Montpellier - France
18th International Conference
on Inorganic Membranes
June 29th – July 3rd 2026
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Prof. Sankar NAIR
Georgia Institute of Technology - GeorgiaTech, Atlanta (USA)
- Position: Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech
- Tentative title: Fabrication and Applications of Zeolite Hollow Fiber Membranes and Membrane Reactors via Dry Gel Conversion Processes
Dr. Anita BUEKENHOUDT
VITO NV, Mol, Antwerp (BELGIUM)
- Position: Team Leader and Project Manager, Unit Separation and Conversion Technology at VITO NV.
- Tentative title: A sustainable and economic membrane-based process to re-refine used lubricant oil
Prof. Zhiping LAI
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology - KAUST, Thuwal (SAUDI ARABIA)
- Position: Professor, co-chair of the KAUST Center for Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies.
- Tentative title: Lithium Extraction from Low-grade Brines
Prof. Wilhelm Albert MEULENBERG
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich (GERMANY)
- Position: Director of the Institute of Energy Materials and Devices (IMD-2) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, and Professor of Inorganic Membranes at Twente University
- Tentative title: Manufacturing of Proton Conducting Cells
Dr. Sandrine RICOTE
Colorado School of Mines, Golden (USA)
- Position: Research Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
- Tentative title: Protonic ceramic membranes: from the composition choice to making devices
Prof. Kumar Varoon AGRAWAL
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - EPFL, Sion (SWITZERLAND)
- Position: Assoc. Professor, GAZNAT Chair, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at EPFL
- Tentative title: Ultrathin two-dimensional membranes for carbon capture: fundamental science-driven scalable fabrication
Prof. Theodore T. TSOTSIS
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California (USA)
- Position: Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at USC, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Tentative title: Membrane Contactor Reactors (MCR): An Efficient Platform Technology for Converting Waste Carbon Resources into Liquid Chemicals and Fuels
Dr. Per Kristian VESTRE
CoorsTek Membrane Sciences AS, Oslo (NORWAY)
- Position: Managing Director at CoorsTek Membrane Sciences AS
- Tentative title: Industrializing Metal-Ceramic Membranes: A Status Report on Proton Conductors and Pd-alloy Membranes
Dr. Margot Anabell LLOSA TANCO
TECNALIA Membrane Technology (SPAIN)
- Position: Senior Researcher, Materials and processes, Process intensification and membrane technology.
- Tentative title: Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for High-Performance Hydrogen Separation
Prof. Michael DOLAN
Fortescue, Perth (AUSTRALIA)
- Position: Director of Research and Development at Fortescue
- Tentative title: To be announced (recent pilot-scale trial of metal membranes)
Prof. Arian NIJMEIJER
Shell Global Solutions International BV, Amsterdam (THE NETHERLANDS)
- Positions: Principal Science Expert in Membrane Technology at Shell & Professor of Inorganic Membranes at the University of Twente
- Tentative Title: Inorganic proton conducting membrane-based reactors
Dr. Marie-Laure FONTAINE
SINTEF Industry, Oslo (NORWAY)
- Position: Chief Scientist in high temperature electrochemical systems & Research Manager in the Department of Sustainable Energy Technology at SINTEF.
- Tentative title: Electrochemical pumping of CO2 and O2 using molten carbonates
Prof. Masahiko MATSUKATA
Waseda University, Tokyo (JAPAN)
- Position: Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, Waseda University
- Tentative title: Olefin-Paraffin Separation through Ag-exchanged zeolite membrane
Dr. Mieke LUITEN-OLIEMAN
University of Twente, Enschede (THE NETHERLANDS)
- Position: Researcher, Inorganic Membranes, MESA+ Institute at UT
- Tentative title: Increasing hydrophobicity of hybrid-ceramic membranes by post-deposition nitrogen annealing of molecular layer deposition grown hybrid layers.
Prof. Masakoto KANEZASHI
Hiroshima University (JAPAN)
- Position: Professor, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering
- Tentative title: Microstructure engineering of carbon contained ceramic composite structure for molecular separation
Dr. María BALAGUER RAMIREZ
Universitat Politècnica de València -UPV- Valencia (SPAIN)
- Position: Tenured Scientist, Instituto de Tecnología Química (ITQ), CSIC–UPV
- Tentative title: Oxygen transport membranes applied to carbon capture and intensified catalysis
Prof. Fausto GALLUCCI
Eindhoven University of Technology, TU/e (THE NETHERLANDS)
- Position: Professor, Inorganic Membranes & Membrane Reactors, Department Chemical Engineering & Chemistry at TU/e
- Tentative title: Membrane reactors with Carbon Membranes
Prof. Weishen YANG
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics- DICP (CHINA)
- Position: Professor, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics – DICP, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
- Tentative title: Dynamic Inorganic Membranes for Advanced Zinc-Ion Batteries
