Sustainable Polylactide-Based Composites

Professor Suprakas Sinha Ray is a Chief Research Scientist and Manager of the Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. He received his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry at the University of Calcutta, India in 2001 and was a recipient of the ‘‘Sir P. C Ray Research Award’’ for the best PhD work. Prof. Ray’s current research focuses on the applications of advanced nanostructured and polymeric materials. He is one of the most active and highly cited authors in the field of polymer nanocomposite materials, and he has recently been rated by Thomson Reuters as one of the Top 1% most impactful and influential scientists and Top 50 high impact chemists. Prof. Ray is the author of 5 books, co-author of 3 edited books, 32 book chapters on various aspects of polymer-based nanostructured materials and their applications, and author and co-author of 330 articles in high-impact international journals, 30 articles in national and international conference proceedings. He has also established 6 patents, as well as 7 new demonstrated technologies and numerous commercialized products developed with colleagues, collaborators, and industrial partners. He has received several awards and has previously been appointed as Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria, and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of Johannesburg.

Chief Research Scientist and Manager of the Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa; Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Dr. Ritima Banerjee completed her Masters in Polymer Science and Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD), India. After working in the polymer industry (GE Plastics and SABIC) for 7 years, she returned to academia. She taught in Delhi Technological University for two years and subsequently completed her PhD from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, IITD, the area of her work being microcellular processing of thermoplastic elastomer based blends and nanocomposites. She is presently a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering in Calcutta Institute of Technology, India. Her research interests include microcellular processing and the structure-property-processing relationship of polymeric materials.

Faculty Member, Department of Chemical Engineering, Calcutta Institute of Technology, India; Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa