ABOUT AMGEC-2026 KEYNOTES
University of Picardie Jules Verne, France
Prof. Mustapha JOUIAD: -
Dr. Mustapha Jouiad is a Professor of Materials Science at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (France) and team leader of low dimensional materials for energy. He obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the renowned Lab CEMES-CNRS and his Master’s degree in Solid-State Physics from the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France. Before joining UPJV, Prof. Jouiad served as a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering program at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (UAE), in close collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also held research appointments at world-class institutions including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research. His research focuses on functional materials and multiphysics coupling phenomena with applications in renewable energy, environmental technologies, and advanced device architectures. Combining both experimental and theoretical approaches, his work aims to establish correlations between micro/nanostructure and macroscopic performance, enabling the prediction and optimization of material properties for targeted applications. Currently, Prof. Jouiad’s research emphasizes the design, modification, and characterization of low-dimensional nanomaterials, including 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, oxide perovskites, and functionalized nanoparticles, for applications in photovoltaics, hydrogen production, and sensing technologies.
AREA: Hydrogen production
University of Carthage, Tunisia
Prof. Mohamed Sadok GUELLOUZ: -
Dr. Mohamed Sadok Guellouz is an Associate Professor of Energy Engineering at the National Engineering School of Bizerte (ENIB), Tunisia. He served two consecutive terms as Director of ENIB (2011–2017), during which he led significant academic, administrative, and infrastructure development initiatives. He was also the general coordinator of the ENIB construction and equipment project financed by the French Development Agency, overseeing the planning, execution, and commissioning of major facilities for engineering education and research. Before joining ENIB, Dr. Guellouz chaired the Energy Engineering Department at the National Engineering School of Monastir (ENIM) from 2008 to 2011, contributing to curriculum development and research capacity strengthening in the fields of thermal and renewable energy systems. Earlier in his career, he spent several years in Canada, where he worked as a Nuclear Reactor Safety Analyst at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada. During his postgraduate studies, he also held research and teaching appointments at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Guellouz’s research interests cover a broad range of topics in energy and fluid mechanics, including the thermal-hydraulics of nuclear reactors, renewable and sustainable energy systems, Power-to-X (PtX) technologies, and building thermal performance. His scientific work integrates experimental, numerical, and engineering approaches aimed at improving energy efficiency, safety, and sustainability. In addition to his academic and research roles, Dr. Guellouz plays an active part in several professional and scientific organizations. He is Vice-President of the Tunisian Aeronautical Association, Honorary President of the Tunisian Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers, and a long-standing member of the Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS). Within the CNS, he previously served as Board Member, Chair of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Division for two terms, and President of the Ottawa Chapter.
AREA: PtX i.e Green Hydrogen and derivatives
University of Calabria, Italy
DR. Alfonso POLICICCHIO: -
Dr. Alfonso Policicchio, Senior Researcher and scientific responsible for the university of the laboratory DeltaH, the laboratory that allows to validate materials up to 1000 bar, created jointly with Centro Sviluppo Materiali SpA - RINA Group, at the UniCal campus. He is also in charge, within the “Surface and Energy Group” at the Physics Department – UniCal of the “Adsorption and Porosimetry Laboratory”. He took his Degree in Physics at University of Calabria in 2004 and subsequently he got his PhD in Physics in 2007. During this period, awarded with “Voucher Regione Calabria 2009” for the “Realization of high-intensive training programs for researchers from the university and Calabria public research centers”, he spent time at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York (USA) and few years later, in the 2009, at the Material Science & Engineering Department of the Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta (USA). Until 2017, he earned a postdoctoral fellowship at the Physics Department of University of Calabria where, at the same time, he was research and development manager for the DeltaE srl company. In 2018 he moved to United States where he hold a position as a research associate at the City College of New York working on nanostructured materials for hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide removal and storage. He has wide expertise in physical-chemical materials characterization (especially, nanostructures for hydrogen storage). His knowledges, ranging from chemical to physical through structural characterization techniques like surface electron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, differential and thermal gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy were very useful in several research projects he attended. His research is mainly devoted to development and characterization of nanostructured advanced materials for energy storage. In particular, he deals with gas (hydrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, etc.) purification and storage. In the last years he also spent some time in the development of systems and procedures for the synthesis and characterization of carbon-based nanostructured materials with high specific surface area for application in renewable energy field. He is author and Co-author for 80(+) publications already submitted in international peer-reviewed journals with more than 1700 citations (h-index=24), conference proceedings and book chapters. He has supervised and co-supervised for 20(+) University students working on their PhDs and degrees, therefore he is referee for several international scientific journals (i.e. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Fuel, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Journal of Nanoscience, Journal of Porous materials, Journal of Energy storage etc.).
AREA: Biomass for hydrogen storage
University of Monastir, Tunisia
Prof. Maher BEN CHIEKH: -
Dr. Maher Ben Chiekh is a Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and Canada's most experienced reduced-gravity researcher. He is Canada's top performer at leveraging departmental and provincial research funds with national (NSERC, CSA) and international funding agencies to pursue Canadian space science objectives onboard the International Space Station (ISS). His talent as a space scientist and university educator is consistently requested by the international space physical science mission community. He leads a group of very strong graduate students and post-docs that come from academia and industry, with interest in and application to deep hydrocarbon reservoirs. His innovation is recognized internationally through consistent invitations from European researchers that identify him as applying the maximum knowledge gained from long-duration gravity-driven phenomena in fluid physics to industrial processes. He has been PI or Co-I of Foton-M2 and M3 SCCO recoverable satellite missions (2007), the ISS SODI-IVIDIL (2009) and DSC (2010) missions, the ISS SODI-DCMIX mission (2011-15), and was the national coordinator of the CSA discipline working group on the role of gravity in metals and alloys. Canada's contribution to the SODI-DCMIX mission is to clarify the role of gravity on the movement of hydrocarbons across temperature gradients-important knowledge for Canada's deep oil reservoir sector (Hybernia Oil field and Northern exploration of oil reservoir deposits). Over the past decade, Prof. Saghir has been working in collaboration with TOTAL and researchers in France to apply innovation to benefit Canada's competitiveness in hydrocarbon extraction from oil reservoirs, a top priority of the Federal Government. He has published over 280 scientific journal paper related to energy. He is currently the chair of the International conference on Thermal Engineering (www.ictea.ca).
AREA: Thermal Engineering
Novation City, Sousse Technopole, Tunisia
Prof. Ramla GHEITH: -
Dr. Ramla Gheith is an Associate Professor at the National Engineering School of Monastir (ENIM) and a member of the Thermal and Energy Systems Laboratory (LESTE) at the University of Monastir, Tunisia.A specialist in energy transfer and thermal phenomena, her research spans a broad range of topics, including Stirling engines, modeling and optimization of energy systems, and the design of high-performance heat exchangers. Beyond her academic and scientific work, Dr. Gheith is recognized as an expert in energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. She has supported numerous industrial companies in their ecological transition, implementing practical solutions for energy optimization and carbon footprint reduction. Combining scientific rigor with field experience, she stands as a reference in energy transition, and sustainable innovation in the industrial sector.
AREA: Energy transfer and heat phenomena
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
Prof. Ziad SAGHIR: -
Dr. Ziad Saghir is a Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and Canada's most experienced reduced-gravity researcher. He is Canada's top performer at leveraging departmental and provincial research funds with national (NSERC, CSA) and international funding agencies to pursue Canadian space science objectives onboard the International Space Station (ISS). His talent as a space scientist and university educator is consistently requested by the international space physical science mission community. He leads a group of very strong graduate students and post-docs that come from academia and industry, with interest in and application to deep hydrocarbon reservoirs. His innovation is recognized internationally through consistent invitations from European researchers that identify him as applying the maximum knowledge gained from long-duration gravity-driven phenomena in fluid physics to industrial processes. He has been PI or Co-I of Foton-M2 and M3 SCCO recoverable satellite missions (2007), the ISS SODI-IVIDIL (2009) and DSC (2010) missions, the ISS SODI-DCMIX mission (2011-15), and was the national coordinator of the CSA discipline working group on the role of gravity in metals and alloys. Canada's contribution to the SODI-DCMIX mission is to clarify the role of gravity on the movement of hydrocarbons across temperature gradients-important knowledge for Canada's deep oil reservoir sector (Hybernia Oil field and Northern exploration of oil reservoir deposits). Over the past decade, Prof. Saghir has been working in collaboration with TOTAL and researchers in France to apply innovation to benefit Canada's competitiveness in hydrocarbon extraction from oil reservoirs, a top priority of the Federal Government. He has published over 280 scientific journal paper related to energy. He is currently the chair of the International conference on Thermal Engineering (www.ictea.ca).
AREA: Thermal Engineering
University of Lorraine, CNRS, France
Prof. Sébastien LEBEGUE: -
Dr. Sébastien Lebègue is a CNRS Research Professor (HdR) specializing in the development and application of ab initio calculation methods for understanding the electronic structure of solid compounds. His research focuses particularly on van der Waals interactions (e.g., molecule-surface systems), strongly correlated systems, and excited states. He completed his PhD (2000-2003) at IPCMS (Strasbourg) on the development of the GW approximation under the supervision of M. Alouani, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Uppsala (Sweden) with O. Eriksson's group. He joined the CNRS in 2005.
AREA: Solid state physics-DFT
CNR-Istituto di Tecnologie Avanzate per l'Energia, Italy
Prof. Vincenzo BAGLIO: -
Dr. Vincenzo Baglio is a Research Director at CNR – Institute of Advanced Technology for Energy “Nicola Giordano” of Messina, Italy. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in chemistry from University of Messina (Italy) and a PhD in “Materials for Environment and Energy” from University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (Italy). His current research is focused on energy conversion and storage, in particular in the field of fuel cells, electrolysers and metal-air batteries. Vincenzo Baglio published more than 250 articles (H-index 60 from SCOPUS, H-index 67 from Google Scholar) in international journals, 10 book chapters, 1 book, 1 international patent, and he had about 300 contributions in national and international conferences (more than 30 as invited/keynote speaker).
AREA: Energy conversion and storage
