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International Conference on Smart Materials and Surfaces

Conference Speakers

Conference Chairs

Dr. Naveed Anwar

Executive Director/CEO, AIT Consulting Affiliated Faculty, Structural Engineering Director, ACECOMS, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

Dr. Naveed Anwar is the Executive Director of AIT Consulting and serves on its Advisory and Technical Board of Directors. Dr. Naveed also oversees the Asian Center for Engineering Computations and Software (ACECOMS) as Director and continues to teach structural engineering at the School of Engineering and Technology, both situated at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).

Since 2010, Dr. Naveed has been responsible for the establishment and consistent growth of AIT Consulting marked by providing specialized services in technology, engineering, environment, development and management across a spectrum of private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in all regions. While steering AIT Consulting's commitment to nimble, high-quality solutions, Dr. Naveed is recognized for numerous honors and awards for his 30-year contribution to the field of structural engineering specifically in areas spanning the design and analysis of tall buildings, bridges and special structures, computational mechanics and the development of software for engineering applications.

As Director of ACECOMS, Dr. Naveed has thirty years of extensive experience in development of software, use of computers in engineering application, and computer programming. He is author of several programs which include ACECOMS GEAR, The SDL-1 Series, SYS DESIGNER, Frame2DX, BUILDCOST, BridgePad and main author of several user manuals and technical documentation for engineering software such as BATS 99 and BATS 2000, NichadaCAD, MonierCAD, CSIDetailer, CSISection Builder, RISA Section, CSICOL.

Dr. Naveed has been invited to participate as keynote speaker in 120 seminars and workshops, conducted in 15 countries, and attended by a combined total of 4,000 engineers from 25 countries.

He has numerous research publications in the fields of Structural Engineering, Computational Mechanics, Earthquake Engineering, Performance Based Design, Modeling and Analysis of Bridges, Tall Buildings and special structures such as Tall Stack and Masonry Structures. Dr. Naveed has also co-authored over 50 workshops presentations, covering a wide range of topics such as structural modeling and analysis, concrete design, steel design, and software development research methodology.

Dr. Naveed Anwar has extensive experience in the conception, planning, analysis, design and detailing of multi-story buildings, bridges, water retaining structures, industrial buildings and special structures. He has worked on the structural design of over 800 different projects.

Dr. Naveed earned Doctoral and Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering at AIT and holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

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Prof. Joydeep Dutta

KTH Royal Institute of Technology Chair, Sweden

Prof. Joydeep Dutta is the Chair of Functional Materials division at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. He was the Chair Professor in Nanotechnology for Water Desalination and other applications in Sultan Qaboos University until recently. He was the Vice President (Academic Affairs), Director of the Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology and a Professor in Nanotechnology at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand, whose faculty he joined in April 2003 (until October 2011). He completed his Ph.D in 1990 from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India (Calcutta University). In 1991 and 1992 he did Post Doctoral work at the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL, Japan) and at Ecole Polytechnique (France) before moving to Switzerland in 1993 where he was associated with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland until 2003. From 1997-2001 he worked in technical and managerial qualities in high technology industries in Switzerland before returning back to academia in 2002. He has been the member of the board of two companies working in high technology electronics and environmental consulting respectively.

His broad research interests include nanomaterials in nanotechnology, self-organization, enhanced water treatment, catalysis, nanoparticles, nanorods and their applications. The current research interests encompasses two themes namely: Planetcare and healthcare. In the planetcare nexus research is focused on visible light photocatalysis, electrocatalysis of waste water (with focus on degradation of waste water, produced water and hospital waste), desalination (both membrane and capacitive deionization) and alternate energy sources (rainbow solar cells and hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming). In the healthcare nexus, work in the group encompass magnetic imaging, quantum dot labeling and in bone implants.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Nanotechnology (IoN) and the Society of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (SNN), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), USA, founding member of the Thailand Nanotechnology Society, and member of several professional bodies. He has served to review projects of various scientific organizations of different countries and has organized a few international conferences and served as a member in several others.

Prof. Dutta is an award winning author (Choice award for Outstanding Academic title of 2010 from American Library Association) of the book “Fundamentals of Nanotechnology”. He has also written two other text books entitled “Introduction to Nanoscience” and “Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology” (CRC Press of Taylor and Francis Group LLC).

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Keynote Speakers

Prof Elias Siores

Bolton University, United Kingdom

 Professor Elias Siores is the Provost and Director of Research and Innovation, Bolton University. Educated in the UK (BSc, MSC, MBA, PhD) and pursued his academic career in Australia (Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne) and Asia (Hong Kong, Dong Guan) before returning to Europe (UK) as a Marie Curie Fellow. His R&D work concentrated on advancing the science and technology in the field of automated Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation including Ultrasound, Acoustic Emission, and Microwave Thermography. His recent R&D work focuses on Smart / Functional Materials and Systems development. In this area, he has developed Electromagnetic, Electrorheological, Photovoltaic and Piezoelectric Smart Materials based Energy Conversion Systems for Renewable Energy, Medical, Health Care and Wearable Devices. He has published over 300 publications including 8 Patents . He has been a member of editorial boards of international journals and a Fellow of IOM, TWI, IEAust, SAE and WTIA. He has served on Board of Directors of a number of research centres worldwide including UK, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, all associated with the Bio-Nano-Materials field. He has received 15 awards in his career for R&D achievements.

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Prof. Mikael Syvajarvi

Graphensic AB and Linköping University, Sweden

Prof. Mikael Syväjärvi received a PhD degree in materials science from Linköping University, Sweden in 1999. His expertise is in materials growth and technologies of SiC, graphene and related materials. His scientific focus area is material for energy and environment. He initiated a European research collaboration in fluorescent and photovoltaic SiC, and has co-organized several symposiums at E-MRS. He has published more than 200 journal and conference papers. He is a co-inventor of The Cubic Sublimation Method for cubic SiC and the Fast Sublimation Growth Process that is applied for industrial development of fluorescent hexagonal SiC. He is also co-inventor of the High Temperature Graphene Process and a co-founder of Graphensic AB that manufactures and supplies graphene on SiC.

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Prof. Hendrik C Swart

Department of Physics, University of the Free State, South Africa

Prof. Hendrik C Swart is a B2 NRF rated researcher and currently a senior professor in the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State. Over the past 19 years he has led research in the area of the degradation of phosphors for field emission displays, as well as developing materials for nano solid state lighting. He has been key in the development of processes to synthesise and deposit thin films of various types of semiconductor nano-particles which will enhance the colour, luminescent intensity and lifetime of such displays. He has more than 270 publications in international peer reviewed journals, 40 peer reviewed conference proceedings and 3 book chapters and books with more than 1450 cited author references and more than 390 national and international conference contributions (authored and co-authored). He has an ISI H-index of 18 (rid=g-2696-2012). He is a reviewer for about 30 international and national professional journals in his field (or in related fields), and a member of the editorial board of the high impact factor journal ‘Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences. He has received the South African National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) award in 2009 for research capacity development of students in the niche area of nanophysics. His commitment to the next generation of scientists is also reflected by the awards he received from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State, South Africa for excellence (2012), mentorship (2008) and for academic entrepreneurship (2009).

Prof. Swart received honorary membership of the Golden Key Association (2012). He was chair of national and international conferences. He has supervised 45 PhD and MSc students successfully in the past with another 16 in progress and has established a National Nano Surface Characterization Facility (NNSCF) containing state of the art surface characterization equipment. Interdisciplinary results obtained with these systems were recently selected for the cover of Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) Yeast research journal for 2013. A research chair in Solid State Luminescent and Advanced Materials was awarded to him from the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) at the end of 2012. The main focus of his research group will be the improvement of luminescent materials for applications in Flat Panel Displays and Solar Cells; the development of Organic light emitting diodes (OLED) materials as well as materials for power saving solid state lighting devices.

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Prof. Suresh Valiyaveettil

Department of Chemistry National University of Singapore, Singapore

Prof. Suresh.’s group at the National University of Singapore is interested in developing functional materials for various applications. Ongoing projects involve:

 

i) Synthesis of conjugated oligomers and polymers
ii) Functionalization of natural polymers (e.g. cellulose)

iii) Developing new adsorbent materials (e.g. polymers, nanocarbon, metal oxides, biomembranes) for water purification.
iv) Synthesis and characterization of novel nanomaterials
v) Safety and toxicity of metallic nanoparticles
vi) Investigation of biomimetic synthesis of hard tissues (e.g. eggshells, seashells)
vii) Materials for solar cells


His group has published more than 150 papers in various refereed international journals with a total citation of 3598 (Average citations per paper: 18.08, h-index: 31). In addition, about 24 students completed their PhD, 11 students graduated with MSc degrees and more than 100 students finished their final year projects from his group in NUS. One of his key strength is providing quality research experience and training to young talented students.

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Prof. Enrico Traversa

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Prof. Enrico Traversa in 1986 got his “Laurea” (Italian Doctoral Degree), Summa cum Laude, in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rome La Sapienza. From March 2013 he joined the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. From April 2012, he is the Director of the Department of Fuel Cell Research at the International Center for Renewable Energy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. He joined the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 1988, where he is since 2000 a Professor of Materials Science and Technology, now on leave of absence. In the same University, from 2001 to 2008 he was the Director of the PhD Course of Materials for Health, Environment and Energy. From January 2009 to March 2012, he was a Principal Investigator at the International Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan, leading a unit on Sustainability Materials. Since 2005 he is Graduate Faculty at the University of Florida, USA, and in 2010-2012 he was Adjunct Professor at Waseda University and at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

His research interests are in nanostructured materials for environment, energy, and healthcare, with special attention to sustainable development. He is an author of more than 500 scientific papers (more than 330 of them published in refereed international journals) and 16 patents, and edited 28 books and special issues on journals. He is listed in the Essential Science Indicators/Web of Science as a highly cited researcher, both in the Materials Science and Engineering categories, and his h-index is 46.

Elected in 2007 in the World Academy of Ceramics, he was also elected in the Advisory Board (2010-2014). In 2011 he was recipient of the Ross Coffin Purdy Award of the American Ceramic Society for the best paper on ceramics published in 2010. Recipient in 2011 of a “1000 Talent” Scholarship from the Government of China. Elected Fellow of the Electrochemical Society in 2013. He is Past Chair of the High Temperature Materials Division of the Electrochemical Society. From 2003 to 2009, he was Member of the International Relations Committee of the Materials Research Society. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Nanoparticle Research. He is one of the Volume Organizers of MRS Bulletin for 2014.

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Invited Speakers

Prof. Husam N. Alshareef

Program Chair in the Materials Science & Engineering program at KAUST, KSA

Prof. Husam Alshareef obtained his PhD at North Carolina State University, USA, in 1996. Following a post-doctoral appointment at Sandia National Laboratory, he embarked on a career in the semiconductor industry, holding positions at Micron Technology and Texas Instruments, Inc. There he worked on developing new materials and fabrication processes for integrated circuit applications. In 2009 he joined KAUST, where he initiated an active research group focusing on emerging electronics and on energy harvesting and storage. The author of more than 250 articles, he has 60 issued patents. He has won the UNDP Undergraduate Fellowship, Seth Sprague Physics Award, NC State Dean’s Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education Electronic Materials Fellowship, and the SEMATECH Corporate Excellence Award. He served as Associate Editor for the J. of Electronic Materials, and is currently Editor-in-Chief for the Springer’s new journal Materials for Renewable & Sustainable Energy, and a senior member of IEEE. He is co-Chair of the Fall 2014 Materials Research Society (MRS) Meeting, and is a member of MRS New Meeting Subcommittee. His students at KAUST won the Dow Sustainability Award, three Academic Excellence Awards, Intel ISEF Award, and SABIC’s Plastic Electronics Innovation Award, and multiple Best Poster awards. His research has been featured in several media outlets.

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Dr. Pussana Hirunsit

National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC), Thailand

Dr. Pussana Hirunsit is a researcher at National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC) in Thailand, where she has been since 2012. She received a B.E. of chemical engineering from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand in 2001. She received a M.S and her Ph.D of Chemical engineering from Texas A&M University, US in 2010. After that, she was a postdoctoral appointee at Center of nanoscale materials at Argonne National Laboratory, US. Then, she joined NANOTEC as a researcher in nanoscale simulation group. In 2013, she was a research fellow at Research Center for Computational Science, Institute for Molecular Science in Japan, and received Thailand research funding for young researcher.

Dr. Pussana research interest focuses on applying the first principle calculation to determine structural, kinetics, thermodynamics and electronic properties of nanostructured materials and heterogeneous catalysis at atomic scale leading to the development of novel catalytic and energy-related nanostructured materials particularly metal, metal oxides and carbon based materials that are designed to tailor properties.

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