**About the Editors**

### **Sophie Hermans**

Sophie Hermans is an Inorganic Chemist who obtained her first degrees ('Licence en Chimie'and DEA) at UCLouvain in Belgium. She carried out her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Brian F. G. Johnson, working on mixed-metal clusters synthesis, then pursued postdoctoral studies in Cambridge (as JRF, Newnham College) with Prof. Sir John M. Thomas to immobilize the mixed-metal clusters in MCM-41 for heterogeneous catalytic applications. After moving back to UCLouvain with a FNRS 'Chargee de recherches'post, she started working on ´ carbon-supported catalysts for sugar transformations and chemical functionalization of (nano)carbon surfaces. She obtained the FNRS 'Chercheur Qualifie'and Assistant Professor positions in 2005 and ´ since then was promoted to 'Professeur Extraordinaire'and FNRS Research Director in 2020. Her research interests are still connected to inorganic molecular chemistry, carbon-based catalysts for biomass valorization, surface functionalization and nanostructured materials preparation.

Key Topics: Carbon, Supported catalysts, Functionalization, Nanomaterials, Biomass ORCID : 0000-0003-4715-7964

Institutional website: https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/imcn/most/research.html Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sophie Hermans

URL Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.be/citations?user= inQ2UQAAAAJ

### **Julien Mahy**

Julien G. Mahy is a chemical engineer from the University of Liege (ULi ` ege, Belgium). He made ` a Ph.D. thesis, under the supervision of Pr. Stephanie Lambert and Pr. Beno ´ ˆıt Heinrichs, focused on the development of a TiO2 aqueous sol-gel process in order to produce, at large scale, photocatalysts with hydrophilic properties and high activity, both under visible and UV/visible light, for water and air remediation. In 2018, after a short period working in industry in CRM group as project leader, he accepted a postdoctoral position in collaboration between the NCE (ULiege) and the "Institut f ` ur¨ Energie- und Umwelttechnik e.V. (IUTA)", Duisburg (Germany) to work on the development of a quaternary treatment for water in order to degrade residual organic micropollutants using oxidation processes. From July 2019 to June 2021, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN) at the Universite catholique de Louvain under the ´ supervision of Pr. Sophie Hermans. The work consisted in the development of low-cost sensors for air pollution detection by producing onion-like composite nanoparticles.

Since October 2021, he is FNRS postdoctoral researcher at the Universite de Li ´ ege under the ` supervision of Pr. Stephanie Lambert and Pr Nathalie Job and at the INRS, Qu ´ ebec, under the ´ supervision of Pr. Patrick Drogui. His work consists in the development of inorganic materials and processes in environmental applications such as water and air decontamination process by photocatalysis, adsorption and electrochemistry.

Key Topics: TiO2, Photocatalysts, Water treatment, Sol-Gel process, Adsorption

### ORCID : 0000-0003-2281-9626

Institutional website: https://www.chemeng.uliege.be/cms/c 3482790/fr/chemeng-repertoire?uid=u217056 Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julien-Mahy?ev=hdr xprf URL Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=fr&user=ohH-zUgAAAAJ
