Spectroscopy of Polymer 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.

Dr. Didier Rouxel is a Professor at the Institut Jean Lamour, Université de Lorraine, France. Prof. Rouxel has been involved in the spectroscopic analysis of inorganics and is vastly experienced in the analysis of polymer nanocomposite systems by almost all spectroscopic techniques. His major areas of interest include elastic properties of polymeric materials studied by Brillouin spectroscopy, development of polymer nanocomposite materials, development of micro-devices based on electro-active polymers, piezoelectric nanocrystals, microsensor development for surgery, cell excitement in organic medium by piezoelectric polymers etc. He has written 80 publications, 6 book chapters and 138 communications.

Dr. Deepalekshmi Ponnamma is working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University. She recently obtained her PhD in Material Science from the Institute of Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Australia, and previously worked at the School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, India. She has over five years of research experience and has extensive knowledge in the field of polymer nanocomposites. Her research is focused on nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene and the significance of developing technologically applicable polymer nanocomposites. She has also studied the properties of elastomer nanocomposites with the help of spectroscopic techniques. She has written 13 publications in international journals and 10 book chapters, and has edited 4 books. She has presented many papers at international conferences and has won best poster and oral presentation awards.