# Message From IEEE NTC President Kremena Makasheva [President's Message]

Kremena Makasheva

► To cite this version:

Kremena Makasheva. Message From IEEE NTC President Kremena Makasheva [President's Message]. IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine, 2026, 20 (1), pp.3-5. 10.1109/MNANO.2025.3637649. hal-05516420

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Submitted on 18 Feb 2026

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# Message from the IEEE NTC President Kremena Makasheva

Kremena Makasheva

Université de Toulouse, Toulouse INP, CNRS, LAPLACE, Toulouse, France

By means of this message I'd like to take the opportunity to present myself to the readers of IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine as the 2026-2027 President of IEEE Nanotechnology Council (NTC). First of all, let me say how honored and touched I am by the trust that the Leadership of the IEEE NTC has placed in me to be the next President of the Council.

The first quarter of 21st century is already behind us. Advances in nanotechnology during this time have been marked by many innovations, some of which already being deployed for the benefit of the society. At the same time, we still face many challenges and there are plenty of problems waiting for solutions and offering a pristine land for exploration and development. This affirms the extremely visionary action of the Pioneers in Nanotechnology in the beginning of this century to found the Nanotechnology Council. The NTC is one of the oldest Councils of IEEE. The IEEE approved its formation on 17 February 2002, so 2026 is its 24th year of operation. The NTC focuses on the advancement and coordination of work in the field of nanotechnology. Accordingly, it is a multidisciplinary professional group supporting the theory, design, and development of nanotechnology and its scientific, engineering, and industrial applications.

The NTC is part of Division I - Circuits & Devices as a Council unit of IEEE and is currently made up of 22 member societies. By its statutory regulations, an IEEE Council has only participants (not members like a Society). There are no membership requirements (inclusive of IEEE) to join NTC, so participation in the NTC-actions is free and open to everyone! Via these rules the number of NTC participants continuously increased every year since its inception. The NTC is currently the second largest IEEE council with more than 46,000 participants (a number that has doubled in the past 5 years!) and has a very strong presence on different social media to remain connected with our community.

The Technical Activities of NTC are in the hands of 20 Technical Committees (TCs) covering a very large area of expertise. Each TC focuses on a specialized area, ranged from nanoelectronics and nanomaterials to emerging nanotechnology applications, actively fostering collaboration, organizing technical sessions, shaping research priorities and guiding the new directions.

The NTC currently sponsors three impressively peer-reviewed publications: IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology (TNANO), IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine (INM) and IEEE Open Journal of Nanotechnology (OJ-NANO). TNANO and the Nanotechnology Magazine operate under a hybrid publication model, while OJ-NANO is a fully compliant open access publication. In cooperation with other IEEE units NTC co-sponsors IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience (T-NB), IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics (J-PV), IEEE Journal on Exploratory Solid State Computational Devices and Circuits (xCDC) and IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications (T-MBMC). They represent an excellent scientific gallery to collect the latest developments and original works in the broad field of nanotechnology. All NTC-sponsored publications are indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)TM by Clarivate Analytics.
The NTC sponsors several yearly events, such as professional conferences, symposia and workshops. The IEEE International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO) and the IEEE Nanotechnology Materials and Devices Conference (IEEE-NMDC) are NTC's flagship events running all over the World on rotational principle. The NTC also co-sponsors the IEEE International Conference on Micro/Nano Sensors for AI, Healthcare, and Robotics (IEEE-NSENS), the IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (IEEE-NEMS), the IEEE International Conference on Nano/Molecular Medicine and Engineering (IEEE-NANOMED), the IEEE International Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing and Measurement on the Nanoscale (3M-NANO), the IEEE International Conference on Nanomaterials: Applications & Properties (IEEE-NAP) and the very recently started IEEE Latin American Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-LANANO). These exciting series of sponsored technical events offer platforms to the participants to initiate future collaboration on research, network with colleagues, publish their latest scientific achievements and stay current on news and events, introduce standards, and start educational activities.

More details on all NTC activities, including Educational activities with their Distinguished Lecturer Program, webinars and seasonal schools, and the very attractive Young Professionals events, inclusive of social network presence and other activities, such as fellows and awards, can be found at https://ieeenano.org/. I encourage you to visit this site.

The NTC has grown up as a robust and vibrant community capable to promote and value the latest inventions in the nanotechnology field thanks to the volunteers and leaders who have worked tirelessly over the years. The main strength of NTC lies in the large number of participants and the unlimited prospects of nanotechnology applications. It is in this extremely great diversity that we find inspiration and motivation. As President, I am the custodian of the NTC's great achievements, our leading technical publications and conferences, and all our initiatives, aimed at continuing the excellent work done by many before us. Together with the NTC Leadership and all volunteers, we will continue to advance our portfolio of journals and conferences to foster the highest technical excellence and partnership, and to promote innovation. In order to achieve a high level of NTC success, priority will be given to the following features:

**Leadership and Visibility** – By benefiting from our strong interdisciplinary experience, we will contribute to strengthening and broadening the commitments of NTC members and NTC Member Societies, seeking greater value from our actions through the development of strategies leading to new initiatives and new goods. The synergy of NTC leadership efforts and teamwork will reveal the strength needed to achieve high visibility and attract new members/volunteers to the NTC cause.

**Diversity and Inclusion** – We will work hard to well represent and largely engage women and underrepresented groups in the field of nanotechnology by increasing participation and affirming the leadership role of women in conference committees and invited presentations, in editorial activities and as Distinguished Lecturers. More broadly, IEEE NTC's mission to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity requires the talents and perspectives of people from different personal, cultural, and disciplinary backgrounds. It is our duty to encourage the creation of an appropriate environment within the NTC to ensure and benefit from equity.

**Impact and Legacy** – To achieve impact, we will encourage direct and indirect returns from events (conferences, webinars, workshops) and publications (journals and conference proceedings). To ensure legacy, we will help creating best practices and establishing a mentoring culture within NTC. We will work to increase the participation of young professionals and students, particularly from underrepresented groups, possibly through the development of tutorials and competitions regarding different areas of research developed by NTC members. It is our responsibility to present the NTC
activities to the society at large. We will encourage the NTC conference organizers to select lecturers and/or organize panel discussions related to nanotechnology applications for general audiences. All these efforts will be coordinated with Editors-in-Chiefs of the NTC Newsletter, aiming to implement more effective means of advertising to increase participation, as well as sponsorship of the NTC conferences and events.

I firmly believe that our collective efforts will enable the NTC to become more attractive on the global stage, leading to increased dynamic in the academic exchange of experts at NTC-sponsored events, or through editorial and educational activities, all with the aim of extending the leadership of the NTC in the ever-growing number of innovations in nanotechnology. As a step toward meeting these goals, let me introduce, with the unanimous consent of the NTC Executive and Administrative Committees, the following technical experts and leaders to serve as NTC-officers in 2026 in the designated capacities. All these exceptional volunteers are part of the remarkable group elected to constitute the 2026 Executive Committee, the guiding body of the NTC.

* Senior Past-President: LOMBARDI, Fabrizio, Northeastern University, USA.

* Immediate Past-President: KIM, Jin-Woo, University of Arkansas, USA.

* VP for Conferences: YEOW, John, University of Waterloo, Canada.

* VP for Educational Activities: SIRAKOULIS, Georgios, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.

* VP for Finances: CHRZANOWSKA-JESKE, Malgorzata, Portland State University, USA.

* VP for Publications: JIANG, Xiaoning, North Carolina State University, USA.

* VP for Technical Activities: HAN, Jie, University of Alberta, Canada.

* VP-Elect for Conferences: DI BARTOLOMEO, Antonio, University of Salerno, Italy.

More details on the NTC (inclusive of other volunteers, social network presence, and other activities such as fellows, awards, etc.) can be found at https://ieeenano.org/. Statements of VP's planned activities for 2026 will appear in the next issue of the Nanotechnology Magazine.

In conclusion, my mission is to better serve the NTC community. My vision is to bring the Nanotechnology Council to a very high level of recognition in all its activities and throughout the world. My hope lies in the current NTC actors, born and raised at the time when the NTC celebrated its first triumphs. I place my trust in all NTC volunteers. I am convinced that thanks to the constructive collaboration of all volunteers, young and experienced, representatives of the academic and industrial spheres, coming from all geographical areas, we will succeed together.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with suggestions and feedback. You can reach me by email at kremena.makasheva@laplace.unic-tlse.fr
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>LAPLACE, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, France</figcaption></figure>

Dr. Kremena Makasheva is Director of Research at CNRS, Laboratory on Plasma and Conversion of Energy (LAPLACE), Toulouse, France. She obtained a Ph.D. degree on Plasma Physics from Sofia University, Bulgaria in 2002, for her work on surface wave sustained plasmas. In 2003 she joined Université de Montréal, Canada for almost 4 years to work on surface wave sustained plasmas at atmospheric pressure and particularly to study the contraction phenomenon of electrical gas discharges. In 2007 she moved to Toulouse, France to work in LAPLACE laboratory on modeling microdischarges and microwave plasmas sustained by dipolar plasma sources. Since 2009 she works on plasma deposition of nanostructured thin dielectric layers, their structural, optical and electrical characterization. Multifunctionality of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is in the heart of her current research. In 2015 she and her colleagues proposed an AgNPs-based blocking nanocomposite layer to control injection and transport of charges in thin dielectrics. Her current research activities are directed to the study of reactive plasmas, design and study of plasma deposited nanostructured dielectric materials containing AgNPs for biomedical, optical, space and electrical engineering applications. She is the author and co-author of over 120 publications.

Dr. Kremena Makasheva served IEEE Nanotechnology Council (IEEE NTC) with different actions. She was IEEE NTC Vice-President for Technical Activities (2020-2021) and IEEE NTC Vice-President for Conferences (2023-2024). She was involved in the Program Committee and organization of many NTC events, and also as General Co-Chair of IEEE-NANO 2024 and IEEE-NANO 2025, Program Chair of IEEE-NANO 2020, General Co-Chair of IEEE-NMDC 2016 and IEEE-NMDC 2021, Chair of the 1st IEEE NTC-TAW meeting in 2022, Toulouse, France. She was NTC AdCom member as IEEE DEIS representative (2018-2019 and 2022). She is the founding Chair of the NTC Mentoring program: from Effectiveness to Durability (MENED 2022-2024).