Speakers

	Giovanni Dietler is full professor at the Swiss federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. His main research interests are in the area biological macromolecules and biophysics. In particular, he is interested in adsorbed nucleic acids, cellular machines, and protein mechanics. He mainly uses atomic force microscopy (AFM) in his research. He further developed a novel method to determine the spring constant of a single protein, and is further interested in hydrodynamics of knots, gel electrophoresis, as well as mechanical properties of cells. More...
	Gero Decher is distinguished professor at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, and also member of the Institut Universitaire de France and the International Center for Frontier Research in Chemistry. His main research interests include the development of the layer-by-layer assembly method, macromolecules at interfaces, nano-composite materials, functional nanoparticles and coatings, thin film devices, and nanoorganized materials. He is the recipient of the Rhodia Prize from the European Colloid and Interface Society and his article on "Fuzzy Nanoassemblies" published in Science is now cited more than 5000 times. More...
	Rosa Espinosa Marzal is senior scientist at the Swiss federal Institute of Technology, ETHZ, Zürich, Switzerland. Her current research focuses on investigations of surface interactions and structuring of confined liquids, brush-mediated lubrication, and mechanical properties of grafted hydrogels. These investigations are motivated by need to better understand the lubrication in human joints. Lubrication can be substantially improved by adsorption or grafting of glycoproteins and others biomacromolecules. She has substantial expertise with the surface forces apparatus and x-ray reflectivity. More...
	Thomas Gutberlet is senior scientist at Helmholtz Research Center, Berlin, Germany. He is interested in the structure and dynamics of biological membrane systems, and the mechanisms of the interaction between proteins and peptides as well as between proteins and biomembranes. He further investigates self-assembly and structure formation at fluid-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces. His research mainly relies on X-ray and neutron reflectivity, but he also works on the development of novel neutron instrumentation. More...
	Fredrik Höök is full professor at the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He would like to understand the functioning of cell membranes and therefore he develops artificial cell membranes to mimic the surfaces of cells. Currently, he works on improving the separation of membrane proteins to identify of drug targets and on the identification of viral infections through interactions between viruses and cell membranes. In his research, he heavily relies on surface sensitive techniques, particularly, on the quartz crystal microbalance. More...
	Ger Koper is associate professor at Delft University of Technology and guest researcher at Leiden University, The Netherlands. His research interests are centered around self-assembly, particle deposition, and binding phenomena. He is particularly interested to understand the collective role of interactions during adsorption phenomena, for example, in binding or protons to polyelectrolytes or of macromolecules to water-solid interfaces. Experimental techniques used in his research are reflectivity, optical ellipsometry, dielectric spectroscopy, and electro-optical birefringence. More...
	Hubert Motschmann is full professor at the University of Regensburg, Germany. His main interests are structure and self-organization at interfaces and the impact of these surface structures on bulk properties of the adjacent phases. He would particularly like to better understand the structure of adsorbed surfactant monolayers at air-water interfaces. He uses numerous optical surface sensitive techniques techniques, including, ellipsometry, surface plasmon resonance, and non-linear surface enhanced spectroscopy. More...
	Georg Papastavrou is associate professor at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. His main research interest are interactions between surfaces as mediated by simple solutions or by adsorbed polymer molecules. He now studies how surface forces and adhesion properties can be tuned by applying an external potential to metal electrodes. He is further interested how mechanical properties of single polyelectrolyte chains can be influenced by the properties of the backbone and of the solvent. His research mainly relies on atomic force microscopy (AFM). More ...