Plenary Speakers 2015

 

SEERAM foto DAY 1
Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Professor P.E. Seeram Ramakrishna, FREng, is the Director of Center for Nanofibers & Nanotechnology at the National University of Singapore. Thomson Reuters recognized him among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. He is a Highly Cited Researcher (www.highlycited.com). He is among the top five scientists of Singapore, and the most cited engineer in the history of Singapore. He authored 6 books and ~ 750 international journal papers, which attracted ~ 43,000 citations and ~ 100 H index. His research outcomes have been translated into products and available in several countries. He is an editorial board member of ~ 10 international journals. He is an UNESCO expert on Nanotechnologies. He is an elected fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, UK; Academy of Engineering, Singapore; National Academy of Engineering, India; ASEAN Academy of Engineering & Technology; Institution of Engineers Singapore; American Association of the Advancement of Science; ASM International; American Society for Mechanical Engineers; American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering; Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK; and Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, UK. He received several awards and recognitions worldwide.

 

readingunimitchell181007-40 DAY 2
Prof. Geoffrey R. Mitchell
Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal
Professor Geoffrey Mitchell studied in Sheffield and London before obtaining a PhD working with Alan Windle at the University of Cambridge, UK. His PhD thesis focused on the study of the local structure of polymer melts and glasses using x-ray scattering and computational modelling. He spent a period in Cambridge as a research fellow with a programme centered on the study of liquid crystal polymers. This was followed by a spell at Hokkaido University, Japan with Professor Akira Odajima applying nmr and dielectric measurements to main-chain liquid crystal polymers. In 1984 he took up a lectureship in physics at the University of Reading, was appointed Reader in Polymer Physics in 1992 and Professor of Polymer Physics in 1995. He was the Founding Coordinator of the Polymer Science Centre a collaborative research programme in polymer science involving the Departments of Physics and Chemistry. In 2005 he was the founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Microscopy at Reading which was University wide centre of excellence. In 2013 he was appointed Emeritus Professor. In 2010 he joined the staff of the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development at the Institute Polytechnic of Leiria. Previously he had been Visiting Professor of IPL since 2004. He is now Vice-Director of CDRSP since 2014. Professor Mitchell has a broad experience of materials research ranging from non-linear optics through smart materials to the microstructural study of technologically important materials. He has developed novel time-resovig techniques in x-ray and neutron scattering for the study of both local structure and the influence of external fields (shear and extensional flow, stress, magnetic, electric) on polymer melts, glasses, liquid crystal polymers and crystallisable polymers. He has combined such scattering techniques with computational modelling to reveal quantitative information about the segmental packing in polymer melts and glasses. He has pioneered the study of liquid crystal elastomers including both chiral networks and the use of such networks as smart materials. He was one of the first to develop photoactive materials for a variety of applications, including non-linear optics, optical fibre switches, coatings and smart systems. In the last 15 years he has developed strong interest in additive manufacturing, firstly with the development of a novel UV/IR Stereolithography process and then the influence of 3-d printing processes of the structure and morphology of the final products. He has developed a strong interest in electrospinning and was amongst the first to evaluate the effect of the electrospinning parameters on the polymer structure of the fibres. He initiated and has chaired a highly successful conference series on electrospinning. This has led to a book ‘Electrospinning: principles, practice and possibilities’  published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2015. He is just completing a further book to be published by  Springer ‘Controlling the Morphology of Polymers: Multiple Scales of Structure and Processing’.

 

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Prof. Prasad Yarlagadda
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Professor Prasad Yarlagadda has worked in industry and universities for 30 years in India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. He was Founding Director of Smart Systems Research theme (2005-2009) in QUT. At Present he is Project Director, Airport of the Future project which is multi-disciplinary research project in the field of airport security, facilitation, risk and continuity planning. Prof. Yarlagadda received number of awards from various national and international agencies for his outstanding contribution to engineering field in particular to discipline of manufacturing. He received Fryderyk Staub Golden Owl Award from World Academy of Manufacturing and Materials, Poland, for his outstanding contribution to the discipline of materials and manufacturing engineering in the international arena. He is a fellow of professional organizations such as Institution of Engineers, Australia, World Academy of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering (Poland), Institution of Engineers, India, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, USA, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, USA, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK and Society of Professional Engineers, PNG. Currently Prof. Yarlagadda is leading a team of researchers in both Aviation security and also Manufacturing applications for Biomedical Engineering and other related applications. More recently, Prof. Yarlagadda received a Prestigious Great Honour Award for his outstanding and life time contribution to the discipline of manufacturing and materials engineering in world Arena from World Academy of Manufacturing and Materials and Materials Division of Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2013. At present he is Deputy Chair Person, Science and Technology Committee on GOPIO International, President of Federation of Indian Communities of Queensland, He was past President of various organizations such as Society of Manufacturing Engineers, The India Australia Society Inc., Vedanta Centres of Australia and currently also hold number of other senior executive positions in various professional and community organisations. Prof. Yarlagadda has published more than 350 quality papers in high quality international Journals and conference proceedings. At present he is Editor-in-Chief GSTF Journal of Engineering Technology, s Deputy Editor-In Chief of International Journal of Advances in Manufacturing and Materials Engineering and was also guest editor to number of international journals. He received significant amount of research funding from various government and industrial organizations. Prof. yarlagadda presented number of key note talks in number of countries such as Germany, U.K. New Zealand, Australia, India, China, Singapore, and Thailand are among others in various aspects Manufacturing applications for Biomedical Engineering.

 

WINDLE_A
DAY 4
Prof. Alan Windle
University of Cambridge, UK
Alan Windle’s research career has spanned Metallurgy, Polymers and Nanotechnology. He is now Emeritus Professor of Materials Science at Cambridge University, and leads a research group, which has carbon nanotubes as its major theme. He was awarded the Bessemer Medal and the Royal Society of Arts Silver Medal in 1963, the Rosenhain Medal in 1987, the Swinburne Medal and Prize in 1992, the Founders Prize of the UK Polymer Physics group in 2006 and the Royal Society’s Armourers and Brasiers Medal in 2007. He was elected FRS in 1997, and awarded a Cambridge ScD in 2012. He was closely involved in the founding of Cambridge Molecular Design, a materials software company, and of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis at Cambridge. He was Executive Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute during its formative years. He has also served as a Commissioner for the Royal Commission for the 1851 Exhibition. He is the Director of the Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Science and Director and CSO of Q-Flo, a company designed to exploit the spinning of carbon nanotubes into fibre directly from the reaction zone at 1250°C. Q-Flo has international partnerships in place to drive the major scale-up of the fibre process. The major application of the material is in light-weight armour and it is also a possible replacement for copper as an electrical conductor. He has published some 350 papers in the areas of polymer physics, liquid crystalline polymers, computational modelling and carbon nanotube science and technology.