Dr. sc. ing. Sandra Muižniece-Brasava, Professor and leading researcher, Faculty of Food Technology, Head of the Department of Technology and Knowledge Transfer, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Corresponding Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Sandra’s main research interests are sustainable food packaging technologies and optimisation of food packaging according to an eco-design strategy.

Dr. phys. Gints Kučinskis, Leading researcher and Head of the Laboratory of Materials for Energy Harvesting and Storage, Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia. Physicist Gints Kučinskis has used his more than five years of experience working in research institutes in Germany to establish what is probably the largest battery materials research group in Latvia at the ISSP UL, successfully collaborating with both local start-ups and Europe’s leading lithium-ion battery manufacturing companies.

Dr. chem. Jānis Veliks Leading researcher and Head of the Laboratory of Organic Synthesis, Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis. The main research focus of Jānis Veliks is the development of new – efficient, easy to use and stable – fluoromethylene group reagents for the simultaneous introduction of fluorine and carbon atoms into organic compounds. These reagents allow new fluorinated molecules to be formed more easily and their most important potential application is in the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, as on average one in four of them contains at least one fluorine atom.