Pierluigi Barbaro obtained his PhD from the University of Florence and completed his Post-Doctoral work at ETH in Zurich, later becoming a permanent Researcher at the Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici in Florence. Since 2005 he has been a member of the Governing Board of the VI° FP Network of Excellence IDECAT "Integrated Design of Catalytic Nanomaterials for a Sustainable Production". His main research interest is in the field of homogeneous, heterogeneous and asymmetric catalysis, in particular nanostructured catalysts for application in sustainable production processes. He is the author of more than 60 research papers and 6 patents. In 1991 he was awarded the National award "Federchimica".

Claudio Bianchini is Director of the Institute of Chemistry of Organometallics of the Italian National Research Council. He is author of ca. 430 publications and 43 patents. His research fields include catalysis, polymerization, electrocatalysts and membranes for fuel cells, hydrogen production and storage, asymmetric synthesis, solid-gas organometallic reactions, (high-pressure) IR and NMR spectroscopy. He is the recipient of several awards including the G.I.C.O. Senior Award, the Arthur D. Little Award, the Seaborg Memorial Lecture and the National award "Federchimica".