Jianguo Lin, FREng, FIMechE, FIMMM, FISME, CEng, PhD, is a Professor in the Metal Forming and Materials Modelling Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Sheffield, UK, in 1991.

He is a Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and joined Imperial College London from the University of Birmingham in 2008 and established a Metal Forming and Materials Modelling Group at Imperial. The Group has 4 research centres and 2 joint research Labs fully funded by industry, and, has an international reputation in developing new metal forming processes, multiscale materials and process modelling theories.

His research expertise is in Metal forming, Materials and Process Modelling. He has published over 300 research papers in refereed international journals and over 20 patents, most of which have been taken by industry. He is a Founder Director of three Imperial spin-off companies (Impression Technologies Ltd, CurvEx Technology Ltd and Multi-X Solutions Ltd), which are resulted from his patented techniques.

Marion Merklein is professor of manufacturing at the department of mechanical engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany. She obtained a PhD in mechanical engineering from FAU in 2001, the habilitation in mechanical engineering from FAU in 2006.

She is Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), member of the Standing Advisory Board of ICTP – The International Conference on Technology of Plasticity and received prizes and awards, e.g., the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award from the DFG, 2013, as well as the SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal, 2024.

She was dean of the faculty of engineering from 2011 to 2015, is member of the senate from the German Research Foundation (DFG). Additionally, she is member of different national academies, e.g., National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Her research interests are focused on metal forming, joining by forming technologies, material characterisation and modelling and digitization. She is author of two books, (inter)national patents and more than 600 papers in international journals and conferences.

Leader of advanced metal forming technology group, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMR/CAS), China. Director of Engineering Research Centre for Precision Copper Tubes (ERC/PCT), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Zhang received his PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China in 1991. He worked as post-doctor, associate professor and full professor at HIT from 1991 until 1999. In between 1995 and 1998, he joined DANFOSS A/S and Aalborg University, Denmark as a researcher. From 1999 to-date he is full professor at IMR/ CAS.

Prof. Zhang has published more than 350 journal papers (around 200 and 150 papers published in international and Chinese leading journals, respectively), presented more than 80 conference papers and got around 90 patents. He obtained A.M. Strickland Award from Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), London, UK in 2011. He got the First Zienkiewicz Honorary Award at NUMIFORM2016 in France. He also got the National Prize for Scientific Progress of China in 2015. He is the Member of Stirring Committee of NUMIFORM Conferences and also Executive member of IDDRG. He organized NUMIFORM2013 in Shenyang and IDDRG2015 in Shanghai as the Chairman. He is Vice President of Chinese Society for Technology of Plasticity (CSTP).

His research interests include Development of Advanced Metal forming Technologies (Impact hydroforming of sheets and tubes, production of copper tubes, sheet, and wires); Finite Element Modelling of Metal Forming processes; Predicting of rolling texture and anisotropic behaviour by VPSC and CPFEM; High strain rate deformation and fracture Mechanics.

Carlos Saraiva, is currently Managing MCG AUTOMOTIVE Business Area, which is the company area that mainly focuses in product co-development, process development, industrialization and mass production of automotive products based on sheet metal that have stamping, welding and coating as its main manufacturing processes.

He has an academic background as Aerospace Engineer from Instituto Superior Técnico at Universidade de Lisboa.

The relevant professional background over the past 25 years has been crossing a few areas such as Quality Control, Stamping and Welding Process Development and Tool Design, and, more recently, in more broad areas such as Engineering and Project Management, Business Development.

Currently, and since 2022, managing the Automotive Business Area that incorporates Business Development, Sales, Engineering, Industrialization, Production, Maintenance, and Development Programs towards innovation in both Manufacturing Processes, Production Management & Leadership and in Sales/Business Development Activities.

Carlos Saraiva, is currently Managing MCG AUTOMOTIVE Business Area, which is the company area that mainly focuses in product co-development, process development, industrialization and mass production of automotive products based on sheet metal that have stamping, welding and coating as its main manufacturing processes.

He has an academic background as Aerospace Engineer from Instituto Superior Técnico at Universidade de Lisboa.

The relevant professional background over the past 25 years has been crossing a few areas such as Quality Control, Stamping and Welding Process Development and Tool Design, and, more recently, in more broad areas such as Engineering and Project Management, Business Development.

Currently, and since 2022, managing the Automotive Business Area that incorporates Business Development, Sales, Engineering, Industrialization, Production, Maintenance, and Development Programs towards innovation in both Manufacturing Processes, Production Management & Leadership and in Sales/Business Development Activities.