Plenary speaker

IMCS 2025 welcomes high ranking international speakers. Plenary lectures are a programme highlight at the International Meeting on Chemical Sensors. We are thrilled to introduce our lineup of leaders in their respective field who bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the congress by sharing their cutting-edge research and insights on the latest developments!

Andreas T. Güntner
Human-centered Sensing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich
Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Clinical Nutrition, University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich

Lecture topic
Monitoring Health with Molecular Sensors

Short bio

Andreas Güntner is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Sensing at ETH Zürich, a Research Associate at the University Hospital Zürich and Editor of Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. Before, he served as CEO and co-founder of Alivion AG that has successfully commercialized the first handheld methanol detector with clients in 26 countries in the food, oil & gas, health and transportation industries. In 2022, Andreas returned to academia and founded the Human-centered Sensing Laboratory at ETH Zürich that works on micro/nanosystems and their application as molecular sensors to tackle healthcare and environmental issues. Andreas has published ca. 50 original research articles in leading journals (e.g. Nature Food, Nature Commun., Advanced Materials, Angew. Chemie, Advanced Science) and has been frequently featured by news outlets around the world (100+ since 2016). His scientific and entrepreneurial activities have been recognized by several awards, including ERC Starting Grant, Emerging Technology Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Beiersdorf Excellence Award in Product Design and Engineering by the European Fed. Chem. Eng., Association for Aerosol Research (GAeF) PhD Award and the De Vigier Award.

Albert van den Berg
University of Twente, Netherlands

Lecture topic
tba

Short bio

Albert van den Berg received his MSc in applied physics in 1983, and his PhD in 1988 both at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. From 1988-1993 he worked in Neuchatel, Switzerland, at the CSEM and the University of Neuchatel (IMT) on miniaturized chemical sensors. In 2000 he was appointed as full professor on Miniaturized Systems for (Bio)Chemical Analysis in the faculty of Electrical Engineering and part of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology.
In 1994 he initiated together with Prof. Bergveld the international MicroTAS conference series. He published over 500 peer reviewed publications (H=72 WoS, H=97 Google Scholar (2024)) a.o. in Science, Nature, PNAS, PRL, Angewandte, NanoLetters, ACS Nano etc, and from his group > 10 spin-off companies started. He received several honors and awards such two ERC Advanced (2008, 2015) and four ERC Proof of Concept (2011, 2013, 2016, 2020) grants, Simon Stevin award (engineering sciences, 2002), Spinoza prize (2009), Distinguished University Professor (Twente, 2010), Distinguished Professor (South China Normal University SNCU (China), 2012), Consulting Professor at Northwestern Polytechnic University NPU (China), 2017) and member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) (board member from 2011-2016).
From 2014-2018 he was scientific director of the MIRA institute for Biomedical Engineering. In 2017 he became co-PI of the Max Planck – University of Twente Center for Complex Fluid Dynamics. In 2018 he became (co)director of MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology. He has been editor of Sensors and Actuators B, cofounding member of the editorial board of the RSC journal Lab on a Chip, founding member of EUROoCS, the European Organ on Chip Society and founding director of the CBMS, the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society. In 2022 he was elected member of the SATW (CH).
His current research interests are micro/nanofluidics, Labs on Chip and sensing for health and sustainability and Organs on Chip. His current activities include acting as one of the quartermasters of the UT Climate Centre.

Thomas Thundat
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Buffalo

Lecture topic
Nanosensors: Strides towards real-time ultra-trace level sensing

Short bio

Micro and nano sensors have high sensitivity for detecting adsorbed molecules with demonstrated detection limit (LOD) ranging from pico grams to sub-femto grams in ambient conditions. However, because of the small surface area of micro and nano sensors, the areal density of the adsorbate is small when the ambient analyte concentration is low. Therefore, despite their high sensitivity for detecting molecular adsorption, micro and nano sensors require higher concentrations of targeted molecules for real-time sensing. Although pre-concentrators are routinely used to enrich the concentration of analyte molecules, they increase the overall detection time. As a result, real-time detection remains a challenge for micro and nano sensors. However, recent developments in integrated sensors have the potential for real-time sensing, even when targeted analytes appear at low concentrations. I will also address the question of chemical selectivity in complex environments with a multitude of interfering chemicals.

Lanqun Mao
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University
No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing, China

Lecture topic
Sensing Brain Chemistry from Single Vesicle to In Vivoz

Short bio

Lanqun Mao currently is a professor of College of Chemistry Beijing Normal University. He has been working on the interface between electroanalytical chemistry and brain sciences, aiming at developing electrochemical approaches through tuning electron transfer and ion transport to understanding brain chemistry ranging from single vesicle, single cell, to ultimately a living brain. His group has demonstrated a record of successful and productive research projects in the related area, and the expertise and experience have led to more than 400 research papers and more than 40 plenary/invited talks in the international conferences.