Speakers & Chairmen

Bin Chen, PhD. D. is dedicated to the research of fire safety technology for new energy vehicles, achieving several industry firsts and forming systematic research results including equipment, standards and basic research. He developed the industry's first "integrated test platform for multi-source data fusion of new energy vehicle fires", formulated the industry's first "Electric Vehicle Fire Safety Test Methods" standard, developed the industry's first "China Electric Vehicle Fire Safety Index", and set up the industry's leading fire prevention, control and investigation system for new energy vehicles. He established the industry-leading new energy vehicle fire prevention system of "prevention, control and investigation". Dr. Bin presided over/participated in more than 10 scientific research projects at national, provincial and ministerial levels, applied for more than 10 patents and software copyrights, and published more than 20 SCI/EI papers.

Albert Burgstaller is a seasoned professional in the field of battery technology and e-mobility, with over 15 years of experience in high-voltage battery development, testing, and integration. He has led international teams across the full product lifecycle—from requirements engineering and supplier management to validation, cost optimization, and innovation strategy. His expertise spans electric vehicle battery systems, component testing, charging infrastructure, and cross-functional leadership. With a strong focus on delivering competitive, future-ready energy solutions, he brings deep technical insight and industry perspective to the stage.

David Fernandez has a wide engineering knowledge and extensive experience with high performance batteries, from design concept to manufacturing and validation. Joined the regulatory team in DEKRA TC Spain for the implementation of new services in the batteries field. His main focus is the EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542.

Dr. Frank Kindermann is Head of Battery System Europe for NIO, based in Munich. He and his team act as boots on the ground in Europe with a range of activities from software development to technology scouting. While the main focus is on battery monitoring and BMS function development, he and his team also cover topics from cell analysis to recycling. Frank has a background in electrical engineering from Technical University of Munich, where he spent his entire academic career. Prior to joining NIO, Frank was working in cell development and application at a German premium OEM. His focus on batteries started more than 13 years ago.

Kim Kreisköther studied chemistry at Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany and specialized in materials and nanotechnology in her Master's degree. During her doctoral research, she focused on electrode materials and took over the leadership of the electrochemistry group. Kim Kreisköther worked from 2018 to 2021 at the institute for Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components at the RWTH Aachen University, where she headed the Battery Components & Recycling group. Since January 2022, she is part of the battery expert team at Henkel and is responsible for innovation in the area of safety-relevant solutions for battery systems.

Jan Krewinkel studied psychology at the University of Tübingen. The entry into the automotive industry took place at Daimler AG in 2012 with the focus on the development of safety-relevant control and display concepts for various vehicle model series. Since 2019, he has been working in the area of passive safety with the aim of further developing the topic of occupant and environmental protection in the event of thermal runaway and thermal propagation events. The focus of the team is on a holistic view of the vehicle and the possible effect of corresponding events.

Natalia Lebedeva holds a PhD degree in chemistry from the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Thereafter she joined Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands to do research on fuel cells and led projects on corrosion and corrosion protection at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. For the last 10 years she works at the batteries group of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where she currently leads a research team focusing on battery safety.

Lukas is the Co-Founder of Sphere Energy, combining expertise in battery science and advanced software technologies. At Sphere, he leads the development of AI-based simulation tools for battery state-of-health prediction.

Ammar Nemat is a sustainability professional with two years at DEKRA, where he serves as a Sustainability Service Manager in the Sustainability Division. With an MBA in Sustainability from Technical University of Berlin, Ammar focuses on driving DEKRA's vision of becoming a global leader in sustainability by developing customer-centric solutions and expanding DEKRA's Sustainability Services. His goal is to make certification a core business asset, ensuring both environmental responsibility and market leadership.

Benjamin Schaufelberger has a master in Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures from the University of Stuttgart. After graduation, he became a research fellow at Fraunhofer EMI. His professional expertise lies in the field of modeling and simulation of engineering structures under highly dynamic loading like blast, impact and crash. Within the last years, developing and improving models in the context of battery safety has become his major field of research.

After studying general engineering at the TUHH Hamburg, Ms. von Appen holds several positions in the development of electrode films and prototype cells in Itzehoe. Ms. von Appen then held various positions in the field of stationary storage and managed various projects. Since April 2024, Ms. von Appen has been part of the support functions at the DEKRA Automobile Test Center and is responsible for technical sales for the new Battery Test Center.