Dr. Sunita Singh is an Assistant professor of Chemistry in the Navyug Kanya Mahavidyalaya, University of Lucknow since 2019. She pursued her Ph.D. in the year 2015 on the topic, “Chemistry, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oils and oleoresins of spices” from DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur. She has awarded with Junior Research and senior research fellowships from University Grant Commission. She also worked as Research Assistant (2010-2011) on the project sponsored by CST “Chemistry, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial activities of Oleoresins extracted from Cardamom, Black pepper and Caraway”. Her work was mainly focused on quantitative and qualitative analyses of essential oils and oleoresins of spices namely Piper nigrum, Nigella sativa, Mentha longifolia, Anethum graveolans, Brassica juncea and Sinapis alba. Chemistry, Antioxidant and antimicrobial efficacies of essential oil and oleoresins were investigated using different techniques. She has published 22 research articles in journals of National and International repute. She has authored and coauthored 8 book chapters with national and international publishing house. She has edited a book titled, “Volatile oils: Production, Composition and Uses” with Nova publishers. She is also in a reviewer board of journals namely Advances in Clinical Toxicology, MOJ Food Process & Technology, Pharmaceutical drug regulatory affairs journal. She has attended in total 30 conferences and webinars of national and international repute and delivered more than 15 Invited talks and oral presentations. She has presented her work in various global events. She is also an active member of Association of Chemistry Teachers (India), International Clinical aromatherapy network and Global Harmonization Initiative.

Ali Akbar Heidari is a visiting lecturer at Universities of Tehran and Qom, and also, an R&D expert in a pharmaceutical company in Iran. He holds a BSc in Applied Chemistry from University of Qom, and an MSc in Polymer Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from University of Tehran. Ali Akbar has 5 years of working as visiting lecturer and 1 year of working as R&D expert. He has published many articles and reviews in the field of polymer membranes, supercapacitors, sensors, and Li-ion batteries. He has presented four abstracts on polymer membranes in the University of Tehran at the 2 nd International Conference on Nanotechnology and Nanoscience and 12th International Seminar on Polymer Science and Technology.

Dr. Omid Akbarzadeh Pivehzhani is working with Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre since 2016. His main research area is heterogeneous catalysis and catalytic reaction engineering. He has spent 10 years in academic-industrial projects as a research officer and post-doctoral. Dr. Omid has worked 5 years in the oil and gas industry as a chemical engineer. He developed advanced smart catalysts, especially for the oil and gas industries. Dr. Omid has contributed to two PETRONAS Research Sdn Bhd industrial catalyst projects and worked on an international Airbus R&D project in NANOCAT. Currently, he is the PI of the graphene catalyst project at Hokkaido University in Japan, project member of FRGS grant in UTP and assigned to the NANOCAT center project. Dr. Omid was the Chairman, keynote speaker and organizing committee of many international conferences. He is currently the supervisor of three Ph.D. students from different countries. He has published many ISI papers; book chapters and has two approved and granted patents. Also, he has hands-on experience and passed several pieces of training on handling different types of equipment which are being widely used for material synthesis, characterization and performance evaluation. He is in close collaboration with other departments, government agencies and universities around the world. He is visiting researcher of Jiangsu University China and Hokkaido University Japan. He is a member of the society of petroleum engineers (SPE) and Senior Member of Hong Kong Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society. Omid awarded a full fellowship from UTP during Ph.D. and were involved for lab demonstrator and teaching in the different courses of chemical engineering. He awarded Silver Medal in 27th International Invention & Innovation Exhibition (ITEX 2016), Kuala Lumpur Convention Center in Malaysia and Silver Medal of Post Graduate Research Project in the 35th Science & Engineering Design Exhibition (SEDEX 35)

The common theme that defines our research relates to synthetic polymer chemistry and how it might be used in creating well defined polymer structures. A large part of our work is devoted metathesis reactions, where the research has been mechanistic in nature. We immerse ourselves in the chemistry associated with creating new polymers, and we also find ourselves interested in modeling well known materials, like polyethylene, to better understand their behavior.

Richard J. Spontak was a research scientist with Procter & Gamble before he joined the NCSU faculty in 1992. Spontak has over 104 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and his work has been featured on the cover of Microsc. Res. Tech. and Langmuir. Spontak conducts studies to improve the current understanding of microstructural polymer systems, which are of scientific interest as self-assembling polymers and commercial value as adhesives, (bio)compatibilizing agents, nanotemplates, and membranes. His group’s efforts are at the cutting edge of block copolymer research: e.g., they have obtained the first 3D images of the bicontinuous gyroid (Ia3d) and sponge (L3) morphologies. They characterize polymers with electronspectroscopic microscopy, and dispersions/gels with freeze-fracture replication and cryo-TEM techniques. Use of these tools has expedited the study of block copolymers and their blends/gels, and has helped to elucidate novel polymer gelation mechanisms, PDLC composition/morphology relationships, and interpolymer complexation. Other areas of interest include polymer alloying through mechanical attrition, transmission electron microtemography, and modification of polymer solutions via salting-in.

Vakhtang Barbakadze has his expertise in isolation and structure elucidation of a new series of plant polyethers, which are endowed with pharmacological properties as anti-cancer agents. He has completed his Ph.D and D.Sci. in 1978 and 1999. He is the head of Department of plant biopolymers and chemical modification of natural compounds at the Tbilisi State Medical University Institute of Pharmacochemistry. 1996 and 2002 he has been a visiting scientist at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, by University Scholarship and The Netherlands organization for scientific research (NWO) Scholarship Scientific Program, respectively. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals.

Michael Fischlschweiger is full professor at Clausthal University of Technology. He is heading the Chair of Technical Thermodynamics and Energy Efficient Material Treatment at the Institute for Energy Process Engineering and Fuel Technology. He holds a BSc and MSc in Polymer Engineering & Science and a PhD in Materials Mechanics and Numerical Mathematics from the University of Leoben, Austria. The doctoral theses was conducted jointly between the Centre des Matériaux (MINES ParisTech) and the University of Leoben. Additionally, he holds a PhD in Thermodynamics from Technical University of Berlin. His major research focus is on theoretical and experimental thermodynamics for developing resource efficient materials, processes and products.