [Nature-Physics 5, 727–731 (2009)], recognized world-leader in the field (Veni2004, Vidi2006, Vici2017, ERC-SG 2010, Russian MegaGrant-2013, ERC-AG2022). During the last years, his group has been pushing the frontiers of the field demonstrating the fastest and the least dissipative magnetic switching [Nature 542, 71–74 (2017)], revealing temporal and spectral fingerprints of the coherent switching in antiferomagnets [Nature 569, 7756 (2019)], discovering the regime of highly anharmonic dynamics of antiferromagnetic spins [Science 374 1608-1611 (2021), PRL (2023)].