Polyurethane Polymers: Composites and Nanocomposites

Prof. Sabu Thomas did his Ph. D in Polymer Science and Engineering (1987) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Prof. Thomas is an outstanding leader with sustained international acclaims for his work in Nanoscience, Polymer Science and Engineering, Polymer Nanocomposites, Elastomers, Polymer Blends, Interpenetrating Polymer Networks, Polymer Membranes, Green Composites, Nanomedicine and Green Nanotechnology. Dr. Thomas’s ground-breaking inventions in polymer nanocomposites, polymer blends, bionanotechnological and nano-biomedical sciences, have made transformative differences in the development of new materials for the automotive, space, housing and biomedical fields. Professor Thomas has received a number of national and international awards which include: Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London FRSC, Distinguished Professorship from Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, MRSI medal, Nano Tech Medal, CRSI medal, Distinguished Faculty Award, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award for Scientific Excellence – 2016, Mahatma Gandhi University- Award for Outstanding Contribution –Nov. 2016, Lifetime Achievement Award of the Malaysian Polymer Group, Indian Nano Biologists award 2017 and Sukumar Maithy Award for the best polymer researcher in the country. He is included in the list of most productive researchers in India and holds a position of No.5. because of his outstanding contributions to the field of Nanoscience and Polymer Science and Engineering, Prof. Thomas has been conferred Honoris Causa (D.Sc) Doctorate by the University of South Brittany, Lorient, France and University of Lorraine, Nancy, France. Very recently, Prof. Thomas has been awarded the Senior Fulbright Fellowship to visit 20 Universities in the US and the most productive faculty award in the domain of Materials Science. He was also awarded with National Education Leadership Award – 2017 for Excellence in Education. Prof Thomas also won the 6th contest of "mega-grants" in the grant competition of the Government of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation) designed to support research projects implemented under the supervision of the world’s leading scientists. He has been honoured with the Faculty Research Award of India’s brightest minds in the field of academic research in May 2018. Professor Thomas has published more than 1000 peer-reviewed research papers, reviews and book chapters. He has co-edited 107 books published by Royal Society, Wiley, Woodhead, Elsevier, CRC Press, Springer, and Nova etc. He is the inventor of 16 patents. The H index of Prof. Thomas is 103 and has more than 50,000 citations. Prof. Thomas has delivered more than 300 Plenary/Inaugural and Invited lectures in national/international meetings in more than 30 countries.

Prof. Datta is a well famous scientist in the field of polymer science and technology. He is an expert in the field of polyurethane recycling, polymer blending and composites. He has a good number of research publications in reputed journals. He is the editor of a book and written two book chapters.He is having ten patents to his credit. He is undertaking more than twenty projects. He secured his graduation and post graduation from Gdansk University, Poland and is currently working as an Asst. Professor in the same university. He supervised two PhD students and more than thirty post graduate students.

Prof. Haponiuk is an expert in the field of polymer composites, polymer blends, thermal properties of polymers, rubbers, nanomaterials, recycling, etc. He has more than fifty publications to his credit. He is having a good number of foreign collaborations.

Arunima is currently doing her doctoral research in polymer science in the International and Interuniversity Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Mahatma Gandhi University. She has concentrated on polymer blends with recycled polyurethanes. She has Co authored a book chapter and is actively engaged in research in the group of Prof. Sabu Thomas.