Position: Teacher
Institution: Gymnasium Trbovlje
Subject: Chemistry
Country: Slovenia

Biography: Aleksander Medveš, graduated in 1997 as a chemical engineer and has been teaching as a high school chemistry teacher for 20 years. Besides teaching chemistry and inspiring students for natural sciences he regularly leads extra curriculum classes in chemistry. He is also on the jury for the national secondary school-leaving examination in chemistry.
For the past few years he has been an active mentor for the national competition in chemistry and a lead student mentor for research projects in the field of biology.
He has also attended some successful competitions in multimedia with students.

Position: Teacher
Institution: Gymnasium Vič Ljubljana
Subject: Life Sciences
Country: Slovenia

Biography: Alenka Mozer is a chemistry teacher at Gimnazija Vic Ljubljana, Slovenia. Currently, she is a member of the National committee for chemistry curriculum; for over 13 years, she was also a member of The National committee for chemistry assessment (external final exam – matura). Before that, Mrs. Mozer was a school inspector at Ministry of Education and Sport.

In cooperation with experts from The National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Mrs. Mozer is continuously involved in giving seminars/workshops within the in-service training program for chemistry teachers in general secondary schools (grammar school); she was coordinating/taking part in several innovative projects in the field of chemistry curriculum for grammar school. In the last fifteen years, she has been particularly involved in improvement of teaching strategies in grammar school, in school-research cooperation, in final assessment and in the use of ICT in the chemistry curriculum. Mrs. Mozer has published several articles on good practice in teaching chemistry, and textbooks on chemistry assessment.
For the last decade, Mrs. Mozer is particularly involved in so called “science class project” at Gimnazija Vic. The main goal of the project is to improve students’ knowledge through student centered learning and to increase interest of young people in science and technology. Through the years, an effective way of inquiry based learning of science subjects was introduced at the school level. The project is fully incorporated into the regular high school curriculum and it demands good cooperation with different research institutions. The most involved students are applying for national and international science project competitions and they are regularly winning awards; Mrs. Mozer is usually one of the judges at international competitions.

Position: Teacher
Institution: Aradipou Lyceum
Subject: Physics
Country: Cyprus

Biography: He is Physics Teacher in secondary education since 2008. He received a physics degree from the University of Crete in 2004 and master’s degree in optoelectronics in 2007 from the University of Cyprus. In 2015 he received a master’s degree in science education from the University of Cyprus.

He is the organizational secretary of the Cyprus Physicists Society from 2016 until now and represented Cyprus in the 46th International Physics Olympiad as Team Leader and participated as a representative of Cyprus in the 1st SESAME Teachers – students School at CERN in 2015.
He was in charge of organizing the student competition “ 3rd Cyprus F1 in Schools” and the organizer of many student competitions on behalf of Cyprus Physicists Society.
He is very interested in the introduction of ICT’s in science teaching and learning through projects.

Position: Dean
Institution: University of Silesia in Katowice
Subject: Physics, Science Engagement
Country: Poland

Biography: Dr. Jerzy Jarosz is a physicist and works at the Institute of Physics of the University of Silesia in Katowice. He is the head of the Didactics of Physics Unit, which collaborates with other faculties and laboratories as well as high, secondary and primary schools in Silesia region. He holds the position of president of the Polish Club of Demonstrators of Physics, which brings together university staff related to the didactic experiments, and directs the Scientific Board of the Children’s University of Silesia, which educates about 650 permanent students of age 5-15 years old. Dr. Jarosz is the titular populariser of science, and is known as an expert in the field of didactic experiment.

Position: Director
Institution: Universidad de los niños – EAFIT University Medellin
Subject: Science Engagement
Country: Colombia

Biography: Product Desing engeneer and Master in Humanities at EAFIT University. Has been part of EAFIT Children’s University team since the start of the program. Currently she serves as the head of the program.

Position: Teacher
Institution: Källängens Skola
Subject: Chemistry
Country: Sweden

Biography: Bjorn Carlson is born in Bromma, Stockholm 1954.

• Graduated from Sigtunaschool, Science Programme, 1973
• Studied Mathematics and Economics at Universities in Sweden 1976 – 1982
• Taught and parented at the boarding school, Sigtunaschool, 1982 – 2006
• Taught mathematics and science at primary level at some (3) schools
• Presently employed as math and science teacher at Källängens skola, Lidingö, Sweden
• Formerly vice chairman (for 10 years) of Life-Link Foundation
• Initiated and started up Science Clubs for 12 year old students

Position: Chairman of the Board
Institution: Fundacja Małopolski Uniwersytet dla Dzieci
Subject: Science Engagement
Country: Poland

Biography: Jolanta Różowska MSc is president of Foundation MUdD: initiator and project leader of Malopolski University for Children, which constantly gains popularity and good reputation across the country winning several awards for excellence in education. The Foundation organizes science contest for students of Malopolski CU. The winning project are presented to open public at yearly event called “Young Scientist Day”. She is a former scientist who worked as an algologist in Polish Academy of Science.

Position: Expert
Institution: Szent István University
Subject: Mathematics
Country: Hungary

Biography: Antal Veres is an Associate Professor at Szent István University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Position: State Secretary
Institution: Ministry of education, science and sport
Subject: Life Sciences
Country: Slovenia

Biography: Borut Čampelj has been working at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport Slovenia since 2001. During this time he was responsible mostly for opening up education, teacher training for use ICT in education, development of e-content and international collaboration in this field. Main areas of work: strategy and action plans for use of ICT in education, development and implementation an e-competent teacher standard, cooperation in research and development projects in the field of ICT at EU level (Erasmus +: EUfolio, ATS2020; Horizon 2020: X5gon) and member of Thematic Working Group E&T 2020 – Digital skills and competences (European Commission).

Position: Expert
Institution: Szent István University
Subject: Mathematics
Country: Hungary

Biography: László Székely is an Associate Professor and head of department at Szent István University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mathematics.

Position: Expert
Institution: Sissa Medialab
Subject: Science Communication
Country: Italy

Biography: Paola Rodari is project manager for international projects and consultant for the development of new museums and science centres on behalf of Sissa Medialab, the in house company of the SISSA University, Trieste, Italy (www.sissa.it). She worked for 10 years as the Head of the Education Department of the Laboratorio dell’Immaginario Scientifico science centre (Trieste, Italy), of which she was among funders. She has been the project leader for the development of the Museo del Balì Interactive Museum and Planetarium (Saltara, Italy), and for many years acted as Chief Scientific Advisor for the museum. She has lead or collaborated to the development of other permanent and temporary galleries, among which Infini.to Museum of Astronomy and Planetarium of Torino (Italy) and the 10Lab science centre of the Technological Park of Sardinia. She was among funders and acted as spokeswoman of THE group, the Thematic Human Interface and Explainers group of Ecsite (the European network of science museums and science centres), dedicated to the professional development of museums educators, and she is still in the group steering committee (today called the Facilitation group). She has been organiser and speaker of many national and international courses for the professional development in the public engagement in STEM. She has been involved in European action/research projects aiming at developing new programmes and tools for the communication of science. She is author of several papers and books on the communication of science, and works have been translated into English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Position: Expert
Institution: Warsaw Centre for Socio-Educational Innovation and Training
Subject: Education
Country: Poland

Position: University Teacher
Institution: Polytechnic Institute of Braganca
Subject: Education, Chemistry
Country: Portugal

Biography: Maria-Filomena Barreiro has a graduation and a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering (FEUP, www.fe.up.pt). She is currently Coordinator Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB, www.ipb.pt) and member of the research staff of Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering – Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE, lsre-lcm.fe.up.pt). Her main research interests are synthesis and characterization of polymeric materials with special emphasis to materials from renewable resources, polyurethane chemistry and microencapsulation applied to different industrial fields (ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6844-333X).

Position: Expert, teacher
Institution: ICTP
Subject: Chemistry, Science Communication
Country: Czech Republic

Position: Expert
Institution: KU Leuven
Subject: STEM Integration in Secondary School
Country: Belgium

Biography: Jolien De Meester graduated at Group T in Leuven with a Master’s degree from the mechanical department of Industrial Engineering in 2009. For three and a half years she enjoyed her job as a teaching assistant at that same department. In the meantime, she obtained the certificate of teacher in the teacher training at KU Leuven university. Now she is working towards a PhD in instructional strategies for integrated-STEM education, where STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Together with teachers, she’s searching for ways to make connections between these disciplines, in order to make their relevance more apparent to students in secondary education (grades 7 to 12).
Jolien is fascinated by how experiments can lead us to new surprising insights and how small devices help us build amazing designs. But she is even more interested in how STEM can fascinate youngsters and how they employ it to realize things beyond anyone’s imagination. Besides exploring the broad landscape of STEM projects, Jolien is often busy making graphical designs or presentations.

Position: University Teacher
Institution: Kırıkkale Üniversitesi
Subject: Education, Chemistry
Country: Turkey

Position: University Teacher
Institution: Polytechnic Institute of Braganca
Subject: Education, Chemistry
Country: Portugal
Biography:  Olga Ferreira has graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP, Portugal) where she also obtained her Ph.D., in 2003, in the area of Chemical Thermodynamics. In 2004, she joined the Chemical Technology Department of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB, Portugal) where she currently works as an Adjunct Professor. Her research mainly focuses on the thermodynamic modelling and experimental studies of phase equilibria of mixtures of natural products to support the development of more sustainable extraction and fractionation processes.
In the area of science education, she is a member of two Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships: “E-Learning from Nature” (2015-2017), and “INNOCHEM: Improvement of Innovative Teaching Methods in the Fields of Technology and Chemical Engineering According to the Best Standards of the Bologna Process” (2014-2017). She also participated in the LLP Programme – Comenius Subprogramme – Multilateral Network “Chemistry Is All Around Network” (2011-2014).

Position: Teacher
Institution: Navet
Subject:
Country: Sweden

Position: Expert
Institution: Charles University in Prague
Subject: Chemistry, Nanotechnology
Country: Czech Republic

Position: Teacher
Institution: Akademické gymnázium, škola hl. m. Prahy
Subject: Chemistry, Biology
Country: Czech Republic

Biography: Jana Hirnšálová graduated from Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pedagogics in 2010 the field of teaching of biology and chemistry. In the period of 2004 – 2011, she was teaching biology, chemistry and physical education at various lower and upper secondary schools in Prague (ZŠ Umělecká, Gymnázium Českolipská, ZŠ Gur Arje, SPŠS Dušní, ZŠ Palmovka). Since 2011, she has been teaching biology and chemistry at Akademické gymnázium (Academic Grammar School) in Štěpánská, Prague. She also cooperates with Fraus, a publishing house based in Pilsen, preparing educative programmes for interactive textbooks of science. At the same time, she is a leader of “the Mammoths“, a children`s club of experimental archaeology (www.mamuti.cz). She is also devoted to sports, travelling and photography.

Position: Program Coordinator
Institution: Politechnika Łódzka, Łódzki Uniwersytet Dziecięcy (Lodz University of Technology)
Subject: Science Engagement
Country: Poland
Biography: Anna JANICKA, MA, obtained her degrees of Master of German Philology from the University of Lodz, Poland, and Master of European Studies from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany. Currently, she is the Head of the Lodz Children University, which she founded in 2007 as an organisational unit of the Lodz University of Technology, Poland.

She has a decade long experience in preparing educational offer for children and youth aged 7-16, mainly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related subjects organizing lectures, workshops and other special events, such as scientific picnics. Recently, trainings for STEM subject school teachers were initiated.

She cooperates at national and international levels with other children universities exchanging ideas, lecturers and instructors. In particular, she cooperates with Mathematikum in Giessen, Germany, and she has introduced the Miniphänomenta experimental stations to several primary schools in Lodz region. In 2008 she co-founded the European Children’s Universities Network (EUCU.NET). Together with this organisation in 2013 she organised in Lodz an international children’s university conference.

In 2016 she was invited to the ministerial panel of experts preparing the launch of the nationwide program supporting children universities in Poland.

Position: University Teacher
Institution: Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands
Subject: Education, Chemistry
Country: Greece

Biography:  Dr. Dionysios Koulougliotis is a Professor at the Department of Environmental Technology at T.E.I. of Ionian Islands (Zakynthos island) in Greece. He is teaching courses related to Environmental Chemistry and Physics. He holds a B. Sc. in Physics and postgraduate degrees (M. Sc. and Ph. D.) in Chemistry. He has been active in research and European Projects (Chemistry is All Around Us, Chemistry is All Around Network) related to Chemistry Education since 2010. He is currently conducting research related to how chemistry related ICT tools influence and interact with secondary education students’ learning process and motivation to learn.

Position: Expert
Institution: Interactive Institute Swedish ICT
Subject: Computer Science
Country: Sweden

Position: University Professor
Institution: University of Cyprus
Subject: Mathematics
Country: Cyprus
Biography: George Kyriazis graduated  from the University of South Carolina USA (Ph. D 1992). His research interests lie in the areas of Approximation Theory,  Harmonic Analysis and the related topics of classical analysis. He is currently Professor of Mathematics and the Chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Cyprus.

Position: Education and Public Engagement Hub Manager
Institution: Association TRACES – Les Atomes Crochus
Subject: Science Engagement
Country: France

Position: Cofounder & Executive Director
Institution: Digital Leadership Institute
Subject: Girls and women in ESTEAM* studies, careers and leadership
Country: Belgium

Position: Expert
Institution: ICTP
Subject: Chemistry, Project Management
Country: Czech Republic

Biography: Anna Mittnerova works currently at the Human Resources Department of UCT Prague, she is in charge of development of human resources and implementation of gender equality Action plan within the university.
Anna Mittnerova graduated in 1973, from UCT Prague, in the discipline of inorganic materials, particularly glass and ceramics. After her studies, she continued working at the university department as a researcher in the field of new ceramic materials development. Her next job was in a laboratory of soils and rocks of a geological survey company. After 1991 she changed a type of work and she started in commercial sector, focusing on import of foreign products, in the field of chemistry and civil engineering, on the Czech market.
Since 2004 she has been working again in the academic sector as a consultant of international projects, mainly framework programmes for research and development (FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020) and also Lifelong learning programmes, such as Comenius or Leonardo da Vinci. She was involved in several projects as a participant or team leader. She was the head of the organising committee of an International Conference on Innovative Learning in Chemistry in Prague, (December 2012). The conference was a part of the international project “Chemistry is All Around Network“, focused on secondary school teachers and their pupils, project was implemented under a Lifelong Learning programme Comenius. She represented Czech Republic as an expert in the European Commission FP7 Programme Committee for Marie Curie Actions.
Anna Mittnerova organises regularly the Researcher´s Night event at UCT Prague. She is also experienced in organising different seminars, workshops and conferences. Currently she is a leader of the UCT Prague team participating in the FP7 project TRIGGER, “Transfroming institution by gendering contents and gaining equality in research”, financed under the specific programme Science in Society.

Position: University Teacher
Institution: ELTE
Subject: Biology
Country: Hungary

Position: Expert
Institution: BBS Nanotechnology
Subject: Nanotechnology
Country: Hungary

Position: Director
Institution: Tekniska Museet
Subject:
Country: Sweden

Position: Expert
Institution: Yıldız Technical University
Subject:
Country: Turkey
Biography: Mustafa Sami Topcu is a Professor of Science Education in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul Turkey. He received a B.S. in science education from the 19 Mayıs University, Turkey, a M.Sc. in science education from the 9 Eylul University, Turkey, and a Ph.D. in science education from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey in 2008. He also studied as a research scholar at University of Florida in USA, where he completed a significant part of doctoral dissertation about socio-scientific issues and argumentation in 2007. At the ReSTEM Institute of University of Missouri, he studied as a visiting professor in socio-scientific issues (SSI), scientific literacy, and argumentation-based projects during the Fall and Spring semesters of 2015. He has many publications in prominent refereed journals in science education. In addition, he is PI and Co-PI of the many national and international science education projects. He is the Co-PI of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project entitled “Reducing Achievement Gaps in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): Promising International Research, Policies and Practices”. As a Yıldız Technical University faculty member, Topcu teaches courses for an Undergraduate’s level science education program, a Master’s level, and a doctorate level elementary science education programs. His research interests are socio-scientific issues, argumentation, epistemological beliefs and practices, and STEM education.

Position: Scientific Coordinator
Institution: Parque Explora Medellin
Subject: Science Engagement
Country: Colombia

Position: University Teacher
Institution: Limerick Institute of Technology
Subject: Education, Chemistry
Country: Ireland

Biography: Marie Walsh graduated with a BSc from the University of Glasgow, then a postgraduate teaching qualification in chemistry and biology from the Queen’s University of Belfast. She also has a Master’s degree in Communicating Science. Her primary position is as lecturer in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Limerick Institute of Technology.
As well as teaching, she has worked as a research assistant in chemistry education research. This has included collecting, collating and disseminating information for use by chemistry teachers, as well as writing for and helping with distribution of Chemistry in Action! She has been involved for over 25 years with the ChemEd-Ireland annual conferences for chemistry teachers, and for some time with Discover Primary Science and the Irish Science Teachers Association.
She helped develop, taught and administered a programme of science for non-scientists and has considerable experience of working with mature students and second-chance learners. She is the LIT co-ordinator for SciFest, a national second level project to promote inquiry-based learning, and also of CanSAT, Science Week and Space week. She is on the Committee of the Limerick Clare branch of the Irish Science Teachers’ Association and was involved in organising their national conference 2016. She is the Mid-west regional representative on Council of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland and also a member of the National Committee Education Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
She has developed workshops in support of the second level organic chemistry curriculum and produced a Chemistry and Space Science Magic Show in association with postgraduate researchers in the Institute. She was the LIT co-ordinator for a Comenius-funded project involving 11 European partners which aims to promote lifelong learning in Chemistry, Chemistry is All Around Us Network Project. She is currently managing an Erasmus+ project on E-learning from Nature.
Marie is the course leader for the B.Sc. in Drug & Medicinal Product Analysis in Limerick Institute of Technology and is involved in the organisation of the LIT components of Limerick Festival of Science,   a regional festival in Science Week Ireland. She has presented at a number of national and international conferences on themes around science education and engagement.

Position: Expert
Institution: Warsaw Centre for Socio-Educational Innovation and Training
Subject: Education
Country: Poland

Position: Teacher
Institution: BG/BRG Klosterneuburg
Subject: Physics, Spanish
Country: Austria

Position: Head of Junge Uni – Kinderuniversität
Institution: University of Innsbruck
Subject: Science Communication, Biology
Country: Austria

Position: Project Coordinator, Science communicator
Institution: University of Technology Vienna
Subject: Science Communication, Physics
Country: Austria

Position: Teacher
Subject: Science education, geoscience
Country: Austria
Biography: He is a high-school teacher and the Educational Coordinator for Geography in Munich, Germany and is a committee member of the Education Committee of the European Geosciences Union. He received a PhD from the University of Göttingen, on natural hazards in the European Alps, in 2003. His particular interest are natural hazards in general, but he also has a deep interest in climate change and spatial orientation.

Position: Teacher
Institution: Stiftsgymnasium Seitenstetten
Subject: Informatics
Country: Austria
Biography: Markus Berger studied Mathematics and Geography at the University of Vienna. Since 2001 he is teaching Mathematics, Informatics, Geography and Economy at the ÖSTG Seitenstetten. Additionally he is also responsible for the IT as well as for e-learning at his school.