Joanna Wojewoda-Budka is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science and since 2019 she is also a Director of the Institute. She is General Secretary of the Polish Society for Materials Science 2021–2024 and a Member of the Committee on Materials Engineering and Metallurgy of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her scientific activities were dedicated to the diffusion phenomena at the interconnections dedicated to electronics, the metal-ceramic composites formed due to the metal-oxide high temperature reactivity, joining technologies such as diffusion soldering, explosive welding, as well as new coatings materials. She is co-author of about 100 journal articles (>85 indexed in ISI) and several book chapters. She has strong links with industry as a researcher and principal investigator of about 30 national and international research projects. She was awarded by NATO scholarship, “Start” Scholarship for Young Scientists of the Foundation for Polish Science, Scientific scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists. The President of Poland awarded her with the Silver Cross of Merit for scientific activity in the development of science in 2017 and Knight’s Cross of Polonia Restituta Order for all the scientific achievements in 2023.

Lorenz Romaner is a full professor of computational materials science at Montanuniversität Leoben, specializing in the physics-guided, data-driven design of materials. He earned both his master’s degree and PhD in solid-state physics from TU Graz. Romaner’s research bridges first-principles theory, multiscale simulation, and machine learning to reveal how crystallographic defect structures govern macroscopic properties and performance. He has co-authored 96 peer-reviewed publications and collaborates widely through national and international projects. He currently directs the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Advanced Computational Design of Crystal Growth, where his team virtualizes manufacturing routes for high-quality silicon carbide single crystals, accelerating process understanding, optimization, and scale-up. Beyond crystal growth, his group investigates defect thermodynamics, kinetics, and microstructure evolution in structural and electronic materials, supporting alloy development and device reliability.