Invited speakers 2017

CDRSP, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal

Karnatak University, India

CDRSP, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal

University of Exeter, United Kingdom

In recent years, her research expanded towards a new range of high performance advanced composites based on high temperature polymers and new emerging manufacturing processes such as Additive Manufacturing. Her current research into High Temperature Laser Sintering (HT-LS) is focused on Poly Aryl Ether Ketone (PAEKs) polymers as well as composites (glass, graphatised carbon, ceramic – fibres and fillers and CNTs reinforcement). She has also been involved in the development of in-line monitoring sensors and novel instrumentation for efficient material use and reduction of manufacturing waste (near IR and Raman spectroscopy, combined NIR/Raman-thermal analysis).

Maastricht University, Netherlands

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research

Dr. Sivaram has held leadership roles in R&D in, both, academia and industry. He has over forty years of experience in basic research, process/product R&D and S&T management, both, in industry and academia. He is widely recognized for his contributions to polymer science, technology development, institution building and management of innovation in publicly funded organizations. The President of India honored Dr. Sivaram with the coveted civilian award, Padma Shri, in 2006. He was awarded the Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by Purdue University, USA in 2010 for his exceptional attainment and merit.

Dr. Sivaram is a recipient of numerous professional honors and recognitions in India. He is an elected Fellow of all the learned academies of science and engineering in India, namely, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad and Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi. He is also an elected Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Trieste, Italy (TWAS), Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

He has lectured widely around the world and has been Visiting Professor at the University of Bordeaux, France, Free University of Berlin, Germany and H.A. Morton Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science at the University of Akron, Ohio, USA .

He has mentored the Ph.D. thesis of 36 students, over a dozen post-doctoral fellows and published over 210 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals. He is cited as an inventor in 49 granted European and US as well as 52 Indian patents. Several of his patents have been licensed to companies worldwide. He has edited two books, authored one book and serves on the Editorial Board of several national and international journals in chemistry and polymer science. He has lectured widely around the world and has been visiting professor at the University of Bordeaux, France, Free University of Berlin, Germany and H.A. Morton Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science at the University of Akron, Ohio, USA.

Dr. Sivaram serves as the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Vyome Biosciences Ltd., New Delhi and a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of Indian Oil Corporation R&D, Faridabad, Apollo Tyres, Gurgaon, HLL Life Care Ltd, Thiruvananthapuram and Asian Paints Limited, Mumbai. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Asian Paints India Limited, Mumbai, Apcotex Industries Limited, Taloja, GMM Pfaudler Limited, Anand, Deepak Nitrite Limited, Vadodara and Supreme Petrochemicals Limited, Mumbai. He was the founder-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Entrepreneurship Development Center, Pune (Venture Centre), a company set up to drive innovation and create wealth out of cutting edge science and technology which has grown onto one of India’s finest technology business accelerator with a bouquet of services to translate science into market facing applications He is a much sought after consultant to many leading chemical industries in India and abroad.

Dr. Sivaram’s research interest concerns polymer synthesis (cationic, anionic, GTP, Ziegler Natta, free radical and step growth polymerizations), high performance polymers, surface chemistry of polymers, porous polymers for energy related applications, biodegradable polymers, polymers from renewable resources, organic-inorganic hybrids  and nanocomposites  and structure-property relationship in polymers.

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, USA

These strategies include cell therapies to restore normal function to lung tissue and minimize inflammation and scarring associated with disease. Diseases such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia and cystic fibrosis are often diagnosed before, or shortly after birth, so an effective therapeutic intervention at an early stage could prevent the onset of disease. Perinatal stem cells, derived from perinatal tissues such as the amniotic fluid, placenta and placental membranes, have potent immune-modulatory properties and multipotent differentiation potential. His work has shown that perinatal cells are an effective anti-inflammatory therapy for the treatment of lung disease. This work has culminated in a Phase I clinical trial evaluating perinatal cells for the treatment of bronchiopulmonary dysplasia in pre-term infants.

For patients where early intervention is not possible, such as those with end stage lung disease, there are currently few treatment options other than transplantation. To overcome this challenge, he has developed strategies to generate tissue engineered airway tissue for disease modeling, drug testing and transplantation. This research has included the development of techniques and tools such as patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, airway and lung tissue deceullarization, extracellular matrix hydrogels, and 3D bioprinting technology. The outcomes of this multidisciplinary approach includes the fabrication of patient specific airway constructs for transplantation, “disease-in-a-dish” approaches to cystic fibrosis disease modeling, and microfluidic lung-on-a-chip organoids for the high throughput screening and evaluation of novel drugs and small molecule therapies for patients with lung disease.

The therapeutic value of perinatal tissues is widely recognized, with the first modern application of amniotic membrane for wound covering and reconstructive purposes first described in the early 20th century. However, while the use of amnion membrane in clinical settings is advantageous, it is a somewhat difficult material to incorporate into routine use. Limitations included difficulty to handle the thin sheets without folding or tearing, and the requirement for sutures or adhesives to hold the membrane in place over the wound. To address these limitations, he has developed an amniotic membrane based biomaterial that can be easily delivered to full thickness wounds or burns either as a powder or hydrogel. Amniotic membrane-derived biomaterials are easy to manufacture, store and apply to full thickness wounds. In our preclinical studies our therapy produced significantly faster wound healing compared to the current standard of care, with a histological and extracellular matrix composition most similar to healthy skin. He is currently planning a Phase I clinical trial for evaluation of material to treat burns and wounds.

University of Glasgow, Scotland

Her first degree was in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford followed by a DPhil when she was based in the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford. She was working on the assessment of movement at the fracture site in patients with tibial fractures. She then joined the Department of Materials at Queen Mary University of London, progressing from research assistant through to, in 1998, being appointed Professor of Biomedical Materials. The projects were on the development of bone replacement and augmentation materials. She was also Associate Director of the IRC in Biomedical Materials from 1998 to 2001 and Dean of Engineering from 1999 to 2000. She has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, Lund University since 1998. In 2004 she was elected Fellow Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE) awarded by International Union of Societies in Biomaterials Science and Engineering. Between 2001 and 2009 she was a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Biomaterials and was the Secretary 2005-2009. In 2006 she was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, where she has served on committees including the UK Focus on Biomedical Engineering and Research and Secondments Committee. She is currently a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chair of the Proactive Membership Committee. In 2015 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In the January 2016 New Year’s Honours List she was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and in June 2017 she will collect a PhD (Hon Caus) from Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. She is a member of the Editorial Boards of various biomaterials and biomechanics journals including being an Associate Editor of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Engineering in Medicine.

Her Key Note lecture is entitled “Optimising Bioactive Composites for Controlled Deposition”

Karnatak University, India