Iryna Protsak obtained her Master’s Degree in Chemistry from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2012 and received her Ph.D. in Physics and Chemistry of Surfaces from the Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, NASU, Kyiv, in 2016. She conducted her postdoctoral training at the University of Glasgow (UK), the Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry (Ukraine), and Zhejiang University of Technology (China). In 2022, she joined the University of Vienna after her project was awarded the ESPRIT Individual Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund. Her research focuses on advancing porous nanomaterials with customized physicochemical properties, particularly through the surface modification of silica, carbon substrates, MOFs, hydrogels, and more. These materials are investigated for their potential as selective sorbents in advanced water treatment and resource recovery. The primary goal of her current project is to develop specialized sorbents capable of selectively adsorbing and separating critical raw materials (CRMs).

Yevhenii Morozov obtained his Master’s Degree in Physics from Donetsk National University, Ukraine, in 2012 and completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the National Technical University of Ukraine, Kyiv, in 2016. He conducted postdoctoral research at Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China. In 2021, he joined the Austrian Institute of Technology after being awarded the Lise Meitner Individual Fellowship by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). His current research focuses on advancing the understanding of the physical principles governing pure soft matter systems, such as thermoresponsive biofunctional hydrogels, and hybrid metal/soft matter materials. His work holds great potential for future applications in optical spectroscopy, bioanalytics, soft robotics, and beyond.