Invited Speaker

 

Ivan Tolj

University of Split, Croatia

 

Dr. Ivan Tolj is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FESB), University of Split, Croatia. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in energy engineering from the University of Split in 2012. Prior to his current position, he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and held academic positions as a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Split. His research interests include fuel cell technologies, hydrogen production, storage and compression, and energy systems integration. He is actively involved in international research projects, including the EU Horizon 2020 HYDRIDE4MOBILITY project, where he serves as a team leader. Dr. Tolj has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed international journals in the field of hydrogen energy and related disciplines. His work has received close to 2,000 citations, with an h-index of 22. He serves as an Assistant Subject Editor for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (Elsevier) and has also contributed as a Guest Editor for several international journals, including Journal of Energy Storage, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, and Energies.

 

 

 

Yukichika Kawata

Kindai University, Japan

 

Dr. Kawata is an assoc. Prof. at Faculty of Economics, Kindai University in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He earned his Ph.D. degree at Kyoto University in 2004. Before joining a faculty member at Kindai University. he was a lecturer and an assistant Prof. at other Japanese universities. His research interests include environmental economics, resource economics, and wildlife management. He has published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed international academic journals such as Ecological Research (Wiley), Ecological Economics (Elsevier), The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (De Gruyter), Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (Elsevier), Appetite (Elsevier), and Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management (Springer), and more than 80 other publications.

Speech title "Urban Village Improvement by Creating Streetscapes through Murals: Analysis on the Factors Behind Post-COVID-19 Status Differences"

Abstract— Urban villages (kampung kota) throughout Indonesia are often considered slums due to their poor living conditions. In 2015, the Indonesian government launched the KOTAKU program, which stands for "slum-free towns" in Indonesian, to develop kampung kota into tourism villages (also called thematic villages). Following the COVID-19 closures, some tourism villages, like other tourist destinations, have recovered, while others have seen almost no visitors. This study aimed to develop hypotheses regarding the factors underlying these differences, based on field surveys conducted in Semarang and Balikpapan in 2024 and 2025. Examples of KOTAKU program-related developments that have attracted visitors from both within and outside Indonesia include Rainbow Villages (Kampung Pelangi Semarang, Kampung Warna-Warni Jodipan) and Batik Village (Kampung Batik Semarang). The analysis was conducted using "Low-High population density" and "Ordinary-Out of ordinary" as two axes, including other kampung kota. Based on the results, hypotheses were developed: The main reason for some tourist villages' stagnation in the post-COVID-19 era was that their only attraction was their streetscape, with a lack of other tourism resources; The differences in the level of resident participation were the main reason for the differences in sanitation conditions in the post-COVID-19 era.

 

 

 

Meiyin Zhu

International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, China

 

Dr. Meiyin Zhu is an Associate Professor at Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University. His research focuses on aviation emissions and their climate impacts, particularly full-flight-phase pollutant quantification. He received his B.S. from Southwest University of Science and Technology (2014) and Ph.D. from Beihang University (2021), followed by postdoctoral research at Beihang (2021–2023). He has led projects including an NSFC Youth Project, a Beijing Natural Science Foundation project Project, an Aviation Science Fund Project, and a Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation project. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Aerospace Science and Technology, and Chinese Journal of Aeronautics. He authored one textbook and one English monograph, holds 18 invention patents, and has received multiple first-prize awards from the Ministry of Education and several Chinese societies.

 

 

 

Sweety Verma

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, South Korea

 

Dr. Sweety Verma is a researcher in chemical sciences with expertise in thermodynamic modeling, solution chemistry, and emerging applications of artificial intelligence in chemical systems. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi in 2014, followed by a Master’s degree from Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology (DCRUST), India. She earned her Ph.D. in 2020 from the same institution, where her research focused on the Modeling of Thermodynamic Properties of Oxygenated Fuel Additives in hydrocarbon systems”.
Dr. Verma began her academic career as a Visiting Professor at DCRUST, where she taught undergraduate and postgraduate students. In 2021, she moved to South Korea as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Inje University, marking the beginning of her international research career, supported by the prestigious Korea Scholarship.
She continued her postdoctoral research in 2022 at Inha University on a KITECH-funded project, followed by her role in 2023 as a Research Associate in the Low Carbon Energy R&D Group at Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH). Building on this progression, she has been serving as a Research Associate at the Chemical Process Solution Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), since 2024, where she contributes to research on sustainable and low-carbon chemical technologies.
Earlier in her career, she qualified the CSIR-UGC NET and received the CSIR Foreign Travel Grant in 2018. An accomplished author, she has published 57 research papers in leading SCI/SCIE and SCOPUS-indexed journals. She has presented her work at 19+ national and international conferences, delivering multiple invited talks, and serves as a reviewer for leading journals from Elsevier, ACS, and Springer.
Committed to mentorship and collaboration, Dr. Verma has guided Ph.D. and master’s students, contributed to conference committees, and advanced cross-institutional research. Her work reflects a dedication to innovation in chemical sciences for a sustainable and carbon-neutral future.

Speech title "Advances in CO2 Mitigation Technologies: Evolution and Design of Efficient Absorbents for Climate Action"

Abstract— The combustion of fossil fuels, including natural gas, oil, and coal, leads to the substantial release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, contributing significantly to anthropogenic greenhouse gas accumulation and global warming. Since the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, CO2 capture technologies have attracted increasing global research interest. According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency report “Trends in Global CO2 Emissions 2016,” the largest contributors to global CO2 emissions include China (30%), the United States (14%), the European Union (EU-28) (10%), India (7%), the Russian Federation (5%), and Japan (3.5%), collectively accounting for approximately 69% of total emissions. While emissions in several developed regions have shown modest
declines, developing countries such as India continue to experience growth, although their per capita emissions remain comparatively low. These trends highlight the urgent need for effective CO2 mitigation strategies. CO2 capture involves the separation of carbon dioxide from major point sources such as power plants, refineries, petrochemical industries, and other large-scale industrial facilities, enabling its subsequent utilization or sequestration. Fossil fuel-based power plants alone contribute nearly one-third of global CO2 emissions, making them a primary target for capture technologies. Among available methods, chemical absorption using amine-based solvents remains the most mature and widely implemented approach for CO2 separation from flue gases. Alkanolamines, including primary, secondary, and tertiary amines, are conventionally employed as CO2 absorbents. Among them, N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) is extensively used in industrial applications due to its cost-effectiveness, favorable kinetics, and suitability for low-pressure and low CO2 concentration conditions. The presence of hydroxyl groups enhances water solubility and reduces vapor pressure, while amino groups facilitate CO2 interaction. However, conventional aqueous amine systems suffer from several limitations, including high regeneration energy requirements due to large heats of reaction, limited CO2 loading capacity, and issues such as corrosion and carbamate formation in primary and secondary amines. To address these challenges, non-aqueous absorbent systems, including organic solvents such as methanol and ethanol, have been explored to improve regeneration efficiency and reduce energy consumption. In this context, thermophysical properties play a critical role in understanding intermolecular interactions and optimizing absorbent performance. Studies have demonstrated that non-aqueous alkanolamine systems can enhance CO2 absorption rates and overall process efficiency. Accurate evaluation of key properties—including CO2 solubility, reaction kinetics, density, viscosity, surface tension, enthalpy, speed of sound, and refractive index—is essential for the design and optimization of absorption–desorption systems. These parameters, derived from experimental measurements and predictive models, are fundamental for developing next-generation absorbents such as deep eutectic solvents (DES) and ionic liquids, which offer promising alternatives for sustainable CO2 capture