Mexican Professor, working at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, since September 2018. His academic background and research activities have been focused on ferrous metallurgy, in particular application of thermodynamics and kinetics of gas-solid reactions, kinetics of steel refining in the ladle furnace, physical modeling of bottom stirring in metallurgical ladles, slag foaming in the EAF, mathematical modeling of DRI melting in the EAF, etc. He has worked pretty close with the steel industry in Mexico for more than 20 years.  

He has published more than 100 technical articles in peer-reviewed journals of high impact factor with more than 1500 citations and a total of about 200 publications including conference proceedings. His h index factor from Scopus is 23.

Professor Conejo has received several national and international awards in Mexico, USA and China. In China he was awarded the prestigious Friendship award in 2021 granted to foreign experts for outstanding academic contributions in his field.

With over 40 years in the high temperature metallurgical industry, starting with BHP Newcastle Steelworks, and moving to the companies Research Laboratories at the University of Newcastle, Craig completed his Bachelor of Metallurgy and Master of Engineering, before stepping into the role of Steel Technology Manager at BHP New Zealand Steel (now BluescopeSteel). 

Craigs career has been driven by practical opportunities to embrace new learning and skills in the full manufacturing chain of steel from mine to finished products.  He has mined and washed coal in the Hunter Valley, concentrated magnetite ore in the Middleback Ranges of South Australia, made steel products at BHP Newcastle, New Zealand Steel, Onesteel Whyalla and Waratah.  Underpinned by a knowledge of metallurgical thermodynamics and inclusion engineering, he has developed and optimised practices for hot metal treatment, oxygen steelmaking, ladle refining and calcium treatment for the continuous casting of slabs and billets.

In New Zealand he worked uniquely and extensively with the electric smelting of titanomagnetite direct reduced iron, hot metal treatment for vanadium recovery, KOBM steelmaking, ladle metallurgy and slab casting.

Craig currently works at the Newcastle University BHP Centre for Sustainable Steelmaking Research laboratories, leading research for hot metal production by the electrode smelting of direct reduced iron, preparing for a lower emissions future using Australian iron ore.

Professor Il Sohn is a faculty member in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Yonsei University, where he also serves as Director of the Research Institute of Iron and Steel Technology and leads the Neo-Metallurgical Processing Lab. His research focuses on the fundamental thermo-physical properties of high-temperature oxide and halide melts, crystallization behavior, and pyrometallurgical recycling of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. He is also the founder and CEO of Recycling Development Solution Inc., a company specializing in eco-friendly recycling technologies. 

Prior to joining Yonsei University, he worked as a Senior Research Engineer at U.S. Steel Corporation and served as Special Project Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo. He began his career as a Reliability Engineer at LG-Caltex Oil Corporation. 

He has published over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and holds more than 15 patents, including both domestic and international filings. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B. 

His work has been recognized with major honors including the 2022 Prime Minister’s Commendation (Korea), the 2021 Seok Cheon Academic Award, the 2016 Nishiyama Commemorative Prize (ISIJ), and membership in the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. He has also received multiple best paper and young researcher awards from international journals and professional societies.

Professor Jung is a world-renowned expert in chemical metallurgy and thermodynamic database development. He earned his bachelor and master’s degree from POSTECH, South Korea, and PhD degree from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada in 2003. He is a co-developer of FactSage thermodynamic software, which is accessed by more than 1000 sites around the world, and academic member of FIRE (Federation of International Refractory Research and Education). He worked for McGill University, Canada as an assistant and associate professor for 10 years, and is currently a professor at Seoul National University, South Korea. Since 2009, Prof. Jung has led the “FactSage Steelmaking Consortium Project” to develop thermodynamic databases and process simulation models for steelmaking industry, sponsored by 14 companies around the world. He has authored and co-authored 6 book chapters, over 20 patents, 280 journal papers, and 120 conference proceeding papers. Prof. Jung received various awards including 2022 AIST John F Elliott Lectureship award and 2025 TMS Sadoway Materials Innovation and Advocacy award.

Jan Friedemann Plaul is currently Senior Vice President of Primetals Technologies, responsible for the global Business Segment Iron- & Steelmaking and ECO Solutions. The I&S business segment provides technical solutions along the value chain of steelmaking. Key technologies within the portfolio are Sinter- and Pelletizing plants, Blast Furnace technology, Direct Reduction Plants, Converter Steelmaking, Electric Steelmaking including Secondary Steelmaking and ECO solutions like dedusting- and heat recovery-systems. He has been working in the business of metallurgical plant building since 2005, covering different management positions at Primetals Technologies, not only in Austria but also in South Korea and India. He holds a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering, gained at the University RWTH Aachen (Germany) as well a PhD and MBA from the Montan University of Leoben (Austria). His business segments currently are executing large green steel transition projects like the Electric Arc Furnace for the SALCOS project at Salzgitter Flachstahl, the Electric Arc furnace for the greentec steel program of voestalpine Linz, as well the Direct Reduction plant and Electric Arc furnace for the Power4Steel program at Dillinger. 

Jin-chan Bae is an expert in ironmaking operations and technology development. He joined the COREX Department at POSCO in 1994 and served as Operation Superintendent for the No.1, No.2, and No.3 FINEX plants between 2002 and 2013. In 2014, he was appointed Head of the FINEX Operation Department, and later became Group Leader of Ironmaking Strategy in 2022. Since 2024, he has served as Head of the HyREX Project Team, focusing on the development and implementation of hydrogen-based ironmaking technologies.

Prof. Joohyun Park is the director of the Laboratory for the High Temperature Physicochemical Processing of Materials (HiTeP2), Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Korea. He was a Senior Research Scientist in the Technical Research Laboratories, POSCO, for 7 years and is now performing research focusing on Sustainable ferrous- and non-ferrous metallurgy for carbon neutral society, Inclusion science and engineering, Slag science and technology. He has been an Affiliated Professor in KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and a Guest Professor in University of Science & Technology Beijing (USTB), China.

He was selected as a recipient of the Iron- and Steelmaking Technology Award in 2005 and the Best Patent Award in 2006 by POSCO. He also received the Best Young Scientist Award in 2012 and the Chungwoong Award in 2021 from the Korea Institute of Metals and Materials. In addition, he was honored with the Marcus Grossmann Young Author Award in 2014, the TMS-EPD Science Award in 2020, and the TMS-EPD Pyrometallurgy Best Paper Award in 2025 by TMS. He received the Sawamura Award in 2017 from the Iron & Steel Institute of Japan and the Minister Award in 2021 from the Korean Government (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, MOTIE). He has granted about 30 international and domestic patents and published over 220 peer-reviewed articles with 480 conference presentations.

Masahiro Yakeya received his M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Kyushu Institute of Technology (Fukuoka, Japan) in March 2014. He has been working as an engineer at Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Kobe, Japan) since April 2015. His responsibilities include the development of blast furnace operation technologies, with a focus on enhancing efficiency, reducing CO₂ emissions, and optimizing raw material usage.

Sridhar Seetharaman is the Chief Science Officer for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (the nation’s largest Engineering College) and the Fulton Professor of Industrial Decarbonization. I am the PI and CEO, of EPIXC, Electrified Processes for Industry Without Carbon, DOE’s 7th Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a $170M public-private partnership. I am a member of US DOE Secretary Granholm’s Industrial Technology Innovation Advisory Committee (ITIAC). I currently hold a Joint Faculty Appointment at NREL, and is an international member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, a Distinguished Member and Fellow of the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) and a MERCATOR Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Previous appointments include: Senior Advisor at US DOE (EERE) I have had significant experience with road mapping and strategic planning, including participation in the Roadmaps for US DOE’s NAWI Water HUB, AIST’s Steel Roadmap for NIST, US DOE’s EPIXC Institute and US DOE’s MYPP (Multi-Year-Program-Plan).

Professor Taichi Murakami is currently a Professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University. He graduated from the Department of Chemistry and Materials Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology in March 2001. He then worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Kanazawa Institute of Technology and later at Osaka University’s Joining and Welding Research Institute. In 2004, he joined Tohoku University as a Research Associate, and was promoted to Assistant Professor in 2007, Associate Professor in 2009, and Professor in 2023. His main research fields are on the development of efficient and sustainable processes of metals production and recycling, (especially ironmaking), and on the development of porous metals, by applying high temperature metallurgical technologies. He has worked on various projects including the Development of Manufacturing Process of Porous Iron, Effective Use of Plastic Waste for Ironmaking, and Reduction Method of HCB Emission from EAF Process.

Dr Evans is currently R&D Lead for Steel Decarbonisation at Rio Tinto with over 30 years of industrial experience across the iron ore supply chain, from mine to furnace. Over that time, he has worked for BHP Steel, BHP Research, BHP Billiton Innovation, HIsmelt Corporation, Hamersley Iron and Rio Tinto. Tim holds Adjunct and Honorary Professor titles at various Australian and Chinese Universities. He has established an academic record through significant research supervision and publications in iron and steelmaking as well as in the area of industrial sustainability.

Dr. Yasuo Kishimoto is currently a Fellow at the Steel Research Laboratory of JFE Steel Corporation. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Materials Science from the University of Tokyo and earned his Doctor of Engineering from Nagoya University in 1999. He began his career in 1983 at Kawasaki Steel Corporation as a researcher and later held various leadership positions including General Manager of the Steelmaking Research Department and Research Planning Department at JFE Steel. In 2014, he served as Deputy Director-General of the Science and Technology Policy Bureau at Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). His research and leadership have significantly contributed to the development of steelmaking technologies in Japan.

Yong-hee Kim received his Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from Seoul National University in 2000.

Since then, he has been deeply engaged in research at Hyundai Steel Co., focusing on a broad spectrum of topics across the iron and steelmaking field.

His work has covered key metallurgical phenomena, including dross behavior in molten zinc baths, solidification dynamics in continuous casting molds via numerical simulations, and the role of metallurgical reactions and inclusions from the steelmaking to casting stages. He has also investigated how iron ore characteristics influence ironmaking efficiency and contributed to the advancement of high-performance blast furnace operations.

In recent years, Dr. Kim has been leading research initiatives centered on low-carbon steel production, with a particular focus on reducing CO₂ emissions while preserving the high quality required for automotive steel sheets.

Professor Yongsug Chung earned his Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Yonsei University in 1990, followed by his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1995 and 1999, respectively. Upon completion of his doctoral studies, he served as a research professor at the University of Toronto in Canada for two years. He subsequently worked for seven years as a manager of new steel product development at Dongbu Steel (now KG Steel) in Korea.

Since 2009, Professor Chung has been a faculty member at TU Korea, where he has held the positions of assistant professor, associate professor, and currently, full professor. He also served as the Dean of Students from 2021 to 2022. In addition, he was a visiting professor at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University, Japan, in 2017.

Professor Chung’s research interests focus on high-temperature interfacial phenomena involving molten steel and slag, molten steel and refractory materials, and slag and refractory materials. His work includes investigating the corrosion and erosion of refractory materials such as MgO-C and Al₂O₃, as well as the removal of non-metallic inclusions during the steelmaking process. He has actively contributed to solving critical issues in refractory materials and steelmaking slags within the Korean steel industry. He is the author of approximately 100 patents and academic publications, with over 1,127 citations. Recently, he has been conducting research on refractory materials relevant to low-carbon electric arc furnace processes. He is a member of the KIMM and TMS, in the USA. He also serves as an international advisor for the ISIJ and has been the Korean chairman of the Korea-China Joint Symposium on Steel Science and Technology since 2021.

Professor Youn-Bae Kang is currently a Full Professor at the Graduate Institute of Ferrous and Eco Materials Technology at POSTECH, where he has held this position since 2009. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from POSTECH in 2005 and was a Visiting Researcher at POSCO’s Technical Research Laboratories in 2011. Professor Kang received the Young Scientist Award from the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials (KIMM) in 2013, and the same year, he was recognized in the "100 Future Technology Development in 2020" by the National Academy of Engineering of Korea. He also received the Best Poster Award from the Young Professional Technical Division of TMS (USA) in 2014, the Marcus A. Grossman Young Author Award from ASM International (USA) in 2017, and the Sawamura Award from ISIJ (Japan) in 2019. Professor Kang's areas of specialization include solution thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and metallurgy related to steelmaking and refining processes. His research interests include high-temperature materials chemistry, low-carbon sustainable pyrometallurgical processes, clean steel production, clean hydrogen production, and the recycling and calcination of Li-ion batteries.