Speakers

Alexey Kimel

Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands)

Title: Antiferromagnetism

Bio: Alexey Kimel obtained his PhD from the Ioffe Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia) and joined the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) at Radboud University as a postdoctoral researcher in 2002. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 2007, promoted to Associate Professor in 2013, and became Full Professor in 2017.

He pioneered research on ultrafast spin dynamics in antiferromagnetic materials [PRL 89, 287401 (2002); Nature 435, 655–657 (2005)], and his work has to a large extent shaped the development of ultrafast magnetism over the past two decades. He is a co-inventor of ultrafast all-optical magnetic recording [PRL 99, 047601 (2007)] and demonstrated the inertia of spins in antiferromagnets [Nature Physics 5, 727–731 (2009)].

As a recognized world leader in the field, he has been awarded several prestigious research grants, including Veni (2004), Vidi (2006), Vici (2017), ERC Starting Grant (2010), the Russian MegaGrant (2013), and an ERC Advanced Grant (2022). Since September 2025, he has served as Director of the Institute for Molecules and Materials.

YoshiChika Otani

The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo (Japan)

Title: Orbitronics

Bio: YoshiChika Otani is currently a Professor in the Department of Physics at Tohoku University and a Principal Investigator of the JST ASPIRE “Q-Spintronics” project. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Keio University in 1989. Following postdoctoral research at Trinity College Dublin and CNRS Grenoble, he served as Assistant Professor at Keio University (1992–1995) and Associate Professor at Tohoku University (1995–2002). He then led the Quantum Nano-Scale Magnetics Team at the Frontier Research System (FRS), RIKEN (2001–2004). From 2004 to 2026, he served as Professor at the Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), The University of Tokyo, where he also directed the Quantum Nano-Scale Magnetism Team at RIKEN CEMS from 2004 to 2025. He additionally served as Chair Professor of the LANEF Q-SPIN project at Université Grenoble Alpes until 2024.

Prof. Otani has published over 400 papers (h-index 80) and delivered more than 100 invited and plenary talks worldwide. He coordinated the Nano Spin Conversion Science project (2014–2019), received the 2020 MEXT Commendation for Science and Technology, and served on IUPAP’s Commission on Magnetism (C9) from 2011 to 2022.

Johan Paulides

AE-Group (The Netherlands)

Title: Electrical Machines and Drives for Automotive

Bio: Dr. Johannes J. H. Paulides MPhil, CEO of SMIEEE, obtained his master’s and doctorate degrees from the Electric Machine and Drives Group in Sheffield, United Kingdom, one of the world’s largest and highest-ranked university groups in the field of electric machines and drives. He then held various positions at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, for 12.5 years. He is a globally respected expert in the field of electric machines, power electronics, drives, linear actuators, renewable energy, electric powertrains and active electromagnetic suspension. He is an organiser and guest speaker at various conferences on renewable energy, suspension, electric machines, power electronics and drives, and has gained extensive experience with electric powertrains, from the factory floor to academia, and from the development/conversion of components to complete vehicle powertrains. His current commercial activities cover all aspects of electric drives, but in particular electromagnetic modelling and highly efficient, high-torque electric drives and linear actuators for our customers’ applications.