Speaker
Prof. W. J. Lau
Affiliation
School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
June 10, 2019 (Monday)
Time
11:30 AM to 12:30 PM

In this presentation, Dr Lau will highlight some of his recent research findings regarding the use of inorganic nanomaterials to modify the surface properties of polymeric membranes for enhanced water treatment process including desalination process, heavy metal removal and oily wastewater separation. In addition, he will also briefly introduce the audience his university and highlight some of the significant achievements of his research centre.

Woei-Jye Lau is currently an associate professor at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and a senior research fellow at Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), UTM. He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical-Gas Engineering (2006) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Chemical Engineering (2009) from UTM. Dr Lau has a very strong research interest in the field of membrane science and technology for water applications. He has published over 150 scientific papers, 15 reviews and 15 book chapters and is the author of the book entitled Nanofiltration Membranes: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications published by CRC Press in 2017. He is credited with 5 patents in the field of membrane science and technology with his collaborators from academia and industry. He wrote articles on the subject of water saving and reclamation for newspapers and magazines at both national and international level. Dr Lau is currently the co-editor for Journal of Applied Membrane Science & Technology and has been appointed as guest editors for several peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Engineering Science & Technology, The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences and Chemical Engineering & Technology. In 2018, he was appointed as Young Professionals Associate Member (YPAM) by International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group "Membrane Technology". Dr Lau has received many national and international awards since starting his career in 2009. These include Australian Endeavour Research Fellowship 2015, UI-RESOLV Program 2016 (Indonesia), Mevlana International Exchange Program 2017/2018 (Turkey), Sakura Exchange Program 2018 (Japan), TÜBİTAK’s Fellowships for Visiting Scientists and Scientists 2018 (Turkey) and ASEAN-India Research and Training Fellowship (AI-RTF) 2019.

Speaker
Dr. Amol A. Kulkarni
Affiliation
NCL Pune
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
May 31, 2019 (Friday)
Time
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

The conventional nature of batch oriented speciality chemicals and pharmaceutical industry is changing rapidly giving an opportunity to repurpose old concepts and invent new reactors. The advent of continuous flow synthesis for pilot and commercial scale (1 – 5000 kg/day) operations has made an important milestone in the processing of high value chemicals, intermediates, products and formulations with very high efficiency. Small volume continuous flow reactors have been making foot-fall in the pilot and manufacturing scales over last decade. The batch to continuous transformation needs systematic approach. While it saves time for taking a product from lab to market, it demands certain scalability analysis that helps chemical engineers to understand the chemistry and chemists to keep some engineering principles in mind during its development. While evolving and applying the approach, various interesting problems that arise from the coupling of reaction engineering with fluid dynamics for single phase and multiphase reactions. In this talk I will focus on two case studies that help bringing out efficient ways in which the classical reaction engineering can be used. In the first case, applicability of an impinging jet reactor will be demonstrated for carrying out complex series-parallel network of exothermic reactions (Meerwein arylaion) for a selectivity sensitive product. In the second example, an important case of how a nitroaromatic can be made in continuous flow systems while overcoming the issues of solid handling, exothermic nature of multiphase reaction, minimization of side products to achieve a safe process will be discussed. In both the cases state of the art flow visualization studies and thermal mapping has been used for validation of model predictions which are used for design of reactor assembly and its demonstration.

Dr. Amol A. Kulkarni is a Scientist in the Chemical Engineering & Process Development Division at the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune (Since 2005). He is a chemical engineer by training (B. Chem. Eng. 1998, and Ph.D. in chemical engineering 2003 from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai (popularly known as UDCT)). He did his post doctorate at the MPI-Magdeburg (Germany) as a Humboldt Fellow (2004) and was an IUSSTF Research Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA in 2010. He Works in the area of design and development of microreactors and exploring their applications for continuous syntheses of pharmaceutical intermediates, dyes, perfumery chemicals and nanomaterials. He has established the first of its kind microreactor laboratory in India. He also works on multiphase boiling reactors, design of fluid devices, new impeller concepts and experimental fluid dynamics.
He has been awarded with VASVIK Award by VASVIK Foundation for Excellence in Industrial Research (2016), Swarnajayanti Fellowship by the Dept. of Sci. and Tech. (2015), OPPI Young Scientist Award (2015), Scientist of the Year Award of NCL (2014), CSIR Young Scientist Award (2011), INSA Medal for Young Scientists (2009), Young Engineer Award by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (2009). He is also a member of the Selection Committee of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany). He has published 84 papers in international peer reviewed journals, supervised 5 PhD students (8 ongoing), filed over 28 patents and also designed several flow reactors that are licensed to Indian industries. He also works on industry sponsored design and feasibility projects and consultant to many industries. He is on the editorial boards of a international peer reviewed journals like Journal of Flow Chemistry (Kluwer Scientific), Advanced Powder Technology (Elsevier) and on the Advisory Board of Reaction Chemistry and Engineering (RSC UK).
Additional details are available at http://academic.ncl.res.in/aa.kulkarni/profile

Speaker
Prof. Rochish Thaokar
Affiliation
IIT Bombay
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
May 29, 2019 (Wednesday)
Time
4:00 PM to 5.00 PM

Electrodynamic (ED) levitation of one or a few charged droplets using Paul traps offers opportunities to understand the Rayleigh instability as well as the role of various inter-particle forces in possible pattern formation of levitated droplets. In my group, we have levitated charged drops in a large sized modified quadrupole trap and the stability of single as well as multiple drops are explored experimentally, through numerical simulations and analytical theory. The trap is benchmarked by comparing single drop levitation experiments with numerical simulations. A long-time stabilization and formation of patterns of a collection of droplets over a range of operating parameters is observed. The numerical simulations have predicted the formation of polygonal patterns for few drop (2 to 8) systems, lattice structures for many drop (>10) systems, non-dependence of the inter-drop spacing on droplet charge for similarly charged drops and two drops oscillations with a secular frequency distinctly higher than the single drop. The simulations have also shown a systematic transition from disordered to coulombic crystals with mean size increasing with the number of levitated drops (N) as ∼N0.3. The experimental observations on different patterns and lattice spacings are reproduced using simulations.
Another important application of the quadrupole trap is in studying the dynamics and breakup of a charged droplet. The surface oscillations of a sub-Rayleigh charged droplet in a quadrupole field is presented, and it is found that the dynamics can be explained using a viscous-potential theory. The interplay of Maxwell stress arising from different sources such as the quadrupole and the uniform fields, and their interaction with the charge and charge distribution on the droplet, leads to different frequency dependence and thereby its dynamical behavior. Our numerical study on the Rayleigh breakup of a Rayleigh charged droplet, within the perfect conductor assumption will be lastly presented. A way of estimating the total charge loss is presented, and the singularity associated with the dynamics is discussed.

Rochish Thaokar is a faculty member in the department of chemical engineering, IIT Bombay since 2005. His education includes a BTech from LIT Nagpur, ME and PhD from IISc Bangalore, followed by a Postdocotoral stint at Max Planck Institute for Polymerforschung in Mainz, Germany. He also worked for a year in TRDDC Pune after his masters.
His research interest and areas include pattern formation in planar electrohydrodynamic systems, drop emulsification and coalescence using electric fields, capsule and vesicle electrohydrodynamics for dielectrophoresis and electroporation applications as well as droplet levitation in air and Rayleigh breakup of charged drops in quadrupole fields. He uses analytical theory, experimental methods and boundary intergral calculations to understand electrohydrodynamics of soft matter.

Speaker
Dr. Chirag Kalelkar
Affiliation
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
April 16, 2019 (Tuesday)
Time
5:00 PM to 6.00 PM

We present results from a study of the compression of a quasi-two-dimensional aqueous foam in a Hele-Shaw cell. Our results show that during compression, the (spatially-averaged) normal-stress difference localizes in bands with a wavelength of the order of the mean diameter of a bubble. Stress field colormaps are constructed by image analysis and used to visualize the bands. We investigate the phenomenon by varying the mean bubble diameter and polydispersity. We quantify the extent of (global) compression by measuring the average of an anisotropy ratio for the strain eigenvalues, and find the probability distribution of the angle between corresponding eigenvectors of the stress and strain tensors. We show that these stress bands are ruptured in regions in which avalanches of neighbour-switching T1 events occur, which suggests local stress relaxation in these regions.
[Based on an article under review in Phys. Rev. E]

Dr. Chirag Kalelkar did Ph.D. (Physics) from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2006. He worked as a Faculty Research Associate at the University of Maryland (2006-2008), as Enhanced Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Chemical Laboratory (2008-2009), as Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Raman Research Ins;tute (2010-2011) and as Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011-2012). Dr Kalelkar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Current research focus is on experimental fluid dynamics (specifically, aqueous foams).

University of Delaware Energy Institute

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

February 28, 2019 (Thursday)

5:00 PM to 6.00 PM

One of the biggest challenges facing mankind is global warming caused by the increase of the greenhouse gases, especially CO2, in the atmosphere due to the excessive use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution. Today, the need to develop and employ clean and sustainable energy technologies at the commercial level is imperative to ameliorate the dangers of global warming and at the same time meet the growing energy demand of society. Numerous efforts are underway in this direction, such as replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources (e.g., solar, wind, and biomass), increasing the energy efficiency of the existing technologies, and the development of carbon capture technologies. Thermochemical conversion of biomass is a promising technique that can convert a wide variety of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and chemicals. This talk will describe my work on the development of modeling and simulation tools for biomass thermochemical conversion. I will focus on the modeling of chemical kinetics and intra-particle processes of biomass thermochemical conversion and the effect of multiphase flow (gas-solid flow) on the particle-scale processes in the conversion reactor. I will also briefly describe my current work on the modeling of microwave heating to achieve process intensification for the conversion of sugar into bioproducts.

Himanshu Goyal is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Delaware Energy Institute, where he is studying the utilization of microwave heating to achieve process intensification. He received his B.Tech. degree in chemical engineering from IIT Guwahati in 2011 and his doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in August 2018 working on multiscale modeling of biomass thermochemical conversion. His research interests lie in developing and utilizing modeling and simulation tools with applications in clean energy technologies and process intensification techniques

Speaker
Prof. Venkatesh Meda
Affiliation
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
February 17, 2018 (Sunday)
Time
10 AM

Speaker
Dr. Mike German, Lehigh University
Affiliation
Lehigh University
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
February 4, 2018 (Monday)
Time
5 PM

Abstract
Although unknown 25 years ago, natural arsenic contamination of groundwater affects over 50 countries and up to 200 million people. The economic viability was analyzed and modeled of eighty-eight community-based arsenic mitigation systems existing for up to 20 years in India and Bangladesh. The performances of three community-based arsenic mitigation systems that are ethnically different and separated across two different countries were monitored closely for 24 months of self-sustainable, long-term operation at WHO standards through local, paid caretakers. Based on data from the use of hybrid ion exchange materials (HIX-Nano) and the broad set of field operations, Monte Carlo simulations were used to explore the conditions required for self-sustainable operation and job creation in low-income communities (<$2/day/capita). The results from field data and cost modeling provided clear evidence of economic growth and job creation for systems managed by villagers’ committee through collection of monthly tariffs. Ethnicity and religion did not have perceptible impacts on day-to-day operations or cumulative long-term revenue. The cost of the treatment technology (i.e., HIX-Nano) had minimal impact on the operational profitability, while number of customers and water delivery significantly affected profitability. Local employment generation with income significantly higher than poverty level was the most enduring outcome and led to enhanced sustainability.

Biography
During my M.S./Ph.D. (2010-2017), I was fortunate to have a Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship to Kolkata, India where I spent 2.5 years researching and developing novel hybrid ion exchange materials loaded with metal oxide nanoparticles (HIX-Nano) for removal of trace contaminants (arsenic and fluoride). With my adviser and another Fulbright Fellow, we co-founded a water solutions startup (Drinkwell) in Kolkata based on the new materials. I have been involved in lab research (US, India, Kenya), field testing (US, India), and commercialization efforts (US, India, Bangladesh). Drinkwell is currently installing treatment systems across Assam, West Bengal, and many other states in India to provide delicious, safe water to rural and peri-urban communities.

Speaker
Prof. Santanu Chattopadhyay, IIT Kharagpur
Affiliation
Rubber Technology Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
Venue
Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati
Date
December 24, 2018 (Monday)
Time
4:00 PM to 5.00 PM
Abstract
Co-ordination assisted self-assembly of the macromolecules is one of the unique approaches to achieve a stimuli-responsive monodispersed nano-formulation (NF) applicable in biomedicines. The stimuli-responsive structural reorganization property of these NF's draws an enormous attention in the field of NF based biotherapy. Herein we came up with two different types of smart-formulation showing stimuli-responsive structural deformation followed by their therapeutic performance towards the specific biological environment. Firstly, the macromolecule, pentaerythritol poly(caprolactone)-b-poly(acrylic acid) form Fe+3 ion induced light-responsive NF with the unique structural arrangement as like spherically shaped human brain. The DOX-loaded NF undergoes structural deformation in the presence of light and shows a release of DOX molecule (85.2% at 120 min). Administration of the DOX-loaded NF to C6 glioma rat model (in vivo) offered tremendous inhibition (∼91%) of tumor growth without any toxic side effects. Secondly, mannose conjugated antimicrobial polypeptide, poly(arginine-r-valine)-mannose undergoes Zn2+ ion induced self-assembly into a NF with a unique structural appearance as like Taxus baccata fruits. The NF uptake by the bacterial membrane led structural deformation followed by exposing of free polypeptide molecules. These molecules are enforced to lysis the bacterial membrane followed by diffusion of cytoplasmic component out of the membrane that culminates final death of bacteria (MIC values varies from 0.67 to 2.55 µM). Indeed, NF’s remain non-toxic against both the mammalian as well as red blood cell as reflected from their higher order of cell viability (˃ 80%) and very insignificant hemolytic effect (˂13%). Hence, metal ion assisted self-assembly approach brings about a new therapeutic window, where the fully exposed macromolecule can be formulated into compact NF with enhanced therapeutic performance.
Biography
Professor (Dr) SantanuChattopadhyay has devoted more than 22 years of research experience in the broad areas of polymer Science and Technology, more than 14 years of teaching undergraduate and postgraduate levels and holds his Ph.D in Rubber Technology from IIT, Kharagpur and M.Tech in Materials Science and Engg from IIT Mumbai. He is currently a Professor at the, RTC IIT, Kharagpur. He is born in 1st day of August 1971.
Prof. Chattopadhyay was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Advanced Polymer thin Film and Colloid Materials Research Group, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and a Post Doctoral Fellow in Macromolecular Engineering Research Centre, Chemical Engineering Department from University of Western Ontario, London Canada.
With over 120 International publications, four book chapters, 2 patents and attending more than 70 national and international conferences Prof. Chattopadhyay’s research extends to Specialty rubbers and blends, Smart and Biomaterials, Polymer based nano-composites, polymer characterization, blending and processing, thermoplastic elastomers, rubber compounding and modification, radiation processing of polymers, controlled polymerization, and small scale organic synthesis. His current research focuses on topics including visco-elasticity of rubber based nanocomposites, magnetically and electrically active nanocomposites, nanocomposites and nano-structured materials for smart and stimuli-responsive applications, extrusions dies simulations and polyurethane based nano materials for specialty applications. He has already supervised 13 students for PhD degree and 15 are underway.
He has worked on several Government sponsored projects with ISRO, DRDO, DST (First Track), DAE (BRNS as Co PI) and Ceat Tyres and is currently consulting Ceat Tyres, Usha Martin, DST and IGCAR in their projects.

Shajalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 26, 2018 (Monday)

2:00 PM to 3.00 PM

Kinetics of electrocatalytic oxidation of arsenite ions has been investigated at a Pt disk electrode using cyclic voltammetry, convolution potential sweep voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A complimentary environment pertaining to oxidation reactions of arsenite ions is attained in the acidic medium compared to a neutral or basic medium. It is suggested that in the neutral and basic media, direct electron transfer from the solution to electrode instigate the oxidation process without any pre adsorption. Meanwhile, in the acidic medium, prior to oxidation, arsenite ions are adsorbed on the Pt surface and a stepwise reaction mechanism is involved. Using impedance analysis, it is suggested that different forms of surface oxides at various pH values control the oxidation kinetics.

Group Director, Chemical Systems, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 01, 2018 (Thursday)

10:00 to 10.45 AM

GIFU University

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 23, 2018 (Tuesday)

8.15 to 9.00 AM

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Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, USA

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

September 14, 2018 (Friday)

3:00 to 4:00 PM

Polymeric ionic liquids (PILs) are very promising materials to enable more environmentally stable high-density energy storage devices. Realization of PILs providing high environmental and mechanical stability while maximizing ion conductivity would be accelerated by an improved molecular level understanding of their structure and dynamics. Extensive evidence suggests that both mechanical properties and ion conductivity in anhydrous PILs are intimately related to the PILs’ glass formation behavior. This represents a major challenge to the rational design of these materials, given that the basic nature of glass formation and its connection to molecular properties remains a substantial open question in materials science and engineering. Here, I describe coarse-grained and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations probing the relationship between PIL architecture and interactions, glass formation behavior, and ion transport characteristics while establishing machine learning frameworks for rapid, computationally-driven design of new materials.

Dr. Patra is currently a post-doctoral appointee at the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory. He received his PhD from IIT Kanpur in 2014. He worked in the Department of Polymer Engineering at the University of Akron as a post-doctoral fellow before moving to his current position. He employs theory, molecular simulation, machine learning, optimization methods, and high-throughput characterization to advance the understanding and design of polymers and other soft materials. He received 2012 CSIR senior research fellowship for his work on the phase behavior of polymer nanocomposites. He has co-authored a book chapter and over 15 journal articles in the broad area of polymer science and nanoscience.

Scientist, Mineral Processing Department, CSIR IMMT, Bhubaneswar

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

July 2, 2018 (Monday)

4:00 to 5:00 PM

Coal is the major resource of energy for the power generation and steel production. The depleted coal grade is required to process for its efficient industrial application. Dry beneficiation has several advantages over a wet process. In recent years, much research effort is aimed at dry processing of fine coal particles using the tribo-electrostatic separator. This technique has great potential to treat Indian coal fines. This is a two-step process in which particles are tribo-charged and then separated in an electric field. During tribo-charging, the particles are charged by frictional contact with each other or with the surface of other material. The polarity and magnitude of charge acquired by the particle are based on their work function difference on contact. Several factors affect the efficiency of tribo-electrostatic separators such as particulate physical properties, environment relative humidity and operating variable of tribo-charger and separator. Indian coal belongs to drift origin and has difficult liberation characteristics. The coal particulates liberated at finer sizes. Also, the particle size is crucial to obtain higher differential charging during tribo-electrifications for their efficient separation. Tribo-charging and environment relative humidity also greatly influence the charge characteristics of mineral and maceral. The particle size, density, charge and free fall separator electrode plate position and the potential gradient between them decide the particle trajectory and their separation in the electric field. Therefore, detail investigations required to develop a tribo-electrostatic process for fine coal preparation.

Dr. R. K. Dwari has obtained his PhD degree in Mineral Processing from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden under SIDA and Kempestiftelsen Fellowship in the year 2008. Since July 2008, he is working as a Scientist in the Department of Mineral Processing at CSIR IMMT, Bhubaneswar. In 2014-15, Dr. Dwari visited Sabic Polymer Research Centre, Chemical Engineering Department, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as visiting Scientist where he led a phosphate flotation project. He is the recipient of Artemis Biotech Best Master’s Thesis in Chemical Engineering/Technology Award for the year 2004 by Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE), India and also Best Licentiate Thesis Award for the year 2006 at Luleå University of Technology by Bergforsk, Sweden. He has published several research papers and is a life member of IIChE, IIME, SGAT and IIM. Dr. Dwari addressed the major problem of removal of inorganic from high ash Indian non-coking and coking coal by using tribo-electrostatic separator a dry process and developed novel tribo-electrostatic separator. After joining at CSIR IMMT, his major focus research area is fine particle processing and dewatering. He has completed 11 research projects as project leader sponsored by various ministries and industries. He was also contributed as a member in another 20 projects. He has designed equipment’s and developed process flowsheet for low-grade coal, iron, bauxite, phosphate and barite ore as well as steel plant wastes.

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

June 22, 2018 (Friday)

11:30 AM to 12.30 PM

An introduction about IGCAR and nuclear energy will be highlighted. Overview of the Fuel Chemistry Division activities with respect to nuclear fuel reprocessing program will be discussed in the presentation. General information on the atoms to manhattan project and contributions of various nobel laureates to the nuclear energy program will be presented.

Dr. N. Sivaraman graduated from BARC Training school 1986-1987 batch after MSC chemistry.His PhD study was on all carbon compounds, namely fullerenes and their applications. He was a visiting research fellow at University of Sussex with Nobel laureate Prof. Sir. H.W. Kroto. Currently he is Heading the Fuel Chemistry Division of IGCAR. He is presently Dean of Chemical Sciences of Homi Bhabha National Institute - IGCAR. His research interests include nuclear fuel reprocessing, supercritical fluids, high performance liquid chromatography, burn-up measurements on nuclear fuels etc. Dr. Sivaraman has about 100 international journal publications.

Research Scholar, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

April 27, 2018 (Friday)

11:00 AM to 12.00 PM

The mucosal barrier in the intestine is vital to maintain selective absorption of nutrients while protecting internal tissues and maintaining symbiotic relationship with luminal microbiota. This bio-barrier essentially consists of a cellular epithelial barrier and an acellular mucosal barrier. While formation of a mucus barrier is dependent on mucin secreting goblet cells, secreted mucin biopolymers regulate barrier function via in situ biochemical and biophysical interaction with luminal content that continually evolves during digestion and absorption.
Increasing evidence suggests that a mucus barrier is indispensable to maintain dynamic homeostasis of the gastrointestinal tract. However, the importance of mucus barrier has been largely underrated for in vitro mucosal tissue modeling. The major gap is the lack of experimental material (i.e. functional mucins) and platforms to integrate a relevant thickness of mucus layer with an epithelium under physiologically related conditions. In the presentation I shall discuss our progress on developing human-relevant micro-physiological mucosal barrier models in static and dynamic settings by using natural mucins derived from a porcine small intestine (PSI). To overcome limited availability of functional mucus, we developed a simple and scalable protocol for natural mucus extraction by directly solubilizing a relatively sterile inner mucus layer from porcine small intestines (PSI) that is readily accessible.

Mr. Abhinav Sharma is an alumnus of the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati and had completed his M.Tech in the year 2014.

Principal Scientist, Unilever and Adjunct Faculty of Department of Chemical ENgineering, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

April 27, 2018 (Friday)

05:00 PM to 06.00 PM

A brief review of the evolution of potable water purification and waste-water purification technologies is presented. The current most popular technologies for potable water purification are presented. The theoretical basis of the most popular current technology is discussed in some details. The limitations of reverse osmosis technology are also discussed. The variability of the specific energy consumption with recovery is also discussed. Some simple techniques for improving recovery while optimizing specific energy consumption are also discussed. The importance of scale prevention is highlighted. Current technology status for practical in-home water softening is also discussed.

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Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

April 3, 2018 (Tuesday)

11:00 AM to 12.00 PM

The phenomenon of draining, although ubiquitous in nature, has received scant attention especially in the meso-scale. We observe that closed top tubes drain by the inception of an axisymmetric ‘Taylor finger’ while a minute pierce of the top closure results in an altogether different physics with air entry from the top pushing the liquid out. A coupled mechanism combining full bore and film draining is observed for “too small” a top pierce at “high enough” Eotvos number. Top pierce initiates draining in dimensions which would not drain otherwise and finger entry hastens the process of draining. The myriad of phenomena thus exhibited is depicted as phase diagrams in vertical and tilted conduits. A mechanistic model has been proposed to predict draining and the onset of finger entry in vertical tubes.

Prof Gargi Das is Professor and currently Head of Chemical Engineering in Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Her research interest is Multiphase Flow pertaining to the hydrodynamics and transport characteristics of gas-liquid, liquid-liquid and gas-liquid-liquid flow.
Her study comprises of experimentation and theory - developing analytical models, performing numerical simulation as well as development of two-phase instrumentation for flow characterization. Currently, her group is engaged in using multiphase dynamics to intensify heterogeneous reactions and mass transfer controlled processes. She has over 60 published papers in peer reviewed journals, 2 book chapters, 2 books, 4 patents and 4 educational packages. She has won several awards for academic excellence like AICTE Career Award, BOYSCAST Fellowship, Amar Dye-Chem Award for Excellence in Research and Development for Chemical Engineer by the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, ISCA Young Scientist Award in “Engineering Sciences" by Indian Science Congress, Institute Silver Medal at IIT Kharagpur and University Gold Medal in Jadavpur University.

Professor & Director, Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

February 22, 2018 (Thursday)

2.30 PM to 3.15 PM

The presence of thousands of contaminants in wastewaters and their impending threats has drawn a significant attention of the scientific community in recent years. The major sources of pollution include domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater and agricultural discharges.
Indiscriminate disposal of domestic and industrial wastewater to surface water causes degradation of the environment and degenerative effects on both public health and ecosystem. Conventional suspended biomass reactors (ASP) are widely used for sewage treatment despite their specific drawbacks, such as requirement of large reactor volumes, low sludge settling velocity with consequently large-sized sedimentation tanks and high excess bio-sludge production, while Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) has lesser footprint but still it has the problem of excess sludge production and high sludge volume index. As a solution to these problems, carrier elements can be added to the aeration tank or SBR. This led to the development of Sequential Batch Biofilm Reactor (SBBR), which improves the quality of bio sludge of the system resulting in improvement of the effluent quality and system efficiency.
The other challenge is the treatment of industrial wastewaters containing recalcitrant organic compounds. The wide range of non-biodegradable organics in waste streams includes textile dyes, pesticides, pharmaceutically active compounds, phenols, tannery and distillery compounds. Most of these effluents are highly coloured in addition to the presence of a high organic load. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) have gained more attention in the past decades and are seemed as a viable option for complete degradation of non-biodegradable organics. Various AOPs that find application in the treatment of industrial wastewaters are Photocatalysis, UV/H2O2, UV/O3/H2O2, Fenton’s process, Wet Air Oxidation, Sonolysis, Electrochemical Oxidation, Super-Critical Water Oxidation, Non-thermal Plasma, Gamma rays, Electron beam etc. All the AOPs depend on the generation of highly reactive hydroxyl radical (˚OH) which are non-selective oxidant and react with almost all the organic compounds. In addition, AOPs can also be used in the removal of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), Emerging contaminants and other micropollutants.
The cost of the AOPs could be high as they yield almost complete degradation of target pollutants without giving rise to hazardous sludge.Nevertheless, the treatment cost can be reduced by combining the AOPs with biological treatment as the AOP pretreatment would make any recalcitrant water amenable for biological treatment.

Fluidigm Canada Inc.

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

February 15, 2018 (Thursday)

5.15 PM - 6.00 PM

Mass cytometry (MC) is a recently developed single cell analysis technique to identify several cellular biomarkers simultaneously. This technique combines the power of flow cytometric injection of cells with an inductively coupled mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) coupled with time of flight detection. MC employs metal isotopes to tag the antibodies (Abs) and these metal isotopes have a unique mass that can be detected and quantified by mass spectrometry. Flow cytometry, the most commonly used single cell analysis technique to study cellular biomarkers can measure only up to 8 to 10 cellular biomarkers simultaneously. Beyond the detection of 8 to 10 biomarkers, the technique is limited by the luminescence spectral overlap of the dyes and the quantum dots used to tag the Abs which identifies the specific biomarker on the surface or inside the cell. On the other hand, the number of biomarkers identified using MC depends only on the number of different metal isotopes that can be used to tag the Abs. As with all techniques, there is certain limitation to this technique as well. When compared to flow cytometry, this technique suffers from poor sensitivity due to the fact the current reagents, metal chelating polymers with 40 to 50 metal atoms per polymer chain, cannot generate enough signal to identify proteins which are present in very low copy numbersin cells. MC is a quantitative technique and the fact the signal intensity increases linearly with the number of metal atoms tagged to each Ab, my research is primarily involved in developing antibody conjugates with more metal tags per Ab. To achieve this goal, I am working on developing reagents based on nanoparticles to enhance the detection sensitivity of low copy markers by one or two orders of magnitude than current reagents. I will elucidate the various criteria which have to be satisfied when employing NPs as high sensitive reagents. The synthesis, nucleation and growth kinetics of the various NPs will be discussed in detail. Subsequently, I will talk about two surface modification process to make the NPs biocompatible and their effect on the non-specific interaction of the NPs with various cells lines. The various conjugation chemistries to couple the NPs to Abs will be explored and finally finish with examples of mass cytometry single cell measurements where the NPs exhibit higher signal for various biomarkers when compared to current metal chelating polymer reagents.

Jothir Pichaandi obtained his B.Tech in 2003 from Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur University in Chemical Technology with specialization in polymers. Thereafter, he moved to Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) formerly UDCT Mumbai, to obtain his M.Tech degree in Polymer Engineering and Science (2005). He started his PhD at the University of Victoria in 2006 under the supervision of Prof. Frank C. J. M. van Veggel and graduated in 2012. During his PhD, he worked on developing luminescent nanoparticles and its application as luminescent biolabels for deep tissue imaging. After a short stint as post doctorate with his PhD thesis advisor, he joined Prof. Mitchell A. Winnik as a post doctorate in Sep 2013 and stayed there till May 2017. In Prof. Winnik’s group, he worked on developing lanthanide based nanoparticles and polyamine based polymers as reagents for single cell assays using Mass Cytometry. This work was carried out as a collaboration between University of Toronto and Fluidigm Canada. Currently, he is working in Fluidigm Canada as a Scientist to commercialize his post doctorate work.

Professor of Chemistry, Research Director, NSF CREST Bioenergy Center

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

December 19, 2017 (Tuesday)

3.30 PM - 4.30 PM

One of the major objectives of our research at NSF-CREST Bioenergy Center is to produce fuels from thermal gasification of biomass using catalytic approaches. The first part of this talk will cover catalyst development for Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis using Si-microchannel microreactors. The status of microrector set-up and catalyst screening using sol-gel and mesoporous silica supported catalysts will be discussed.
The second part of this presentation will cover development of robust catalysts for steam reforming reactions of bio-derived liquids to produce H2 , especially for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Glycerol is readily available as a by-product in biodiesel industry and contains much higher H2 than that present in methanol or ethanol. Although steam reforming of methanol and ethanol have been extensively studied [1], limited studies have been reported using different catalysts for steam reforming of glycerol (SRG). We have been investigating different mesoporous catalysts- Co-MCM-41, Ni-MCM-41, Co-SBA-15 and Ni-SBA-15 and those in the presence of MgO, etc. for SRG to examine their comparative performances. The catalysts prepared in our laboratory using one-pot procedure [1] have been characterized using TGA-DSC, N2 adsorption-desorption, XRD, TEM, ICP-OES, FTIR and H2-TPR techniques. The prepared catalyst possess high surface area in the range of 540 to 750 m2/g and pore sizes of 4.8 - 5.9 nm, depending on the metal, mesoporous support and additional metal oxide to enhance the stability of the catalyst. The catalysts were tested for their activity, selectivity and long-term stability for GSR in a tubular fixed bed reactor at different temperatures and glycerol/water molar ratios. The results from our ongoing studies will be presented.

Reference
[1] V. G. Deshmane, R. Y. Abrokwah, and D. Kuila. "Synthesis of stable Cu-MCM-41 nanocatalysts for H2 production with high selectivity via steam reforming of methanol." International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 40.33 (2015): 10439-10452.

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Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Japan

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

December 13, 2017 (Wednesday)

2.00 PM - 3.00 PM

All organisms have the genome, a complete set of DNA including all of the genes. After a gene is transcribed to its corresponding protein, all synthesized proteins work together to control the metabolism. The genome analysis indicates that the number of genes in a genome is finite: ca 4,400 genes in a bacterium Escherichia coli and ca 20,000 genes for Homo sapiens. The biological phenomena can be explained using a finite part list.
Structural biology seeks for functional and mechanistic understanding of how molecular components in a biological process work together at the molecular and atomic level. The advance in this research field allows us to understand a complete picture of biological phenomena on a genome wide scale. In this lecture, I will show two topics relating to structural biology.
(a) Deciphering a code of protein: Interestingly, in all genomes sequenced, a large portion of predicted proteins are functionally unknown proteins, called as “hypothetical proteins”. X-ray crystallography, a powerful tool for structural biology, can determine the shape of protein at atomic level, which tells how the functional groups of a protein are well defined in 3-D space to exert its original function. I will show some examples of research that obtained functional information of “hypothetical proteins” through X-ray crystallography.
(b) Observing a protein complex: The most broadly used method to determine the atomic-resolution macromolecular structures is X-ray crystallography. However, this approach is limited by the bottleneck of protein crystallization. This constraint has imposed limitations in the application to large protein complexes and integral membrane proteins for which multiple conformational or compositional states coexist; these complexes are very difficult to crystallize. The recent advances in single-particle cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM) are solving this limitation. Cryo-EM now provides us a near-atomic resolution structure of protein complexes and membrane proteins. I will show some examples obtained by cryo-EM.

Dr. Akio Ebihara is a Professor of Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Japan. He obtained B.Sc. (1996) and Ph.D. (2001) degrees from University of Tsukuba, Japan. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher (2001-2006) and a team leader (2006-2008) at RIKEN SPring-8 center (Japan), and has trained in protein X-ray crystallography using the synchrotron radiation available at SPring-8. Since 2008, Dr. Ebihara has worked as a faculty of Gifu University in the area of biochemistry. His research interests are structure-based understanding of protein function and enzymatic catalysis, production of recombinant protein for clinical applications, and developing a point of-care-testing of a biomarker. Dr. Ebihara is now working as an academic coordinator of International Joint Master’s Program in Food Science and Technology between Indian Institute Technology Guwahati and Gifu University, which is to be launched in 2019.

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

December 8, 2017 (Friday)

02.00 - 03.00 PM

Engineering systems are getting quantified, optimized and optimally operated, where as biology is evolving to be a quantitative science. Engineering principles can be applied to the biological systems in analyzing the working principles of living systems. In other words, nature has created the biological systems and there are constant efforts to understand the working principles of biological systems, which are working efficiently in micro / nano scale with high degree of robustness. Systems biology approach is the application of engineering approachs to understand the biological systems. Challenges lie on the prediction of phenotypes incorporating genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome of one complex living system. Lecture will broadly cover about the motivation of systems biology and the different mathematical approaches applied to understand the living systems. In this connection, one case study on the effect of endocrine disrupting elements on steroidogenesis using dynamic modeling will be presented. In an another case study, quantification of bio butanol synthesis using steady state modeling namely elementary mode analysis will be presented. Further, highlights about the microalgae based bioproducts and conversion of lignocellulosic materials into value added chemicals will be delivered.

Professor, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KANPUR

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 30, 2017 (Thursday)

11.30 - 12.30 PM

There is no doubt that the professionals (doctors, engineers, scientists, for instance) of the new millennium will be increasingly working in inter-disciplinary settings, both from social and professional viewpoints. The completion of four year studies to earn your BS degree (followed by the graduate studies) is only the beginning of your career. Even if you spend 10 years at the university, it is impossible to prepare you for all situations you are likely to encounter in the real world beyond the academic institutions. Therefore, you need to develop and sharpen a whole range of skills to stay up-to-date and to prosper in your professional and personal life. Hereafter, there will be no one to tell you what you should do! So this is the time when you should take full control of your life. For instance, you must learn to learn on your own the new skills as and when required in your professional life. To quote, Alvin Toffler: the illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. Also, one needs a whole range of social engineering skills including developing and maintaining inter personal relationships, showing gratitude, acknowledging contributions of the others, maintaining positive outlook, to be able to work in inter-cultural settings, to be compliant with the professional code of conduct and to act in an ethical manner, etc. This talk endeavours to offer some tips on developing and honing such skills thereby enabling you for not only staying at the forefront of your profession but also becoming a responsible citizen.

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Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 22, 2017 (Wednesday)

4.00 PM to 5.00 PM

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Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 17, 2017 (Friday)

3.00 PM to 4.00 PM

Path, fuel and motion are three functional requirements of a molecular machine. The talk will focus on these three aspects taking examples from interlocked molecular systems. Preliminary aspects to define molecular machines and fundamental aspects to make improvised molecular machine will be discussed. Specific examples on controlling catalytic activity, molecules walking along a path, protein synthesis, combination of rotational and translation motions will be discussed.

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Associate Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 13, 2017 (Monday)

2.30 PM to 3.30 PM

This lecture will comprehensively highlight the various fundamental aspects of polymer blends from molecular level miscibility to the evolution of bi-phasic morphology, under different processing conditions, that are essential for exploring their potential in membrane applications. The key role of rheology on the evolution of morphology during processing and post-processing operations like compression molding, annealing etc. will be discussed under the framework of different technique for the preparation of thin membranes. The different hierarchical porous structures (micro and nano), developed by selectively etching one of the components from binary blends, and their application in separation technology will be discussed and the results will be compared with the existing solutions. The unimpeded permeation of fluids will be discussed with respect to the different morphology that is generated during their fabrication and the reasons for their clogging, fouling etc. will be extensively discussed. In this context, various in situ and ex situ strategies to render the surface antibacterial will be elaborated with respect to water purification applications using few model systems based on PVDF.

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Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 10, 2017 (Friday)

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

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Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 8, 2017 (Wednesday)

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Language, both verbal and non-verbal, is a communicative device.
It ‘says’ what we think. However, the debate about the true nature of language has been fiercely debated, since the time of Plato. From being subservient to other higher mental functions, like ‘thought’, it has moved to a higher plane these days to a role of facilitator/ inhibitor in other cognitive functions. A sharp turn came around the time of advent of AI, when the debate centered on the underlying algorithm of language function.
How is language intertwined with other mental functions? Does it merely give those processes a ‘voice’? Or Does it play a role in facilitating/inhibiting those processes? Seems language never really wanted to be a sidekick! Language is a key player in our power to cognize.
Category formation, attentional mechanism and executive function are some of the fundamental human cognitive abilities and findings point to a strong relationship between these and language. In the talk, we discuss some of these interesting relationships.

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Professor, Department of Design, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 3, 2017 (Friday)

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

This presentation intends to give an insightful overview of what actually creative Design constitutes of - as a discipline. The wide range of niches in Technology that Design influences is sought to be illustrated with examples including one that proposes a possible role for an 'Interaction Designer' in a Chemical plant control room. That Design is a collaborative trans-discipline is sought to be explained through design case studies. Role of Innovation and creativity, which are the DNA of Design, are highlighted in the context of learning experiences from DoD IITG.

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Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

November 1, 2017 (Wednesday)

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Friction is a well-known (?!) phenomenon to the science and engineering community. Along with the known facts about friction, we will talk about its appearance in our everyday life and its association with other closely related phenomena such as adhesion, locomotion, wear and tear etc. The conventional methods to characterize friction and a novel methodology to identify the salient features will be discussed. We will show that noise can be used to mitigate the effect of friction and how one can exploit these findings to facilitate the transportation of macro scale objects for example particles, liquid droplets to the locomotion of micro/nano scale molecules.

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Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 27, 2017

3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

In this talk, we will discuss the idea of a knot and how mathematics has been used to establish a theory to understand these objects. We will then discuss applications of this theory to chemistry.

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Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 25, 2017

03.00 PM- 04:00 PM

Propylene and ethylene are important feedstock materials for plastic production. Their global market is projected to grow over the next several years. They are obtained in the petroleum industry via catalytic cracking, that produces an olefin-paraffin mixture. However, the polymer grade olefin feedstock demands high quality (> 99.5 %). Since, the chemical species to be separated have close volatilities and molecular sizes, the distillation towers used for their separation have a large number of trays (100-200) and operate under high reflux ratios (15-25). As a result, propane/propylene or ethane/ethylene separations are some of the most energy intensive separations in the petroleum industry.
Adsorption as a technology for propane/propylene separation has been studied for over 25 years now. Zeolites, carbons and other mesoporous materials were studied as potential adsorbents for a longtime. More recently, substantial amount of work has been done on development of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) for lower olefin/paraffin separation. However, there is still a widely ongoing search to find a suitable adsorbent material with good capacity, selectivity, mass transfer kinetics and stability, that can compete with the existing technologies. This talk will review the developments in this research.

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Professor, The University of New Castle, Australia

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 20, 2017

03.00 PM- 04:00 PM

Multiphase systems are ubiquitous in industrial applications aimed at the generation of products either by chemical/biological reaction or physical separation based on density, electrical charge or surface properties such as hydrophobicity. The physical processing of these multiphase systems is carried out at all scales of operation and within an endless variety of vessel shapes and ancillary devices. Underpinning each process is a complex interaction between phases involving hydrodynamic, heat and mass transport. At Newcastle, we are focusing on visualizing, quantitative measurement and theoretical and computational modelling of the phenomena that are taking place at the phase boundaries in multiphase systems.
In particular, we are developing both modelling and measurement techniques to evaluate both spatial and temporal distribution of energy dissipation rates. This information is then being fundamentally related to the rate of heat/mass transfer, dispersion, breakup-coalescence, and hydrodynamic stability. Finally, these relationships are being used as the foundation for the development of systems that provide ideal energy dissipation rate at desired locations and at desired length scales.
Our latest research, including innovative measurement approaches as well as analytical, CFD, DEM and DNS modelling approaches, will be presented for fluidized beds, novel mineral flotation approaches, and high temperature reactors.

Professor Geoffrey Evans received his PhD in 1990 from The University of Newcastle, Australia. He has been actively involved in fundamental and applied research into multiphase systems over the last 20 years. During that time he has worked on a wide range of projects which have concentrated on free surface phenomena and phase interaction between bubbles, particles and the liquid phase. Specifically, the research has focused on bubble formation and growth, bubble nucleation, bubble breakup and coalescence, two phase flow, mixing and agitation, emulsions, and plunging and submerged jets. More recently, his research has included surface forces, particle-particle and bubble-particle interactions, as applied to a number of particle technology applications. The research has involved a combination of experimental measurement, theoretical modelling and computational fluid mechanics, and has been applied to a number of practical applications, including petrochemical, mineral and pyro-metallurgical processing, and water treatment.
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Professor, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering and Head of Centre for the Environment, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 13, 2017 (Wednesday)

03.00 PM- 04:00 PM

The drug discovery is an interdisciplinary research requires contributions from various branches of science and technology. I shall discuss about overview of drug discovery process. The talk will also cover our recent research on Leishmania, a pathogen responsible for different forms of a disease known as Leishmaniasis. I shall also discuss about discovery of drug candidates and drug target for management of the disease

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Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, INDIA

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 11, 2017 (Wednesday)

04.00 PM- 05:00 PM

Since the invention of fiber optics, this technology has greatly impacted various engineering application. As an example, development of long-term structural health monitoring (SHM) systems for modern day’s civil infrastructures such as bridges, dams, under-water canal etc, which are subjected to adverse changes owing to damage/deterioration induced by environmental degradation, errors in design & construction, overload and some unexpected events like earthquakes etc., is essential for safety as well as economical aspects. Coupled with various optical techniques and its inherent merits, optical fiber sensors employing various types of fibers along with in-fiber devices have emerged as natural and integral part of SHM. Present talk reviews some of the recent fiber sensors developments for critically important engineering application.

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Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, INDIA

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

October 4, 2017 (Wednesday)

04.00 PM- 05:00 PM

At some points in their academic program, students need to write reports, theses, and research papers. Various soft skills are required to prepare them, and mistakes present in them show the writer in a poor light and low esteem. Some of the common mistakes appear in English, writing style and format, equations, figures and tables, references, SI units, and ethics. The readers are vexed while reading a document full of errors.
Often a paper is rejected due to too many mistakes present in it. In this talk, some of these mistakes are discussed with possible remedies.

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Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai – 600 036, INDIA

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

September 21, 2017

03.00 - 04:00 PM

Solvents are major contributors and high on the list of environmental damage chemicals, mainly because of their large usage and high volatility. The widespread use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in many industrial chemical processes is an issue of great environmental concern. It is an extremely important task to search of potentially green and environment friendly alternatives for VOCs.
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Prof. Ramesh Gardas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Dr. Gardas completed his PhD from Veer Narmad South Gujarat University Surat. Subsequent to his PhD, he was a research fellow at University of Coimbra, Portugal and followed it with a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at University of Aveiro, Portugal. Before joining IIT Madras, he was a research associate at Queen’s University Belfast, UK.
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Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

15th September 2017

03.00 - 04:00 PM

Genetic algorithm (GA) mimics natural evolutionary principles to constitute search and optimization. GA is population based metaheuristic, which is different from numerical optimization techniques. GA has been widely used for solving non-linear optimization problems from a wide domain of engineering and sciences. In this talk basic GA will be introduced with its natural evolution and survival of the fittest principles. Two variants of GA, namely binary coded-GA and real-coded GA, will be focused. Some interesting applications will be discussed which otherwise are difficult to solve.
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Prof. Deepak Sharma completed his Masters and doctoral degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. During his doctoral research he was also a visiting graduate scholar at the Department of Business Technology, Aalto University, Finland. Subsequent to his PhD, he was at the Université de Strasbourg, France as a postdoctoral fellow before joining as a research fellow at National University of Singapore. He has been with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Guwahati since 2012. He has also been a visiting professor at the Industrial System Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology Bangkok as part of a MHRD programme.
He has published in several journal and conferences of International repute. He has organized several programs including Skill Development Program funded by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
Some of the awards that he has received include NVIDIA Innovation Award for uniquely using graphics card in structure topology optimization problem and DAAD's Fellowship "Research Stays" to carry out research at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
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Computational Material Scientist, Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd.

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

12th September 2017

05.00 - 06:00 PM

Modern industrial chemical activities depend on computational technologies. The information supporting many process and product optimization comes from fundamental molecular simulation computations.
In this talk I will briefly discuss two different applications of molecular modelling a) proton transport through perovskites, b) computational investigation of novel lubricant-additives. Perovskites are ceramics with general formula ABO3. High temperature proton conducting properties of perovskites have also recently been used for constructing membranes for cell reactors for catalytic dehydrogenation/ hydrogenation processes. It is known that perovskites with more cubic structure have higher proton mobility. We have used ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations (MD) to compute the diffusion coefficients and the activation energies from trajectories obtained from pure and Yttrium doped BaZrO3 at different concentrations and temperatures. Thermodynamics of proton conductivity in these systems were addressed by performing activation energy barrier calculations for proton hopping transition states using Nudged Elastic Bands (NEB) theory and ab-initio quantum chemical calculations. Finally, we have compared the activation barriers from MD (dynamical energy barriers) with thermodynamic barriers. Apart from this, we have analyzed the MD trajectories for understanding proton conduction mechanism. In the second part, I will discuss about computational investigation of novel lubricant-additives. In this study, we used nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations to examine the friction and wear reduction mechanisms of promising carbon nanoparticle friction modifier additives-- carbon nanodiamonds (CNDs) and carbon nano-onions (CNOs). Additives confined between á-iron slabs is probed at a range of coverages, pressures, and sliding velocities. The contribution to the friction coefficient is well predicted by an expression developed for macroscopic indentation by Bowden and Tabor. The results are in experimental agreement.
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Dr. Foram Thakkar completed his B.Tech in 2002 from Gujarat University and his M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2004. He completed his PhD from Indain Institute of Science Bangalore in 2009. He worked as a research associate in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before becoming a Technical Lead at Samsung India Software Operations. For the past five years, he has been a researcher at Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd. His areas of research include Molecular Modelling & Simulation, Computational Biophysics and Statistical Thermodynamics
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Assistant Professor, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

8th September 2017

03.00 - 04:00 PM

The cynosure of my research aims at exploring this fathom issue mathematically and experimentally in a three dimensional approach for analysis and monitoring of pollutants, exploring engineering techniques for effective treatment of effluents, recovering energy and resource from effluent...
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Profile of the Speaker: Prof. Selvaraju has done his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering in 2000 from Annamalai University and completed his M.Tech in 2002 from A.C. College of Tech., Anna University, Chennai. He pursued Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Before joining the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, he worked as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at NIT Calicut for almost seven years.
His research expertise includes Environmental bioremediation, Bioaerosol modeling and Simulation, Microfluidics and Micro Reactors (Liquid-liquid operations), and Biodiesel. He has over 58 International Journal Publications in reputed journals. He has supervised 8 Ph.Ds and is currently supervising 5 doctoral students
He has also organized several National & International Conferences, National Conferences, National Workshops and Faculty Development Programmes. He has been the recipient of several awards including “Hiyoshi Think of Ecology Award 2016 (National Award)” from Hiyoshi Corporation, Japan and Hiyoshi India Ecological Services Pvt. Ltd., India. He has also received “Kerala State Young Scientist Award 2014” by KSCSTE (Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment) , “Young Scientist award under FAST TRACK scheme project” by DST and National Doctoral fellowship (NDF) from AICTE.
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Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

6th September, 2017 (Wednesday)

4:00 - 5:00 PM

This talk will highlight the fundamental and importance of conjugated materials-molecules and polymers-in context to presently utilized systems. Their ability to be tuned allows them to specifically have particular applications in multiple areas of medicine, electronics and day-to-day life. This talk will specifically focus on development of new materials with focus on applications in environment, healthcare and electronic devices with in house fabrication and demonstration. This will include conjugated polymers development and characterization, controlling their solubility by introducing specific functional groups, making them water soluble whenever necessary or making nanoparticles with them, developing thin film and portable sensors or flexible energy efficient bright devices.
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Prof. Iyer is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He completed his doctoral research from Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute in 1999. Subsequently he was with the Department of Chemistry, Israel Institute of Technology for a period of two years. He subsequently moved to Institute of Polymers & Organic solids University of California, Santa Barbara (02 years & 02 months), and also worked at Department of Macromolecular Science & Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio (07 months) before joining IIT Guwahati in July 2004. Professor at IITG since January 2013. His research interest includes Organic/Polymer Materials development, Hybrid Materials and Composites, Optoelectronic devices and Sensors, Bioinorganic chemistry and Asymmetric catalysis, Chemical and Biological sensors-from detection and binding of analytes to biomedical applications. Prof. Iyer has supervised 14 PhD dissertations, more than 75 B. Tech and MSc dissertations and currently 12 students are working with him as part of their doctoral dissertation. Prof. Iyer has more than 125 publications in highly reputed journals, 15 patents, 05 books/book chapters and has over 2600 citations with a H-index of 29. Prof. Iyer has held several administrative positions in the Institution and is currently the Professor-in-charge, Peer Review and Institutional Ranking.
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Professor, School of Chemical Sciences and Honorary Director, International and Inter University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

1st September 2017

10.00 - 11:00 AM

The talk will concentrate on various approaches being used to engineer materials at the nanoscale for various applications in future technologies. In particular, the case of clay, carbon nanostructures (e.g. nanotubes, graphene), metal oxides, bionanomaterials (cellulose, starch and chitin) will be used to highlight the challenges and progress. Several polymer systems will be considered such as rubbers, thermoplastics, thermoetts and their blends for the fabrication of functional polymer nanocomposites. The interfacial activity of nanomaterials incompatibilising binary polymer blends will also be discussed. Various self assembled architectures of hybrid nanostructures can be made using relatively simple processes. Some of these structures offer excellent opportunity to probe novel nanoscale behavior and can impart unusual macroscopic end properties. I will talk about various applications of these materials, taking into account their multifunctional properties. Some of the promising applications of clay, metal oxides, nano cellulose, chitin, carbon nanomaterials and their hybrids will be reviewed. Finally the effect of dewetting up on solvent rinsing on nano scale thin films will also be discussed.
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Prof. Sabu Thomas is a Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering, School of Chemical Sciences and also hold the position of Honorary Director, International and Inter University Centre for anoscience and Nanotechnology at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.
His areas of research include Polymer blends, Fiber filled polymer composites, Particulate filled polymer composites, Ageing and degradation, Pervaporation phenomena, sorption and diffusion, Interpenetrating polymer systems, Recyclability and reuse of waste plastics and rubbers, Elastomer crosslinking, Dual porous nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering, Polymer nanocomposites for Electronic Applications, and Water purification.
He has supervised 79 Ph.D thesis and has currently 15 students working with him as part of their doctoral dissertation. He has completed 28 sponsored research projects and has currently 7 high valued ongoing research projects. Many of his research projects have been sponsored by industries including Du Pont, General Cables, Surface Treat, Apollo Tyres, and MRF Tyres.
He has around 800 publications in high impact factor journals and has over a citation count of over 30,000 and an h-index of 78. He has published over 50 Books and has also filed 5 patents.
He has delivered over 50 invited talks and has held positions of visiting professorship at over 30 prestigious institutes. He held the 5th position in the list of Most Productive Researchers in India and has also been listed in Most Cited Researchers in Materials Science and Engineering by Elsevier Scopus Data 2016.
He has active research collaborations with over 25 prestigious institutes all over the world. He has received over 15 prestigious national and international awards. Some of them are Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award for Scientific Excellence, Honorary Doctorate from University of South Brittany, France Download biography

Associate Professor, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

Seminar Room, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

30th August

4.00 - 5:00 PM

Every year, millions of patients suffer loss or failure of an organ or tissue as a result of accidents or disease. Tissue or organ transplantation is a commonly accepted norm under these circumstances. However, constant shortage of donor tissue and organ transplants coupled with high morbidity and mortality has spurred great interest for lab grown tissues/organs as promising substitute. Recent scientific advancement in biomaterials, stem cells in combination with biomimetic environments have made this possible through tissue engineering. In a tissue engineering approach, fabricated polymeric 3D scaffold imitates the native tissue/organ it is replacing, while also providing a temporary functional support for the residing cells. In comparison to synthetic, biologically derived polymeric scaffolds being natural, biodegradable and biocompatible offer resident cells a wide variety of biofunctional motifs that help to regulate cell adhesion, proliferation, phenotype, matrix production and enzyme activity. In our laboratory at IIT Guwahati, we utilize silk as a natural model biopolymer to fabricate various tissue forms to study and understand the mechanisms related to cell-surface interactions, stem cell differentiation towards functionality. In my presentation, I would discuss our recent findings to reconstruct native tissues/organs including smart human skin, cornea, intervertebral disc, engineered bone, cartilage, blood vessel, bioartificial pancreas, injectable hydrogels for drug delivery etc. Findings from these studies have very important implications in relation to development of artificial tissues and grafts towards future in vivo human transplantation.
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Dr. Biman B. Mandal is an Associate Professor at Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG). His group is working on Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials and Stem cells towards developing a number of affordable healthcare products which includes bioartificial skin, smart wound dressings, bioartificial liver devices, vascular grafts, cardiac patches, intervertebral disc, corneal grafts, bone, cartilage, minimally invasive drug eluting injectable gels, targeted anti-cancer drug delivery devices, skin care products, affordable bioreactors and bio-instrumentation etc. Dr. Mandal received his bachelor’s from Presidency College, Calcutta University (2003) and his master’s in Biotechnology, H.P. University (2005). He earned his Ph.D in Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKgp), and was a CSIR-Fellow (2005-2009). Dr. Mandal completed his Post Doctoral Research at Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, USA (2009-2011).
Dr. Mandal is a recipient of numerous National and International awards which includes the NASI-SCOPUS Young Scientist Award 2016; INSA- Medal for Young Scientists 2015; NASI- Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award 2013; DST- INSPIRE Faculty award 2013; Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award 2014; DAE- Young Scientist Award 2011; SYIS- TERMIS Asia-Pacific Young Investigator Award 2011; MAHE Young Scientist Award 2012; DBT- RGYI Award 2012; DST- Young Investigator Grant Award 2012; He was awarded “Indo-Swiss Student Exchange Award” during his Ph.D in 2006. Dr. Mandal has been invited to deliver talks both Nationally and Internationally including at MIT, Boston and is a visiting faculty to KTH, Sweden, UCL London, Justus-Liebig University, Germany and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
Dr. Mandal has published 70 highly referred articles (05 cover pages) in best flagship journals of PNAS, Scientific Reports, Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering, Biotechnology & Bioengineering, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces etc. with a cumulative impact factor of 335+, 2350+ citations and H-index of 27. He is lead inventor in 04 US and 06 Indian patents, contributed 05 book chapters and is editorial board member of 05 International Journals.
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Petrotech Chair Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Delhi

Seminar Hall, Department of Chemical Engineering

19th August, 2017

10.30 AM to 11.30 AM

Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

Seminar Hall, Department of Chemical Engineering

18th August, 2017

3:00-4:00 PM

Abstract: In 1927, German physicist(?) Werner Heisenberg stated that "the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known and vice versa". Arguably, a similar hypothesis can be put forward to the most coveted term in the academia, "the more precisely you define research, the less precisely you are going to know the outcome and vice versa". In the past century, the conjecture of 'accidents leading to Nobel Prizes' could not become theorem because the proposition 'accidents break bones' has megalithic potential to be a lemma since the prehistoric ages! In such a scenario, mere mortals like us can only talk about the 'don'ts' not the 'dos'. Stochastically, the length of the time scale of this entropy consuming effort will surely be less than 45 minutes in which you may (or not) endure 25 slides, iced with some breathtakingly painful jokes. So, see you folks!

Department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD

Seminar Hall, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

16th August, 2017

4:00-5:00 PM

In aquatic environments that are impacted by polluted sediments, risk management strategies focus on interrupting potential exposure pathways by which pollutants might pose an ecological or human health risk. Pollutant binding to various solids in sediments reduces exposure and challenges the extrapolation of toxicity information to complex matrices. We use fundamental principles of thermodynamics and mass transport to link soil/sediment geochemistry to pollutant binding and exposure, especially for priority hydrophobic organic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, and dioxins. Emerging research by our group has shown that pollutant exposure pathways can be interrupted by enhancing the binding capacity of natural sediments using strong sorbents such as black carbons. In addition, we have shown that microbial degraders can be amended along with black carbons to enhance the rate of breakdown of the pollutants. These findings have led to a new approach for managing exposure of pollutants in-situ by introducing tailored amendments to polluted sediments. In the last decade several pilot-scale demonstration studies have been conducted in polluted sediment sites in bays, estuaries, rivers, and harbors. The technology has also been implemented in full-scale remediation projects. This talk will present an overview of results from recent pilot-scale and full-scale implementation of this technology and lessons learned from the field.

Dr. Upal Ghosh is a professor in the department of Chemical, Biochemical, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University at Buffalo. His group performs research in environmental engineering and science with a focus on the fate, effects, and remediation of toxic pollutants in the environment. They use multidisciplinary tools to investigate exposure and bioavailability of organic and metal pollutants and apply the new understanding to develop novel approaches for risk assessment and remediation. Recent projects have focused on pollutants such as PCBs, PAHs, pesticides, dioxins, and mercury. His research has contributed to the development and transition of novel sediment remediation technologies based on altering sediment geochemistry and controlling pollutant bioavailability. His work has been published in the leading journals in the field and the technology development has led to several US patents. Dr. Ghosh also serves as the President of a startup company, Sediment Solutions, which is transitioning emerging sediment remediation technologies to the field.

Richa Sharma

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati

Department of Chemical Engineering, Assam Engineering College

August 2, 2017

11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Hydrogen is the only energy carrier which can cater to the rising power demands across the world without compromising with the environmental impact. Its high efficiency to generate power comes in conjunction with fuel cells that can produce a desired output with absolutely no carbon emissions. However, ultra-pure hydrogen is required for PEM fuel cell to generate energy for portable applications. Since storage of pure hydrogen is a major concern, on-board hydrogen production is considered a feasible choice.Membrane reformers couple reaction and separation in a single unit which makes them a promising tool to increase efficiency of many chemical processes. Selective removal of a reaction product through membrane in these devices enhances the per-pass conversion for equilibrium limited reactions such as dehydrogenation compared to conventional fixed bed reactors. Therefore, in order to generate and separate high purity hydrogen, on-board membrane reformer is considered a promising technology.
In membrane reformers, reforming catalysts and membranes are the two intertwined constituents which control the performance of this system. A catalyst with low CO selectivity is desired that enables higher hydrogen partial pressures near membrane. As a result of higher hydrogen partial pressure difference across the membrane, permeation is also enhanced. Moreover, permeation of hydrogen through the membrane also maximizes the mass transfer rate of hydrogen from the catalyst by maintaining a concentration gradient. Disturbed reaction equilibrium will therefore cause an increase in the forward reaction rate according to Le Chatelier’s rule and hence improve methanol conversion. This work is therefore focused on the primary optimization of varying catalysts and membrane performance prior to their integration in a single unit.Cu-Fe based bimetallic supported catalyst were synthesized, characterized and tested to evaluate its efficiency for low temperature methanol steam reforming. Cu-Fe (3 wt.%) at varying molar compositions (50:50, 25:75 and 75:25) was impregnated on ZnO-ZrO2-Al2O3 (AZZ) support prepared by co-precipitation-deposition. Comparison of each bi-metal composition with individual metal was made using temperature programmed reduction (TPR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR).In addition to catalysts, separation studies were performed with membranes synthesized with a series of modified electroless deposition-hydrogen heat treatment steps. This was continued until a non-porous palladium-based film was achieved on asymmetric tubular support. A non-porous Pd-film morphology allows only hydrogen to permeate through it according to solution-diffusion mechanism. With support total surface area of 28.3 cm2, membrane deposition was carried out for three combinations a) pure Pd, b) 90%Pd-10%Ag and c) 90%Pd-8%Ag-2%Au. Surface characterizations were performed with FESEM-EDX and AFM. Lastly, the prepared membranes were tested with simulated compositions of reformate to determine membrane perm-selectivity.The studies illustrated in this work will thereby present a complete insight to individual membrane, catalyst performances and integrated membrane reformer optimization.

I am a final year PhD student from Department of Chemical Engineering, IITGuwahati. My background involves biotechnology in my bachelors and bio-chemical engineering in my masters.
My core areas of specialization includes, Membrane reformers for on-board hydrogen production, Heterogeneous catalysis, Gas separation, Separation techniques, Electrochemical deposition techniques, Characterization of materials and Design and handling of high temperature-pressure reactors.
uring the course of my study, I have presented several oral as well as poster presentations both of national and international repute. I have been awarded with 'Asset best paper presentation award on Dense supported palladium membrane performance in a multi-tubular reactor at Seventh DAE-BRNS symposium “SESTEC-2016” and Best paper presentation on “Performance of Palladium Membrane based Hydrogen Generator cum Separator” at CHEMCON “13”, ICT-Mumbai.