Luis Liz-Marzán is an Ikerbasque Professor at CIC biomaGUNE (BRTA), in San Sebastián (Spain), where he also served as Scientific Director from 2013 to 2021. Luis graduated in chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela, was postdoc at Utrecht University and Professor at the University of Vigo (1995–2012), where he currently holds a part-time Professor position. He is also a Group Leader of the Biomedical Networking Research Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN). Luis has been visiting professor at various research institutions worldwide and received several scientific awards and honors. Liz-Marzán has made extensive contributions to the colloidal synthesis and self-assembly of metal nanocrystals, as well as the characterization and application of their plasmonic properties. More recently, his research has broadened into the biomedical applications of plasmonic nanostructures.

Javier Aizpurua is an Ikerbasque Professor at DIPC, and distinguished researcher at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in San Sebastian, where he leads the “Theory of Nanophotonics Group”. After postdoctoral positions in Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and at NIST (US), in 2004 Aizpurua returned to the Basque Country as a Gipuzkoa Fellow at DIPC. Since 2008 Aizpurua established his research group at the Center for Materials Physics in San Sebastian, as a CSIC Research Professor. Aizpurua is currently coordinating the “Basque Quantum” (BasQ) initiative of the Basque Government to develop quantum technologies in the Basque Country. His group devotes their efforts to the study of the interaction of light and nanostructures, with special emphasis on quantum effects in the optical response of molecular emitters in nanoantennas.