Xing Lu is a Full Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. from Peking University (2004) and then he worked as a COE Postdoctoral researcher at Nagoya University, Japan. During 2006-2013, he was a Senior Scientist at The University of Tsukuba, Japan. He is the recipient of The Ambassador Award from the Chinese Embassy in Japan (2009), The Osawa Award from Fullerenes and Nanotubes Research Society of Japan (2011), and The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2019). His research interests lie in the rational design and facile generation of novel hybrid carbon materials with applications in energy storage and conversion. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers in international journals with ~40 at J. Am. Chem. Soc. and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.Takeshi Akasaka was born in Kyoto. He received his Ph.D. Degree from University of Tsukuba, Japan, in 1979. After working as a Postdoctoral Fellowat Brookhaven National Laboratory, he returned to the University of Tsukuba in 1981. In 1996, he began work at Niigata University as a professor. During 2001-2013, he was a Professor at the TARA Center and Department of Chemistry, University of Tsukuba. After his retirement from the University of Tsukuba in 2013, he was appointed a senior researcher at the Foundation for Advancement of International Science (FAIS) and a Professor Emeritus of the University of Tsukuba. He received the Chemical Society of Japan Award for Creative Work (2000), the Commendation of Science and Technology (Research Category) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan in 2011, and the Chemical Society of Japan Award for 2013. His research interests include the chemistry of nanocarbons.Zdenek Slanina was born in the former Czechoslovakia. He received his MA degree from Charles University in Prague and Ph.D. from the (former) Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences where he was also employed between 1971 and 1991, up to the principal-senior-scientist level. After the fullerene-era beginning, he has been active in computational research and teaching at various fullerene research centers like: Hokkaido University, Sapporo; Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz; University of Arizona, Tucson; Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki; University of Tsukuba; Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan.
