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.

Ph. D. Brigita Dejus, Leading researcher, Water Research and Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, Riga Technical University (RTU). Brigita is a young RTU researcher whose research work is related to water, wastewater monitoring and treatment. She developed her PhD thesis while studying at RTU and the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology, studying the potential of using microscopic fungi in the treatment of wastewater from pharmaceutically active substances.