Dr. Iurii Timrov obtained his PhD in Physics in 2013 with honours from École Polytechnique (France), where he studied plasmons and electron–phonon coupling in bismuth and developed a new method for electron energy-loss spectroscopy. He then held postdoctoral positions at SISSA (Italy), working on first-principles methods for molecular and condensed matter systems, and at EPFL (Switzerland), where he contributed to the development of extended Hubbard functionals within DFT and DFPT. In 2021 he became a staff scientist at EPFL, advancing methodological developments and applications in computational materials science. Since 2023, he has been a tenure-track scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland). His research focuses on developing and applying novel first-principles methods to investigate complex materials, in particular transition-metal and rare-earth compounds.

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Valentina Sanella obtained both her BSc (2019–2022) and MSc (2022–2024) degrees in Materials Science at the University of Milano-Bicocca. For her Bachelor’s thesis, she worked in the Quantum Chemistry Research Group in Milano on the stability and degradation of layered transition metal oxides as cathodes for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries. She then pursued her Master’s thesis in the THEOS group at EPF Lausanne, where she applied density functional theory (DFT) with Hubbard corrections to study the electronic structure of LiCoO₂. Building on these experiences, since January 2025 she has been a PhD student in the Timrov group at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) and in the Materials Theory group at ETH Zürich. Her current doctoral research focuses on layered manganese-based oxides as cathodes for Na-ion batteries, with particular emphasis on understanding oxygen redox activity and its role in electrochemical performance.

Stefan Schären holds a BSc (2017–2020) and an MSc (2022–2024) in Materials Science from ETH Zürich, specializing in magnetic phenomena during his master’s. Between degrees, he completed two years of Swiss military service (2020–2022) and an internship at EMPA Thun (Laboratory of Advanced Materials Processing), where he used LAMMPS to simulate aluminum solidification. During the master’s he carried out two projects and a thesis: in ETH’s Materials Theory Group he investigated altermagnetism in magnetite using first principles; in the Magnetism and Interface Physics Group he experimentally co-sputtered iron garnets to tune their lattice constant; and for his master’s thesis—again in the Materials Theory Group—he conducted an ab-initio study of free-standing BaTiO₃. Since January 1, 2025, he has been a PhD researcher in Dr. Iurii Timrov’s group at the Paul Scherrer Institute, developing high-throughput approaches to discover novel sodium-ion battery electrode materials.

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Maria Andolfatto obtained her BSc (2020–2023) and MSc (2023–2025) degrees in Physics from the University of Milano-Bicocca. During her Master’s studies, she specialized in solid-state physics, carrying out her Master’s thesis as a MARVEL Inspire Potential fellow in the Marzari group at EPFL. Her research focused on polar-discontinuous heterostructures, investigated through Density Functional Theory (DFT).

Since September 2025, she has been pursuing a PhD jointly in the Laboratory for Materials Simulations of Professor Nicola Marzari at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and in the Materials Theory group at ETH Zürich, under the supervision of Prof. Claude Ederer and Dr. Iurii Timrov. Her current research is dedicated to the study of altermagnetic materials.

Ermanno Botti completed his BSc(2020-2023) and MSc(2023-2025) degrees in physics from the university of Milan-Bicocca. He carried out his Master's thesis within the THEOS group at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) under the supervision of Prof. Davide Campi and Prof. Nicola Marzari. During his time in Lausanne he developed methodological advancements in the treatment of the electrostatic interaction between charged defects in periodic boundary conditions. Since September 2025 he has been pursuing a PhD at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), under the supervision of Dr. Iurii Timrov and Prof. Oleg Yazyev. His work focuses on methodological development and applications in the field altermagnets, with emphasis on magnonic physics.

Amit Chaudhari is a computational materials scientist specializing in electronic structure modelling, high-throughput simulations, and machine learning for materials discovery. He completed his PhD in Computational Chemistry at Cardiff University, where he developed physics-informed machine learning approaches and advanced DFT-based methods to study defects, polarons, and catalytic materials. At the Paul Scherrer Institute, Amit will contribute to the NCCR Separations project by developing computational workflows and machine learning models for the discovery of sustainable materials for separation technologies, with a particular focus on CO₂ capture and advanced functional materials.