Prof. Blaz Likozar is a head of the Department of Catalysis and Chemical Reaction Engineering at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC), leading the program “Chemical Reaction Engineering”, as well as numerous research projects (15 H2020 / 50 in Horizon Europe alone). His expertise lies (among others) in heterogeneous catalysis materials, modelling, simulation and optimization of process fluid mechanics, transport phenomena and chemical kinetics. He worked at the University of Delaware in 2014–2015 as a Fulbright Program researcher. He has authored >330 articles, was cited >9000 times, having a h-index of 62. He is also involved in many industrial projects, amongst others, with Total Energies, Evonik Industries, UPM, Novartis, Carbon Recycling International… He is a recipient of Pregl and Zois awards.

Humna Khan is the CEO and Founder of ASTRO Mechanical Testing Laboratory, where she collaborates with industry leaders to characterize and qualify 3D printed metal alloys and composites. She is also COO and Partner at MIMO Technik, focusing on developing production flight hardware for major OEMs and emerging space companies. With a mission to advance the additive manufacturing sector, Humna's work spans industry specifications, post-processing, material characterization, and component consolidation. With over 20 years in the Aerospace & Defense industry, Humna has held key roles in payload development, vehicle engineering, and launch operations, specializing in failure analysis. She previously led the qualification of flight-critical hardware for rockets supporting NRO missions and served as Director of Quality Engineering at SpaceX, overseeing technologies for Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon capsule programs. She also worked on NASA's Process Control Program and supported human spaceflight programs through the Space Shuttle’s retirement. Humna holds five degrees in Engineering and Business and is a Six Sigma Black Belt for Lean Production. She is an Advisor for ASTM International, ASM International, SME, Women in 3D Printing, and RAPID+TCT, with a strategic focus on automating manufacturing and democratizing production in aerospace.

Dr.-Ing. Wilderich Heising is a Partner and Director at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He is a core member of BCG's Innovation Center for Operations and very active in BCG's Health Care, Industrial Goods and Consumer Products practice areas. His focus at BCG is on advanced manufacturing and supply chain topics such as additive manufacturing, 3D printing, digitalization, the factory of the future, Industry 4.0, supply chain of the future as well as on manufacturing and distribution strategy and network optimization. He leads the additive manufacturing topic as well as the network strategy and optimization topic for BCG globally. He holds a Ph.D. in engineering from the Technical University of Berlin.