Plenary Speakers

We are very honoured to present our plenary speakers for this edition of HTCD2026!

 Dr. Paco Laveille

Dr. Paco Laveille is an experienced scientist specializing in materials chemistry, catalysis, and self-driving laboratories. He holds a master’s degree in Biochemistry from Université de La Rochelle and a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from Université de Montpellier.
In 2010, following a postdoctoral fellowship at IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN), he joined the Catalysis Center at KAUST (Saudi Arabia) as a Research Engineer, where he led high-throughput experimentation initiatives and contributed to catalyst design research in the group of Prof. Jean-Marie Basset.
He later served as a Senior Scientist at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), leading applied research on catalytic technologies for both conventional and renewable fuel production at laboratory, pilot, and commercial scales.
Since 2021, Dr. Laveille has been the Managing Director of SwissCAT+ at ETH Zurich, where he established and now leads a national technology platform for data-driven, automated high-throughput experimentation in catalysis. His work focuses on integrating laboratory automation, experimental data digitalization, and machine learning tools to accelerate the discovery and optimization of heterogeneous catalysts for the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals.

 Pr. Toshiaki Taniike

Pr. Toshiaki Taniike received his Ph.D. in Science from the University of Tokyo in 2006, specializing in solid catalysis and computational chemistry. In the same year, he joined the School of Materials Science at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2020.
His primary research interest lies in the implementation of Materials Informatics through the integration of high-throughput experimentation, data science, and computational chemistry. He currently serves as the project leader of a Japanese governmental initiative on reaction exploration.
At HTCD2026, he will propose a lecture titled “Scaling up Catalyst and Catalysis Exploration by High-Throughput Experimentation and Descriptor Generator.”