Speakers

Dr Dragica Trivic is a full professor at the University of Belgrade – the Faculty of Chemistry and the head of the Department of Chemistry Education. Her research lies in the field of chemistry education at all levels and in the field of the history of chemistry. She is the author of numerous chemistry textbooks for primary and secondary schools, as well as books on chemistry didactics for pre-service chemistry teachers. She has participated in the development of the chemistry curricula for primary and grammar schools, as well as in the development of the standards of achievement in the field of chemistry at the end of primary and secondary education. In the previous decades she has developed programmes for pre-service chemistry teacher education, as well as programmes for in-service chemistry teacher training. She has been a committee member within the chemistry competitions organised for primary and secondary school students. In her research studies and cooperation within numerous projects, as well as within the teaching practice, she has been searching for the solutions to the challenges within chemistry education. The search continues… 

Hendra Agustian is an Assistant Professor of Higher Science Education. His research is centred on epistemic orientations particularly in the context of laboratory work.

Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff CBE FRS FREng studied at King's College, Cambridge, B.A (1969) and Ph.D. (1973) under the supervision of J. J. Turner FRS on the ‘Matrix Isolation of Large Molecules’. In 1972, he was appointed Research/Senior Research Officer in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1979, he moved to a Lectureship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. Promotion to Reader in Inorganic Chemistry and then to Professor of Chemistry followed in 1985 and 1991 respectively. In addition, he is Honorary Professor of Chemistry at Moscow State University (currently suspended). From 1994-99, he held an EPSRC/Royal Academy of Engineering Clean Technology Fellowship at Nottingham. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (2002), of the RSC (2002) and of the IChemE (2004). He was awarded CBE (2008) for "Services to Sciences", and knighted in 2015 for "Services to the Chemical Sciences". He was made Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia (2008) and Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2011) and Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society (2015). In 2012, He was elected a Fellow of the Academia Europaea and, in 2013, Associate Fellow of TWAS, the World Academy of Science and Associate Member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (2014), Honorary Fellow of the RSC (2015), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016) and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2017). He was a Council Member of the IChemE (2009-13) and Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society (2011-16) In 2018, he was appointed Honorary Professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology and was awarded the 2019 James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public by the American Chemical Society. He received a  Dr hon causa from the New University of Lisbon (2019), and Honorary Doctorates from Newcastle University (2022) and Warwick University (2023). In 2021, a Nottingham Tram was named in his honour. His research interests are focussed on supercritical fluids, continuous reactions and their applications to Green and sustainable Chemistry. Since 2008, he and his colleagues have collaborated with video-maker Brady Haran to make chemistry videos for the YouTube channel Periodic Videos.

Ron Blonder is a Professor in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She is the head of the Chemistry Group and the head of the Rothschild-Weizmann Master’s Program for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Since January 2023 she has been the co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Science Education. Prof. Blonder is the recipient of the 2023 NARST Fellows Award.

Prof. Blonder earned her BSc in Chemistry, with distinction, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1993. She then completed her doctoral studies in Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Her research focuses on chemistry teachers’ professional development in the context of contemporary topics in science using innovative technological tools and environments. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed and invited papers as well as book chapters in which she has explored chemistry teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and knowledge development when they learn contemporary research in chemistry (nanotechnology and the sustainable developent goals - SDGs) and when they incorporate technological tools into their chemistry teaching. She has also investigated differentiated instruction in heterogeneous chemistry classes with and without the aid of technology to promote personalization in chemistry teaching. Dr. Blonder has applied the results of her educational research to chemistry teachers’ professional development. 

Orcid: 0000-0003-4796-4678

Dr. Marchak is Head of the National Centre for Chemistry Teachers which operates in the Chemistry Group of the Science Teaching Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She developed an arts-integrated approach to chemistry teaching that applies existing research findings from the field of educational neuroscience to the teaching of chemistry. She also studies the influence of implementing the approach, both at the teacher and student levels.

Inna Shvarts-Serebro is a Neuropedagogue with a diverse academic background. She holds a BSc in Chemistry Engineering from the Technion and a Ph.D. in Brain Sciences from Tel Aviv University’s Sagol School of Neuroscience. During her postdoctoral research in Prof. Ron Blonder’s Chemistry Education group at the Weizmann Institute of Science, she merged her expertise in Chemistry and Neurobiology with teaching experience, shaping a unique approach to develope neuropedagogical content knowledge among chemistry teachers.

Currently serving as the head of Bar-Ilan University’s Chemistry teachers' education, Inna pioneers the integration of neuropedagogical principles into the training. Her research elucidates the impact of neuropedagogical skills acquisition, in the pre-service stage, on the pedagogical decisions and retention of novice teachers.

Moreover, as a member of the Mendel Program for Academic Leadership in Teacher Education, Inna investigates the global issue of early teacher dropout. She endeavours to address this phenomenon by developing a neuropedagogy-based framework aimed at enhancing teacher retention and professional fulfillment.

ORCID: 0000-0001-8017-0875

Dr. Rachel Mamlok-Naaman from the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science, studied chemistry and chemistry education. She was the head of: (1) the National Center for Chemistry Teachers, (2) the chemistry group, (3) the chemistry teachers' Master program in the framework of the Rothschild-Weizmann, and (4) projects in the framework of  the European Union. In addition, Dr. Mamlok-Naaman is the chair of EuCheMS DivCED, an ACS titular member, and serves on editorial and advisory boards of science education journals and organizations. Her publications are related to student learning and teachers' professional development. Her awards consist of two from the Weizmann Institute - 1990-Bar-Ner (for teaching), and 2006-Maxine Singer for professional development of chemistry teachers; ACS award (2018) for incorporation of sustainability into the chemistry curriculum; IUPAC award for 2020 distinguished women in chemistry and chemistry engineering.

ORCID: 0000-0003-2373-8123

Dr. Shelley Rap is a researcher within the Chemistry Group at the Department of Science Teaching in the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. The group, led by Prof. Ron Blonder, spearheads research and professional development frameworks for chemistry teachers, develops theoretical models, investigates a wide range of professional development activities, and integrates state-of-the-art technologies into chemistry teaching.

Dr. Rap's research aims to explore innovative methods to enhance chemistry education and integrate technology into teaching practices, with a primary focus on supporting students to become future responsible citizens involved in tackling global challenges, including climate change. Her research encompasses cutting-edge pedagogical strategies, leveraging emerging technologies, and designing enriched curricula to deepen students' understanding of chemistry concepts and their practical applications in everyday life.

ORCID: 0000-0001-6896-6184

Assistant Professor with Habilitation and member of the Science Education Unit at the same Faculty. She is an integrated member of the Chemistry Research Centre of the University of Porto (CIQUP), where she coordinates the research group “RG5: Education, Science Communication and Society” and she is also a member of the Associated Laboratory Institute of Molecular Sciences (IMS), where integrates the thematic research line “LT: CHEMfocus (fundamentals and awareness)”. She is the director of the Doctoral Program in Science Education and Communication. She has supervised or co-supervised numerous dissertations in the areas of Science Education and Communication (Chemistry) and Educational Technology. She is engaged, as a trainer, in the development of courses on Continuing Education for teachers. She has published articles in national and international journals and has presented lectures in schools, conferences, and scientific meetings in the field of Chemistry Education and Communication and the use of educational technologies. She is a co-author of textbooks, popular science books, and educational software for Chemistry and Physics teaching. Her areas of interest include professional development and pedagogic practices for Physics and Chemistry teachers; Communication models and processes for scientific knowledge and the involvement and participation of citizens in Science; technological and digital ecologies in Science Education and Communication.

Madeleine Schultz, PhD SFHEA, is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University in Australia, and currently works with German towns and energy providers to transition away from fossil fuel heating. Her research interests in chemistry education include students’ concept development, pedagogical content knowledge, and assessment of laboratory learning. Recently she has focussed on projects related to integrating sustainability into chemistry education, with the overarching goal of enabling educators to prepare students to address global challenges using chemistry. 

Dusica Rodic serves as an Associate Professor of Chemistry Education at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. With a completed PhD in chemistry education in 2015, she imparts knowledge across diverse chemistry education topics. Her primary research focuses include the chemistry triplet relationship, mental effort evaluation, cognitive complexity, multi-tier test development and applications of knowledge space theory in chemistry education. In addition to her academic pursuits, she actively collaborates with the Institute for the Improvement of Education of the Republic of Serbia, contributing to curricular design for primary and secondary chemistry education. Rodic is involved in the organization of national chemistry competitions and holds positions as an associate editor for the Journal of Chemical Education and an editorial board member for the Journal of Baltic Science Education. Her scholarly contributions include approximately 40 peer-reviewed publications.

Iztok Devetak, PhD, is a Professor of Chemical Education at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Slovenia. His research focuses on how students, from elementary school to university, learn chemistry across three levels of chemical concepts. He investigates how chemistry in context and active learning approaches stimulate chemistry learning, utilizing eye-tracking technology to explain science learning. Additionally, his research covers aspects of environmental chemistry education and the development of teachers' health-managing competences, among other areas. In 2009, he was a Fulbright scholar. Since 2019, he has served as the Vice-chair for Eastern Europe of EuChemS DivChemEd. He is also the Chair of the Chemical Education Division in the Slovenian Chemical Society. Dr. Devetak serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the SCOPUS-indexed CEPS Journal and as an editorial board member of respected journals.

Marina Stojanovska, PhD, is a full professor in the field of chemistry education at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje. Her research concentrates on various aspects of chemistry education, including the development of innovative teaching strategies, addressing alternative conceptions in chemistry, assessment methods, game-based learning, and experimentation in chemistry teaching. She has actively participated in 8 projects, published 65 journal articles and 12 books or book chapters, and delivered 42 conference presentations. Her expertise extends to organizing conferences, chemistry competitions, science Olympiads, and seminars aimed at the professional development of science teachers. Additionally, she is deeply engaged in initiatives aimed at popularizing chemistry and science among students.

Seamus Delaney, PhD SFHEA, is a Senior Lecturer (Science Education) at the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. Institutionally, Seamus serves as Science, Technology, Environmental Education (STEE) Discipline Head within the School, and as co-leader of the Socio-Ecological Nexus (SEN) strand of the Faculty of Arts and Education Research Centre, Centre for Regenerating Futures. He is currently the President of the Chemistry Education Association (CEA), Victoria, a committee member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Green and Sustainable Chemistry National Division, Editor (Oceania) of the Chemistry Teacher International journal, and a task group member of numerous International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) projects aligned with his research focus, which is to implement and develop systems-thinking oriented teaching frameworks for situating sustainable development challenges and ethics into the chemistry classroom at all education levels.

Prof Dr Simone Abels is Professor of Science Education at the Institute for Sustainable Chemistry (INSC). She is Vice President for Graduate School, Scientific Qualification and Teacher Training at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her research interests lie in particular in the field of inclusive science education. Research-based learning, reflective teacher professionalization, and education for sustainable development are also among her main areas of research.

Gonzalo R. Guerrero-Hernández is a Physics and Maths Teacher by Universidad de Santiago, Chile. Currently, PhD researcher in Science Education at Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment Department, Institute of Education, University College London, United Kingdom. He is researcher at Center of Climate Action, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. His research interests are critical scientific and environmental literacies, activism, and teacher education.

Prof. Dr. Maija Aksela has over 30-year-experience in chemistry education. She is the founder and the head of Chemistry Teacher Education at Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki and its research group. One of her main research interests is education for sustainable development. She has published over 400 publications and received 17 awards.

Dr. Nadja Belova is a PostDoc researcher at the Institute for Science Education (Chemistry Education Group) at the University of Bremen. Her PhD work focused on advertising in science education. After her PhD she worked as a grammar school teacher before re-joining the science education group. Her main research focus is critical media literacy in the science classroom. In this context, she explicitly addresses modern media types such as social media and has designed and published a number of curricular innovations involving different types of media.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Vania Zuin Zeidler is a Full Professor at the Institute of Sustainable Chemistry at Leuphana University (Germany), and currently the Pro-Dean of Gender and Diversity, the Coordinator of the new Master Program "Sustainability Science: Resources, Material Flows and Chemistry (M.Sc.)" and the Chair of the PhD Committee Dr. rer. nat. at the Faculty/School of Sustainability. Her background is Green and Sustainable Analytical Chemistry and Green and Sustainable Chemistry Education, with major interests in developing analytical methods that are incipient to determine renewable and bioactive high-value substances extracted from agro-industrial residues, as well as in innovative design and implementation of university curricula.

Avi Hofstein is a professor (Emeritus) who has served for over 50 years as senior member of the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science, as head of the Chemistry Group and head of the department. Currently he is the chair of the Arabic Academic College in Haifa. Over the years, he has been involved in chemistry curriculum development, implementation (to include professional development of chemistry teachers) and research. His 150 publications cover, among others, effectiveness of the chemistry laboratory, science classroom learning environments, and the affective domain. In 2016, he received the ACS award for his achievements in understanding the field of learning in and from chemistry laboratories. In 2017, he received the DCRA (Distinguished Contribution to Science Education through Research Award), by the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in the USA.

Prof. Dr. Ingo Eilks FRSC is full professor for chemistry education at the University of Bremen, Germany, since 2004, and adjunct professor for science education at the Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia, since 2023. Having been a grammar school teacher for chemistry and mathematics he later engaged in the domain of chemistry education research and development. His research interests encompass socio-scientific issues-based science teaching, education for sustainable development, teaching and learning the particulate nature of matter, or cooperative learning all for the high school level. For more than 25 years now, these interests are deeply connected to cooperatively working with teachers following specifically adopted models of action research in science education. Further research focuses teachers’ beliefs and learning as well as innovations in higher level chemistry education. 

Miia Rannikmäe  is professor in Science education in Centre for Science Education in the Institute of Earth and Life Sciences within the Faculty of Science and Technology. She has considerable experience in science education in Estonia, Europe and worldwide (Fulbright fellow – University of Iowa, USA). She has a strong school teaching background, extensive experience in pre- and in-service teacher training and has strong links with science teacher associations worldwide. She has been a member of an EC high-level group associated with the publication of a 2004 report on ‘Europe needs more Scientists’.
Her research interests cover areas such as cognitive learning in sciences, relevance of science education, scientific and technological literacy, context based teaching in inquiry based science classroom. She has published over 160 articles (47 articles in international journals, 20 articles in books).

Muhamad Hugerat: Professor of Science Education; Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from The Hebrew University- Jerusalem. Vice-President of the Academic Arab College for Education (AACE) in Israel – Haifa. Head of the chemical education department. Head of SALiS (Student Active Learning in Science) Center.  Head of ARTIST (Action Research to Innovate Science Teaching) Center. Chief Editor of "DARUNA" – journal of AACE. Researcher in the institute of science education-the galilee society, Shefar-Am. He has conducted research in many areas of science education (e.g., learning environment, laboratory work, Science Education in all level ages, Microscale and Nano laboratories, teaching science through research, argumentation and sustainability in science education, History and philosophy of science, Green and Environmental Science education). He published several articles in different international journal. He wrote many teaching books in science education to the schools of Israel. He has been involved in organising and speaking at many national and international Science Education conferences.