**Tarek M. Abou Elmaatyz**

Tarek M. Abou Elmaaty is Galala University's first Vice President for academic affairs. He co-supervised in establishing Galala University within his role as a member of the higher committee of establishing national universities, MOHE. He's also a Professor of Textile Dyeing, Damietta University. Professor Tarek Abou El-Maaty earned a Bachelor's degree in Science as well as a Masters and a Doctorate in Organic Chemistry. He started his academic career as a lecturer in Mansoura University in 1998 before being appointed Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts, Damietta University. He served as a member of the scientific committee for promotion of professors of Applied Art in the Supreme Council of Universities before becoming the Vice President of Damietta University for academic affairs. Prof. Abou El-Maaty's research projects revolve around three themes; heterocyclic chemistry, the development of new dyes, and the modification of fabrics and colorant to produce multifunctional textiles. During the past 15 years, he worked on the synthesis of new functional dyes as well as the modification of fabrics to produce multifunctional textiles to be introduced to the market. He succeeded in creating several new dyes and modified fabrics which have antibacterial activity and multifunctional properties. And currently, his group is specialized in dyeing & finishing of textiles under supercritical carbon dioxide medium and this is the only group in the Middle East working with this technology. Also, they established the international joint China-Egypt supercritical dyeing in 2018. Prof. Tarek Abou El-Maaty received a number of awards including the best researcher Award, Publication Award and recently he won the gold medal (textile field) in Cairo Innovates for two consecutive cycles in 2018 & 2019. He has three patents in the field of textile chemical technology registered at ASRT. He also has over 60 publications and 5 books.

## **Maria Rosaria Plutino**

Maria Rosaria Plutino gas received her Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences at the Univ. of Messina (IT) in 1997. In March 1996 she won a 24-month post-doctoral grant (Human Capital and Mobility), funded by the European Community at the Dep. Oorganisk1 of the Lund Chemical Center (Sweden). In 1999 she had a temporary research contract at the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Natural Products (ICTPN-CNR), Messina. Since 2001 she has a permanent researcher position at the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials of the CNR (ISMN) in Palermo (c/o Dip ChiBioFarAm, Univ. of Messina). Dr. Plutino is also co-founder, President, and Scientific Manager of the recently constituted ATHENA Green Solutions S.r.l., an Innovative Start-Up, and Joint and not attended Spin-off by the National Research Council (CNR) and by the Univ. of Messina. The basis of the Innovative Start-up is the Arginare entrepreneurial/patent idea, which has participated in various local, regional, and national business competitions, achieving excellent placements and receiving awards and prizes. The company operates in the field of Environmental Technologies, offering in addition to the materials/prototypes of ArgiNaRe, other products, methodologies, consultancy and services in multidisciplinary sectors and the perspective of innovation, sustainability, and recycling. In particular, the mission and objectives of the company ATHENA Green Solutions are to research and production systems and/or prototypes for the resolution of problems deriving from high environmental impact activities with particular reference to seagoing vessels and marine/coastal, industrial and urban pollution. Her main research interest is the rational design, development, and structural study of organometallic complexes of transition metals, supramolecular systems, and nanostructured functional hybrid materials, for applications in the field of optoelectronics, sensors, catalysis, environmental remediation, and biomedicine. She has acquired specific skills in the use of different techniques, such as UV-Vis and Fluorescence Spectrophotometry, NMR (homoand heteronuclear, mono- and two-dimensional) and FT-IR spectroscopy, Mechanical Calculations and organometallic syntheses in anaerobic and high empty. In particular, the research activity of Dr. Plutino is focused on the development of new innovative and advanced, multi-component and multifunctional, nano-hybrid systems (nanohybrids and nanocomposites), obtained thanks to the use of sol-gel and polymerization techniques carried out in the presence of organic/inorganic hybrid silanes or polymeric precursors and organic and inorganic functional nanofillers, which show implemented physical and surface chemical and physical properties, and which can present potential applications in different sectors such as building, naval, textile, environmental, cultural heritage, biomedical, sensoristic, catalytic. Recently, Dr. Plutino has set-up green and eco-friendly synthesis protocols starting from natural substances or waste, which lead to the obtainment of functional materials that can also be recycled and re-used. The research activity of Dr. Plutino is documented by more than 50 papers published in journals with international circulation and two patents in the evaluation phase. She is also a guest-editor and reviewer of different international scientific journals. Part of the results obtained are the outcome of numerous national and international multidisciplinary scientific collaborations, and are included in various research financed projects ("Blue Growth" and "Cultural Heritage" theme lines in the PO FESR 2014–2020 and PON 2017–2020, where she is the scientific CNR coordinator); they have also been presented at national and international congresses in the form of oral communications and posters.
