Back to agenda

29 June 2026 - ICFO Auditorium

Energy CARLA: The Energy Careers Symposium 2026

14:00-14:30

Registration

14:30-14:45

Introduction and welcome words

Lydia Sanmartí-Vila

Lydia Sanmartí-Vila

Head of Outreach at ICFO

14:45-15:15

Landscape of the Energy and Sustainability sector in Photonics

F. Pelayo García de Arquer

F. Pelayo García de Arquer

Group Leader and Professor at ICFO

15:15-16:15

Academic careers panel in Energy and Sustainability - Moderated by Alastair Cunningham

Francisco Bernal

Francisco Bernal

Postdoctoral researcher at ICFO

Libai Huang

Libai Huang

Tarpo Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Quantum Photonics Integrated Design Center (QuPIDC) at Purdue University

Monica Lira-Cantu

Monica Lira-Cantu

CSIC Professor and Group Leader

Nicoletta Liguori

Nicoletta Liguori

Professor and Group Leader at ICFO

16:15-16:45

Networking coffee break*

16:45 - 17:25

Innovation and emerging trends in Energy and Sustainability

Júlia Viladoms Claverol

Júlia Viladoms Claverol

Industrial Decarbonization Unit Manager at ICIQ

Miquel Anglada Autet

Miquel Anglada Autet

Researcher & Innovation Manager at UPC

Sergi Cuesta Arcos

Sergi Cuesta Arcos

CTO at VITSOLC Technologies S.L.

17:25-18:00

Innovation careers panel in Energy and Sustainability - Moderated by Luis Guillermo Gerling

Júlia Viladoms Claverol

Júlia Viladoms Claverol

Industrial Decarbonization Unit Manager at ICIQ

Miquel Anglada Autet

Miquel Anglada Autet

Researcher & Innovation Manager at UPC

Sergi Cuesta Arcos

Sergi Cuesta Arcos

CTO at VITSOLC Technologies S.L.

18:00-18:05

Closing words

Alice La Porta

Alice La Porta

Outreach Project Manager at ICFO

18:05-19:00

Aperitivo* & Networking

19:00

End of the event

*Coffee break and aperitivo provided by ICFO

Organised by

Funded by

With the support of

Consortium

Bio

Libai Huang is Tarpo Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Quantum Photonics Integrated Design Center (QuPIDC) at Purdue University, USA. Her research focuses on ultrafast optical microscopy, quantum materials, exciton transport, many-body interactions, and photonic systems. She is internationally recognized for pioneering advanced imaging techniques that enable the visualization of energy, charge, and exciton dynamics in semiconductors, perovskites, two-dimensional materials, and quantum nanostructures.

She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University, China, in 2001 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Rochester, USA, in 2006. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Argonne National Laboratory, she served as Principal Investigator at the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory before joining Purdue University in 2014, where she advanced from Assistant Professor to Full Professor. She was also a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in 2022.

Professor Huang has authored more than 100 scientific publications in leading journals, including Science, Nature Materials, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, and ACS Nano. She has received numerous honors, including the NSF CAREER Award, Purdue University’s University Scholar distinction, and prestigious invited lectureships at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Oregon. She currently serves as Executive Editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry and leads several major federally funded research programs focused on quantum photonics, coherence, entanglement, and next-generation technologies for energy and information science.

About the Institution

Purdue University is a leading public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. Founded in 1869, Purdue is internationally recognized for its excellence in science, engineering, technology, agriculture, and innovation. As Indiana’s land-grant university, Purdue is committed to advancing knowledge through education, research, and public engagement.

The university is home to world-renowned programs in engineering, physical sciences, aviation, computer science, and emerging technologies. Purdue has a strong tradition of scientific discovery and entrepreneurship, fostering collaborations between academia, industry, and government to address global challenges.

Purdue is widely known as the “Cradle of Astronauts” due to the large number of alumni who have become astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon. Today, Purdue continues to be a global leader in research and innovation, educating students and advancing breakthroughs that shape the future of science, technology, and society.

Bio

Monica Lira-Cantu is CSIC Full Professor and Group Leader of the Nanostructured Materials for Photovoltaic Energy Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona, Spain. Her research interests are the synthesis of novel nanomaterials and the control of their optoelectronic properties through their manipulation at molecular level, with the aim of developing very stable and highly efficient emerging solar cells like dye-sensitized, hybrid, organic and perovskite solar cells and the integration of different types of energy technologies for self-power electronics and the production of green energy. She obtained her PhD in Materials Science in 1997 and worked as a staff chemist for ExxonMobil Research & Engineering (USA) and returned to Spain in 2001 obtaining a Permanent research position in 2006. She was visiting professor at EPFL (Switzerland) in 2018 and has been visiting scientist at the Center for Advanced Science and Innovation (Japan), Oslo University (Norway), and the Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (Denmark). Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and the Cannon Foundation in Europe. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of APL Energy (AIP Publishing) and Advisory Editorial Board for Discovery Materials and Springer Nature Applied Sciences (Nature); Adv. Energy and Sustainability (Wiley); Chemical Physics Impact (Elsevier) and Matter (Cell Press). She has more than 165 publications, including 145 published articles in scientific journals, one edited book, 10 book chapters, and 11 patents. She is a reviewer for more than 45 scientific organizations, including the prestigious ERC grants, and more than 50 scientific journals.

About the Institution

The Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia, with its official English translation Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and acronym ICN2, is a non-profit international research institute located close to Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). It is devoted to generating knowledge, materials and devices in ICT, health, energy and the environment.

The ICN2’s expertise lies at the nanoscale, where new properties, interactions, and ways to exploit them in everyday life are being discovered. Among its goals is to bring together scientists from diverse backgrounds in the pursuit of better science, better training, and better outreach to society while also seeking out new ways to engage with local and global industry.

ICN2 was accredited in 2014 as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence, a recognition renewed in 2018 and 2023 for another 4-year period. The Severo Ochoa Programme, sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, aims to identify and support Spanish research centres that are among the world’s best in their specialty.

The trustees of the ICN2 are the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where it is based. ICN2 is a CERCA Center and also one of the founding members of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) and the Graphene Flagship.