Prof. Derek Baker is affiliated with the Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) Research Division ODAK of Turkey’s Solar Energy Center of Excellence METU-GUNAM and is a Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Middle East Technical University (METU). He is contributing to 5 on-going H2020 CST projects as Coordinator (C), Institutional PI (PI), or Researcher (R): 1) SolarTwins (C); 2) GeoSmart (PI); 3) SFERA-III (PI); 4) HORIZON-STE (PI); and 5) INSHIP (R). He is Turkey’s scientific contact for the EU-SOLARIS European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). Derek Baker received his PhD and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas-Austin in 2000 and 1996, respectively, and BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1992.

Mr Marcel Bial is since May 2013 Secretary General of ESTELA, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association. The main focus of ESTELA is to promote and support the deployment of CSP solutions in Europe and the Euro-Mediterranean zone as a part of the global efforts of the RES sector to decarbonize Europe power sector and ensuring long-term energy independency. Prior to joining ESTELA, Marcel served as head of System Development at the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E), following his position as Secretary General of the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) in Brussels from 2002 to 2009. He has an in-depth experience amid the Brussels-based energy associations and stakeholders engagement across EU and non-EU countries. He also worked as consultant a.o. to EU-funded projects and looks back on a 25-year of experience in the power industry with Verbund Group in Vienna, Austria.

Mr Emanuele Bianco is an Associate Programme Officer at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He works in the Renewable Energy Market Unit. His areas of interest cover a range of renewable energy policy related issues such as power markets, system integration and policy design.Before joining IRENA, he worked in the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the Renewable Energy Division, where he actively contributed to the Agency’s analysis on power system integration of renewable energy.He has a combined ten years of experience in renewable energy policy analysis. He has received an M.Eng. in Nuclear and Energy Engineering from the Polytechnic School of Turin

Dr Julian Blanco, (Engineer by Seville Univ., PhD by Almeria University; Research Professor of Spanish Ministry of Research and Innovation), is currently the Director of Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA), coordinator of Joint Program on CSP of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and, among others, Spanish alternate member of Executive Committee of IEA-SolarPACES Implementing Agreement. He has more than 30 years of experience working at Plataforma Solar de Almeria (CIEMAT) on CSP related topics.

Dr Hicham Bouzekri received his Engineer diploma in electronics and communications from the Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingénieurs in 1995. After two years working as a microelectronics industrial process engineer for SGS-Thomson in Casablanca, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1997 to join the Master’s of Science program of the University of Florida, Gainesville from which he graduated in 1998. He obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station in 2002. After graduating, he was among the pioneers who started STMicroelectronics’ Rabat Integrated Circuit Design center, a first in Africa. He held several management positions within STMicroelectronics and ST-Ericsson while concurrently holding an adjunct faculty position at Al Akhawayn University.. He has co-authored a number of scientific publications and industry standards in wireless communications over the span of his 24 years of experience and was elected IEEE senior member. In 2013, he joined Mascir management team, a Moroccan non for profit foundation conducting market oriented R&D in Microelectronics, Biotechnology & Nano-materials, where he served as its Chief Executive Officer until 2016. Between 2017 and 2019, he has consulted with multiple national and international organizations on establishing innovation and knowledge economy ecosystems including the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) and the United Nations - ESCWA. He currently serves as MASEN’s director of R&D and Industrial Integration

Dr.-Ing. Reiner Buck is Mechanical Engineer and has received his PhD in 2000 from the University of Stuttgart on "Mass Flow Instabilities in Volumetric Receiver-Reactors". He has worked with DLR since 1986 on different solar thermal technologies, with focus on solar tower systems. Since 2011 he is leading the department “Point Focusing Systems” within the DLR Institute of Solar Research, which in 2020 became the department “Solar High Temperature Technologies”. His expertise is on solar thermal systems including receivers, heliostats and simulation tools. He developed several simulation tools for solar power systems (ray-tracing tools for heliostat fields, thermal performance analysis for various types of receivers). He also has a sound experience in testing of receivers and innovative concentrators. He also led and participated in numerous national and international collaboration projects on CSP.

Prof. Salvatore Carlucci is a tenured professor and leader of the Sustainable Built Environment Group at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia. He is subtask leader of IEA-EBC Annex 79 on Occupant-centric building design and operation and is a fellow of the International Building Performance Simulation Association. He has participated in several projects funded by the European Union and to three Annexes approved by the International Energy Agency. He is a member of the editorial board of two peer-reviewed scientific journals (Energy Efficiency and Energies), a reviewer for several international journals, and an evaluator of research applications for few international universities and institutions. Dr. Carlucci has published about 60 scientific papers and contributed to seven books on occupant-centric building design and operation, indoor environmental quality, thermal and visual comfort, indoor air quality, sustainable, smart and low-energy buildings, building performance simulation and optimization, and building physics.

Prof. Constantinos Cartalis is Professor and Director of the Department of Environmental Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is member of the Bureau of the Subsidiary Body of United Nations for the Implementation of the Climate Convention and the Paris agreement as well as of the Mission Assembly of the European Commission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities. Chairman of the working group of the Ministry of Culture on “Climate Change and Cultural Heritage” and member of the steering committee of the Center of Excellence of the University of Athens on “Climate Change – Adaptation and Mitigation”.Has served as Member of the Scientific Committee as well as of the Management Board of the European Environment Agency, Vice President of the International Bureau of Education – UNESCO. Also as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for the Environment (2010-2012) and Member of the Parliament of Greece (2007-2012) and Secretary General at the Ministry of Culture (2001-2004).Has published 100 papers in international peer review scientific journals.

Dr Alexandros Charalambides is a Mechanical Engineering graduate and holds a PhD from Imperial College London. He has worked at Imperial College London, at the University of Tokyo and on his return to Cyprus, at the Energy Service of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. In 2009 he was appointed at the Cyprus University of Technology, and his research interests lie in the fields of solar energy, algal biofuel production and energy saving in buildings. He is currently an Associate Professor and Head of the University's Chemical Engineering Department. His dynamism and passion for sustainable development and for developing ideas and young talent are what drove him to seek out like-minded individuals and create Chrysalis LEAP, the first accelerator in Cyprus, focusing on cleantech and ENERMAP, an EU-funded spin-out from the University

Luis Crespo has a PhD Aeronautical Engineer and Sociologist. Currently, He is President of PROTERMOSOLAR and – until very recently – of ESTELA (Spanish and European STE associations) and member of the Renewable Industry Advisory Board of the IEA.He was pioneer at the Almeria Solar Platform, involved in the central receiver plant of the IEA and in the GAST German-Spanish project. Afterwards he was appointed Director of Spanish Renewable Energy Institute in CIEMAT.Later on, he moved to the management and financing sectors becoming deputy Director of CDTI, General Director of AENTEC and General Director of CEX (Venture Capital).He was also professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in Energy and Business Administration fields and consultant of governments and financial multilateral institutionsText and photo goes here

Piero De Bonis joined the European Commission in 2010 and since then has been Policy Officer for solar thermal technologies at the Directorate General for Research & Innovation. He contributes to the part of the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe framework research programmes concerning renewable energy technologies. He previously worked at the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment and for the Italian oil company. He holds a degree in environmental sciences from the University of Milano.

Dr. Simona De Iuliis brings a wealth of experience gained throughout a 20-year career as project manager in several organizations (R&D Department of ENI S.p.A., Sapienza University of Rome, Energy Centre of Netherlands in Petten, University of New South Wales in Sydney). She joined ENEA in 2009 with a role as strategic adviser on innovative technologies in staff to the Head of the Department of Energy Technologies. Whilst her expertise includes solar energy system design, implementation and evaluation; advanced technologies design and implementation, cost analysis and industrial feasibility of solar-energy based plants, she is also expert in knowledge transfer and capacity building on energy issues (policy and technology), as well as lecturer in training courses and masters on solar energy, in Italy and in the MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa region. Expert evaluator for H2020 & FP7 (the EU Framework Programme for R&I), she is author and co-author of more than 60 publications (book chapters, articles and conference proceedings). She has been involved in more than 20 EU-funded projects and is currently responsible of two of them related to solar energy as well of the service contract for Technical Assistance to the Government of Algeria (Assistance technique au programme d'appui de l'UE aux secteurs des EE et de l’ER en Algérie EuropeAid/138560/DH/SER/DZ). Finally, she is involved in the Agreement among ENEA and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) for training programme on “Renewable energy sources, Energy efficiency and Cooperation opportunities”, for the abroad office’s of AICS (20 countries).

Dr Charles Ellinas: Oil & Gas Consultant. He has over 35 years experience in the oil & gas sector in senior management positions. Currently CEO of e-CNHC (E-C Cyprus Natural Hydrocarbons Company Ltd), providing management and advisory services in the oil & gas and energy sectors in Cyprus and the region. A lot needs to be done and the aim of the company is to contribute to the successful development of these sectors for the future of Cyprus.Prior to this, as CEO of KRETYK I was responsible for implementing Cyprus government’s strategy for the development of its hydrocarbons sector.Until 2012 I was a Director of Mott MacDonald for 25 years and the Managing Director of Mott MacDonald’s Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals business world-wide.Charles Ellinas is also Features Editor, Natural Gas World, and Senior Associate, Atlantic Council

Dr Philipp Furler is the Chief Technology Officer at Synhelion. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich and an MBA from the University of Strathclyde. Philipp has more than ten years of experience in high-temperature solar chemistry and reactor engineering and has authored several scientific publications and patents. He serves as Operating Agent – Solar Chemistry Research for the International Energy Agency’s technology program SolarPACES. Prior to joining Synhelion, Philipp was a Pioneer Fellow at ETH Zurich and co-founded the ETH spin-off company Sunredox, which was acquired by Synhelion in 2018

Dr. Nestor Fylaktos is an Associate Research Scientist at the Cyprus Institute. He holds a PhD from Imperial College London on mathematical modelling of socio-economic impacts of renewable energy in isolated communities. His research interests extend to the decarbonisation of the economy, the technical and economic aspects of new energy systems, and energy futures and modelling of the Mediterranean and EU regions. He has recently worked on projects of renewable energy (Concentrated Solar Power in particular), the modelling of national energy system, the impact assessments of energy policies and technological pathways towards net zero carbon emissions

Dr Marios C Georgiou, is the Head of the PROTEAS Facility Operations, of the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC), of the Cyprus Institute and a core member of the Energy and Renewables Group for the last 10 years. Prior to his engagement as the Head of the PROTEAS Facility Operations he has been a postdoctoral Research at the Cyprus Institute for two years, working on the experimental characterization of novel storage receivers (iSTORE), energy recovery and harvesting from CSP plants and coupling of Concentrated Solar Power cycle to thermal desalination. He holds a Bachelor and a Master Diploma Degree (BSc and MSc) in Physics from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and a PhD in Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences from the Cyprus Institute, with his research focusing on Solar Thermal Desalination.Marios has participated in several conferences both as a presented and as an invited speaker and chaired several sessions. He has teaching and mentoring experience of Master and Bachelor students. He has been actively involved in more than 8 European research projects and he has several publications in both journals and international conferences

Dr. Steven Griffiths is Senior Vice President for Research and Development and Professor of Practice at the Khalifa University of Science and Technology. At Khalifa University, he oversees the development and implementation of the university’s research strategy and operations.Among his activities external to Khalifa University, Dr. Griffiths is advisor to the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, a Zayed Sustainability Prize Selection Committee member, a member of the Dubai Future Council on Energy and an elected member of the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee. He is also Associate Editor and Editorial Board member of Elsevier’s international journal Energy Strategy Reviews, Editorial Board member of Elsevier’s international journal Smart Energy, Associate Editor and Editorial Board member of Springer’s international journal Energy Transitions and a non-resident Fellow of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. In 2017, Dr. Griffiths was Co-Chair of the Solar World Congress and International Conference on Solar Heating and Cooling for Buildings and Industry and was General Chair of the 2019 International Association for Energy Economics Middle East Symposium.Dr. Griffiths holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Dr William (Bill) Hamilton joined the Thermal Sciences Group at NREL in 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher.  His work at NREL includes the development of models to evaluate performance and optimize design, dispatch, and operations of concentrating solar power energy systems.  As a graduate student at the Colorado School of Mines, Bill collaborated with NREL in the development of a dispatch optimization model to determine CSP system operations given solar resource forecasts and electricity prices.  His research experience is in the fields of thermal system modeling, deterministic mixed-integer programming, and CSP system design using derivative-free optimization algorithms.

Mrs Diala Hawila is a Programme Officer, Policy Advice in the RE Markets unit in the Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, based in Abu Dhabi. She has been working in the Policy Unit of IRENA for over eight years. During this time, she has managed, coordinated and co-authored reports related to renewable energy policies and benefits entailing the series on Auctions, Policies in a Time of Transition including heating and cooling, and Leveraging Local Capacity, among others. Based on the findings of the reports, she provides on the ground support to countries in capacity building workshops, organized by IRENA or partner institutions, on the design of policies and targets and on benefits, and in the formulation of policy recommendations in Renewables Readiness Assessments. She also manages and coordinates policy events to engage policy makers in related discussions, such as the IRENA Policy Day. Prior to that, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers on supporting the development of policies and procedures for government entities in Abu Dhabi. She holds a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering and Management focusing on Renewable Energy Policy.

Mrs Melanie Kenderdine is a principal of the Energy Futures Initiative and EJM Associates and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.  Kenderdine served at the Department of Energy from May 2013 - January 2017, as the Energy Counselor to the Secretary and concurrently as the Director of DOE’s Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis.  Her 100-person office was responsible for analysis and policy development in areas that included: energy innovation; climate change; energy security; energy systems and infrastructure; and North American energy integration. Prior to her service at DOE, Ms. Kenderdine helped to establish the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and served as its Executive Director. Kenderdine also started the C3E Symposium series, a joint MIT-DOE program to support the careers of women in clean energy with cash prizes; she still serves as a DOE C3E Ambassador.  Before joining MITEI, Ms. Kenderdine served as the Vice President of Washington Operations for the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) from 2001 to 2007. From 1993 to 2001, Ms. Kenderdine was a political appointee in President Bill Clinton’s administration, where she served in several key posts at DOE, including Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary, Director of the Office of Policy, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. Ms. Kenderdine is the longest serving political appointee in the history of the Department of Energy.   She was named by National Journal as one of the top five most influential people in energy policy in 2014.  In 2020, Ms. Kenderdine was named by ALLY one of the top Voices of Energy in 2020 in the Sustainable Energy category.

Prof. Dr. Phoebe Koundouri holds a PhD and MPhil in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Cambridge (UK). She is Professor (Chair) of Sustainable Development (Economics and Econometrics) in the School of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business (Greece), and she is the Elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists (EAERE) (with more than 1200 scientific member institutions, from more than 75 different countries). Prof. Koundouri is listed in the 1% of most-cited women economists in the world, with 15 published books and more than 25300 published peer reviewed scientific papers. Prof. Phoebe Koundouri is also the Founder and Scientific Director of the Research Laboratory on Socio-Economic and Environmental Sustainability (ReSEES) at Athens University of Economics and Business. and an She is also Affiliated Professor at the ATHENA Research and Innovation Center (Greece), where she directs EIT Climate-KIC Hub Greece (https://www.climate-kic.org/ ) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, focusing on accelerating innovations for the transition to a climate neutral economy. She is also the Co-chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Network Europe Greece (UN COMMENT: LEAVE ONLY SINGLE SPACE HERE SDSN Europe, https://www.unsdsn.org/ Greece), Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Centre for Research on the Environment and the Economy (ICRE8), and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Forest Institute.

Mr Xavier Lara is the Senior Vice President CSP at the US based Pacific Green Technologies Group (PGTK) as well as the CEO at the international consultancy company AELIUS. He is the former Executive Director (ED) of Empresarios Agrupados (EA).He also works for the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as Renewable Energy International Senior Consultant, with the actual mission to study the use of CSP as a renewable energy option in Turkmenistan.He worked in the past at Executive Level in companies like ACWA Power, NextEra Energy (FPL), Técnicas Reunidas (TR) and ACS Cobra.He has a huge experience in Generation Projects, being Project Director of 2 CCPP in France and Bangladesh, 1 OCGT in Venezuela, 3 CSP in Spain, 2 CSP in India and 2 CSP in Morocco.He was a key player in the LCoE reduction of the DEWA CSP IV 700 MW + 250 MW PV, he sold the basic engineering to CSNP for the Urat 100 MW PT Project.Right now, he is deeply involved in the development phase of the new CSP markets, like the Spanish, Chilean, the US and the Moroccan ones.He has a unique combination of strong knowledge and experience in R&D, engineering, construction, commissioning and business development of CSP, that gives him an overall point of view of the business. He was involved in M&A of CSP assets, both in the technical and financial Due Diligences.He is one of the few international experts who was exposed to all the CSP markets (US, China, UAE, Morocco, South Africa, India, Chile and Spain).

Prof. Wojciech Lipiński is the Leader of the Solar Thermal Group at the Australian National University. He obtained his Master of Science degree in environmental engineering from Warsaw University of Technology (2000), doctorate in mechanical and process engineering from ETH Zurich (2004), and habilitation in energy technology from ETH Zurich (2009). He previously held positions of Research Associate (2004–2006) and Senior Research Associate at ETH Zurich (2006–2009), Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota (2009–2013), and Associate Professor at the Australian National University (2013–2015). Prof. Lipiński's research interests are in radiative transfer, reactive flows, solar thermal energy and renewable fuels. Prof. Lipiński has published over 150 articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings, and contributed to several books, edited books and e-books. He served as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering (2011–2017), and guest editor for Numerical Heat Transfer Parts A and B (2011) and Optics Express (2015–2016). He is currently serving on editorial boards of Solar Energy, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, and Computational Thermal Sciences. He is a member of the Scientific Council and the Executive Committee of the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer. He is also involved in ASME, AIChE, OSA, and several other professional societies. Prof. Lipiński's contributions to research and education have been recognised with several honours and awards including the Hilti Award for Innovative Research from ETH Zurich (2006), the College of Science and Engineering Outstanding Professor Award from the University of Minnesota (2010), the Elsevier/JQSRT Raymond Viskanta Award in Radiative Transfer (2013), the Future Fellowship by the Australian Research Council (2014), and the Yellot Award by the Solar Energy Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2020).

Dr. Victor Monsalvo (Male) is Head of the Eco-efficiency Area at the Innovation and Technology Department of FCC Aqualia. He was appointed in 2019 as Chair of Research and Innovation Committee at the International Desalination Association. He got his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University Autonoma de Madrid, and got a position as Assistant Professor in Chemical Eng. Department from 2005 to 2014, and visiting researcher in different Universities: Leeds (2007), Cranfield (2009), Sydney (2011) and Aachen (2013). Then, he was appointed as Head of Technological Area – Water in Abengoa Research until 2016. Victor leads an active research team working in water treatment and reuse, biowastes and biogas management, membrane technologies and processes involved in desalination plants, and has been involved in more than 25 research projects (public and private funded). He (co) authored 6 patents (national and international), 1 utility model, around 60 journal and referred conference papers, 3 book chapters and edited 4 books. He has participated in evaluation committees in the PARTNERSHIPS Programme Joint Applied Research Projects (2011- 2014) Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport (Romania) and in the National Committee for Evaluation of “Proyectos de investigación fundamental no orientada” 2012 for the Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (Spain).

Dr Fabio Maria Montagnino is the Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The Cyprus Institute.After a degree cum laude in physics and a fellowship in experimental and computational biophysics at the University of Palermo and the Italian National Research Council, he moved to the industrial sector as a manager of research and innovation projects. In 2003 he was among the founders of Consorzio ARCA, an innovation hub he’s been leading for fifteen years, pursuing its role in the European innovation ecosystem, as regional node of the EEN service network, EU-BIC certified incubator, EIT Health RIS Hub and host of two recognised Living Labs. He directly established two incubators, and contributed to the implementation of innovation policies in the Euro-Mediterranean area.He has been involved in more than 30 research and innovation projects and clustering actions, holding the role of coordinator in many of those. In the last decade, his main interest is the holistic combination of creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation, towards the sustainable development perspective. Considered among the European leaders of innovation ecosystems by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, he's the author of more than 30 publications and 3 patents

Prof. Costas N. Papanicolas is the Head of Energy Division in the Energy Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) and former President of the Cyprus Institute. He is advisor to the President of the Republic of Cyprus on climate change and Presidential Special Envoy for Climate Change. He holds B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served at CEA (Saclay, France) and on the faculty of the University of Illinois and the University of Athens.  He directed the Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications of Greece and the Physics Laboratory of the University of Athens.  He chaired the Accreditation Council for Tertiary Education of the Republic of Cyprus (1998 -2006), and served the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology of the Hellenic Republic and the Science and innovation Council of the Republic of Cyprus. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the European Academy of Sciences (Academia Europea), member of the Silk Road Academy of Sciences (China) and Founding member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and the Arts. He was been awarded the “Medal of Excellence for Service to the Republic” by the Republic of Cyprus for his contributions to research and education to the Republic of Cyprus and ordained as “Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia” by the President of Italy.

Mr George Partasides is working in the Ministry of Energy in the Department of Renewable Energy Sources since 2006. He is responsible for the Renewable Sources Energy Directive and RES Targets for Cyprus.Recently he was elected as a President of the International Solar Energy Society of Cyprus. He is the contact person in various international and EU fora representing Cyprus such as IRENA, UFM, Hydrogen Initiative, Concerted Action for RES. He is participating in various research and innovation programs through his current position.He is also enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Cyprus Institute in the field of Energy and Environment.

Mr Cédric Philibert is a senior analyst of energy and climate issues, with a focus on renewable energy for industry and transports, electrification and hydrogen. He is an associate fellow of the IFRI (Institut Français des Relations Internationales).He worked for 20 years at the International Energy Agency, first on the evolution of the international climate change mitigation framework, then within the renewable energy division.Cédric Philibert authored the IEA publications Beyond Kyoto (2002, with J. Pershing), and Act Locally Trade Globally (2005, with R. Baron), the IEA Technology Roadmaps on Concentrating Solar Power (2010), Hydropower (2012), Wind (2013), Solar Thermal Electricity (2014) and Solar Photovoltaics (2014). Mr. Philibert also wrote the IEA reports Solar Energy Perspectives (2011), Renewable Energy for Industry (2017), and Solar Energy: Mapping the Road Ahead (2019).A journalist by training, C. Philibert served as an advisor to the French Environment Minister from 1988-1990, published two books on climate change and on renewable energy in 1990, then served as an advisor to the CEO of the French Agency for the Environment ADEME, before joining UNEP, then the IEA.

Dr. Andreas Poullikkas holds a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) degree in mechanical engineering, a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in nuclear safety and turbomachinery, a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in numerical analysis and a Doctor of Technology (D.Tech.) higher doctorate degree in energy policy and energy systems optimization from Loughborough University, U.K. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET). Dr. Andreas Poullikkas is currently the Chairman of the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) and he was for several years the Chairman of the Cyprus Energy Strategy Council (both appointments by the President of Cyprus). In his professional career he has worked for academic institutions and for the industry, such as, a Visiting Faculty at Harvard University, USA, the Cyprus University of Technology (Professor of Power Systems and Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering) and the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (founder and director of the Research and Development Department). He is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Power Technologies, member of the Editorial Board of the journal Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments and the author of various peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, book chapters, conference proceedings and the author of nine books.

Mr Hank Price has spent his entire career working with CSP technologies. Initially as the performance engineer for the SEGS parabolic trough plants in California. Then he worked as a systems analyst at NREL. He was CTO for Abengoa Solar’s U.S. operations, where he was involved in the development of Abengoa's 250 MW parabolic trough plants in Arizona and California. Recently he helped form Solar Dynamics to continue development of CSP technologies and projects. NREL contracted Solar Dynamics to support the CSP Best Practices study. Hank was a key participant on the study and let the preparation of the Best Practices Report.

Dr. Elai Rettig is the “Israel Institute Teaching Fellow” at the Department of Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and at the Environmental Studies Program at Washington University in St Louis. He is also a researcher at the Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Center (HMS) and at the Chaikin Chair of Geopolitics at the University of Haifa in Israel.  He currently also serves as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to these appointments, Elai was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies (ISCS) at George Washington University.  He was also a Neubauer fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University

Prof. Dr. Christian Sattler studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is acting director of the German Aerospace Center’s Institute of Future Fuels and professor for solar fuel production at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. He serves as vice president of the association Hydrogen Europe Research representing the European research institutions in the European Joint Undertaking for Fuel Cells and Hydrogen and he is the national representative to tasks of the IEA’s SolarPACES and Hydrogen Implementing Agreements

Prof. Jean SCIARE is the director of the Energy Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of the Cyprus Institute. His main scientific expertise focuses on Air Pollution, addressing issues related to its impacts on air quality, health and climate. His experimental research is supported by the recent development of competitive facilities dedicated to long-term regional monitoring of air pollution and climate. Jean SCIARE is currently coordinating the establishment of a new Centre of Excellence supported by the European Commission and the Cyprus Government aiming at establishing a knowledge hub for environmental and climate change research and sustainable solutions, addressing the societal challenges of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region.

Dr Avi Shultz is the program manager for concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), which supports research, development, and demonstration of solar-thermal components and systems that can enable wide-spread deployment of low-cost CSP with thermal energy storage. Dr. Shultz has been with SETO since 2013, where he started as a science and technology policy fellow, supporting the CSP program on a wide variety of topics.Before joining SETO, Dr. Shultz was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Amsterdam, after getting his Bachelor and Doctoral degrees in Chemistry, from Columbia University and Northwestern University, respectively

Prof. Manuel Silva has a PhD in Industrial Engineering (2002) and he is Associate Professor of the Department of Energy Engineering of the University of Seville. He develops his professional and academic activity in the field of Renewable Energy, with special focus on Concentrating Solar Thermal Power technologies and Solar Energy. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 publications including international journal papers, contributions to international congresses and books and book chapters. He has participated in more than 20 competitive national and international research international research projects . He has also coordinated more than 90 research  and technical assistance contracts with industry leading companies and public entities and participated in other 30 contracts. He has lectured MsC courses and seminars at several international universities like the University of Colorado at Boulder (USA), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), UEMF (Fez, Morocco), AUC (Cairo, Egypt), University of Calabria (Italy), etc. He has participated as a member or advisor in different committees and associations, including the Scientific and Technical Committee of ESTELA (European Solar Thermal Electricity Industry Association), CTAER, AENOR, Protermosolar, AEDES, EERA JP-CSP, etc. He was Secretary General of Protermosolar, the Spanish Solar Thermal Electricity Association (2006 -2008). Since 2018 he is Operating Agent of the IEA SolarPACES Task V.

Wesley Stein has been working on the development of CSP for the last 28 years, prior to which he worked in the power industry. He is one of the key leaders in Australia and regarded internationally. He has been responsible for initiating and leading over $50M of CSP projects in the last 10 years, and grew the CSP team in CSIRO to 40 scientific and engineering staff. He has championed the role of leading edge technologies such as solar-driven supercritical CO2 cycles at high temperatures, and in particular has promoted the move from low to high technology readiness levels which resulted in the establishment of the National Solar Energy Centre in Australia. Mr Stein is presently Chief Technology Officer for the $110M Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute, and Chief Research Scientist for CSIRO’s Solar Group. He also manages the National Solar Energy Centre and is Australia’s representative on the IEA SolarPACES Executive Committee.

Dr. Constantinos Taliotis is an energy systems modeller with more than 8 years of experience in the field. He has contributed to the development of the first open-access Africa-wide bottom-up model with technology detail at the national level and potential for cross-border electricity trade. During the past 6 years, he has been providing modelling-support to the government of Cyprus for long-term energy planning purposes. The relevant developed model has been used to inform the National Energy and Climate Plan submission of the Republic of Cyprus, including the impact assessment of this Plan as well as subsequent studies on long-term planning of the energy transition in Cyprus, with a focus on measures related to low-carbon power generation and sustainable mobility. Constantinos holds a PhD in Energy and Environmental Systems and an MSc in Sustainable Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, and a BSc (Hons) in Environmental and Resource Sciences from Trent University in Peterborough, Canada

Dr Wang Zhifeng is a currently:
Laboratory Leader, Solar Thermal and PV System Laboratory of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Thermal Energy Science and Technologies
Founder and Chairman of China National Alliance of Solar Thermal Energy
Professor , IEECAS and University of CAS
Former:
Consulter group leader of Renewable Energy of Chinese Hi Technology Research Programmer
Research Areas (selected):
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
Heat Transfer Fluids
Thermal Storage Systems
Solar Building

Prof. Theodoros Zachariadis is an Associate Professor at the Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre of the Cyprus Institute. In 2009-2020 he served as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of environmental economics and energy resource management at the Cyprus University of Technology. In 2015-2020 he was the Dean of the University's Faculty of Geotechnical Sciences and Environmental Management. He holds a Diploma and a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His postdoctoral work focused on the economic analysis of energy and environmental issues. He has worked as a researcher at the National Technical University of Athens and as a European Marie Curie Fellow at the Economics Research Centre (ERC) of the University of Cyprus. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency, a Visiting Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, and an associate editor of the international Journal "Energy Economics". He is also a member of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in Cyprus, and served as a Board member of Green Budget Europe, a Brussels-based expert platform promoting environmental fiscal reforms. He is the recipient of the 2009 Research Prize of the Republic of Cyprus and the 2019 Environmental Prize awarded by the President of the Republic of Cyprus. His research interests are on the techno-economic analysis of energy, environmental and transport policies, with a special interest in environmental taxation

Dr Guillermo Zaragoza is a senior researcher in Spanish Public Research Centre CIEMAT (Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology Research), working currently in the Solar Desalination R&D unit of Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA). His main research is focused on the application of solar energy to desalination, both for small-scale decentralized applications and the coupling of desalination with concentrated solar power production.He has a PhD in Physics (University of Granada, 1996), has held academic positions at the University of Oxford (1997-1998) and the Spanish Research Council (1999-2000), and at the greenhouse research facility of Cajamar Foundation (2001-2008). He has a long academic record (>85 papers, 3 books and 8 book chapters) and extensive experience in international R&D projects (>40), teaches in a master course on Solar Energy at the University of Almería and in international courses on Solar Desalination organized by the European Desalination Society, of which he is also a board director. He is coordinating the Renewable Energy Desalination Action Group of the European Innovation Partnership on Water of the European Commission, as well as the Working Group on the same subject at the Water Europe Platform.

Dr. George Zittis is an Associate Research Scientist working for the Environmental Predictions Department of CYI's Climate and Atmosphere Research Center (CARE-C). He has a background in Geosciences, Meteorology and Climatology. He received his PhD in Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences from the Cyprus Institute in early 2015. In the past, he has worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, and in the Energy, Environment and Water Research Center of the Cyprus Institute.His research interests include: climate change and impacts, regional climate modeling, Mediterranean climate, climate statistics, hydro-climatic modeling and extremes, land-atmosphere interactions, climate change education and communication. George has been involved in a number of national and EU-funded research projects such as EMME-CARE (Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Climate and Atmosphere Research Center), SOCLIMPACT, BINGO, C8, ACCEPT, ERMIS-Floods CELSIUS and more. He is also contributing to the activities of the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) and its Middle East and North Africa hub (MENA-CORDEX).He has more than 45 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, book chapters and conference proceedings. Since 2020, George is a member of the Editorial Board of Springer’s Regional Environmental Change