Makoto Usami is Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at Kyoto University and a visiting professor at the Technical University of Munich. After staying as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, he was a full professor at Chukyo University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He currently serves as the President of the Public Policy Studies Association, Japan. His areas of specialty include legal and political philosophy, and he has recently worked on climate justice, global justice, intergenerational justice, and moral issues surrounding artificial intelligence, among others. He is the author of four books and a co-author of two textbooks, while also editing eight anthologies in English and Japanese. He has published nearly 80 journal papers and book chapters and given talks at more than 70 international conferences.
Biography: Prof. Zhijun Peng is a Professor at the School of Power and Energy at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi‘an, China. With a Ph.D. from the National Engine Combustion Lab at Tianjin University, he has built a distinguished international career, having held professorial positions at the University of Lincoln and the University of Bedfordshire, as well as a senior development engineering role at Ford Motor Company. His interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and combustion, applied to internal combustion engines, gas turbines, fuel cells, and sustainable energy systems. Recently, his work has focused on sustainable vehicle powertrains, non-carbon water transport technologies, and the integration of solar PV with thermal energy efficiency. Prof. Peng is a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). He has also contributed to the editorial leadership of several journals, including serving as an Associate Editor for Electronics Letters
Biography: Dr. Masafumi Yamaguchi is now Professor Emeritus and Invited Research Fellow at the Toyota Technological Institute, Nagoya, Japan. He is the Chairman, PV R&D Review Committee under the NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization): since 2008. He was the Research Supervisor of the “Creative Clean Energy Generation using Solar Energy” under the JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency): 2009-2017. Prof. Yamaguchi has contributed to R&D for high-efficiency multi-junction, Si tandem and Si solar cells, space solar cells, defects in semiconductors, PV-powered vehicle applications. He has received numerous awards such as The Becquerel Prize from the European Commission in 2004, The William Cherry Award from the IEEE in 2008, The PVSEC Award in 2011, The WCPEC Award in 2014, The Science and Technology Award by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2015, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Japan Society of Applied Physics in 2025 and the Purple Ribbon Medal from the Emperor in 2025 for his outstanding contributions to the development of science and technology of photovoltaics such as high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells, space solar cells, concentrator solar cells and as one of the world leaders of the development of photovoltaics and as one of the driving forces for international co-operation.
