Prof. Tongyi Zhang is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Professor at Shanghai University, a Chair Professor at The Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology (Guangzhou), and the Dean of the Materials Genome Institute of Shanghai University, with expertise in materials science, engineering science, and solid mechanics. In December 2011, he was elected as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Zhang serves as Vice President of the Far East and Oceanic Fracture Society and as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Conference on Fracture. His honors and awards include the State Natural Science Award (Second Class, twice), the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship, the ASM International Fellow Award, the Young Science and Technology Award from the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress.

Christos Markides was born in Athens (Greece) in 1978, and grew up first in Johannesburg (South Africa) until the age of 7 and then in Limassol (Cyprus). After finishing school in 1995 and attending compulsory military service from 1995 to 1997, he left Cyprus to undertake a 4-year MEng degree in Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Following this first degree, he did a PhD in Energy Technologies, also at the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Epaminondas (Nondas) Mastorakos, which he completed in 2005.

After completing his education, he worked for a short time as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) at Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED) while also being a Fellow and Engineering Director of Studies at Robinson College. In 2006 he co-founded a spin-out company, which was embedded in CUED, to develop a thermally powered fluid pumping technology based on a two-phase thermofluidic oscillator concept. He acted as the company's Technical Director until 2008, when he was awarded a 5-year co-current Fellowship by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and (then) Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd (FWEL); later acquired by John Wood Group. He was appointed to the post of Lecturer in Clean Energy Processes at the Department of Chemical Engineering of Imperial College in late 2008. He became Senior Lecturer in 2014, Reader in 2016 and Professor in 2018.

He now leads the Clean Energy Processes (CEP) Laboratory, coordinates the Experimental Multiphase Flow (EMF) Laboratory, which is the largest such experimental space at Imperial College London, and is a Co-Founder and Director of recent spin-out company Solar Flow.