Biographical note

Vijay Kumar Thakur is Permanent Faculty in the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing Engineering, Cranfield University, UK. Previously he was a Staff Scientist in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University, USA, Research Scientist in Temasek Laboratories at Nanyang Technological University Singapore and Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at LHU Taiwan. He spent his postdoctoral study in Materials Science & Engineering at Iowa State University, USA. He has extensive expertise in the synthesis of polymers, nano materials, nanocomposites, biocomposites, graft copolymers, high performance capacitors and electrochromic materials. He sits on the editorial board of several SCI journals. Dr. Manju Kumar Thakur has been working as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Himachal Pradesh University – Shimla, INDIA since June 2010. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry, Botany and Zoology; M.Sc., M. Phil; in Organic Chemistry and Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the Chemistry Department at Himachal Pradesh University – Shimla, INDIA. She has rich experience in the field of organic chemistry, bio- polymers, composites/ nanocomposites, hydrogels, applications of hydrogels in the removal of toxic heavy metal ions, drug delivery etc. She has published more than 30 research papers in several international journals, co-authored five books and has also published 25 book chapters in the field of polymeric materials. Dr. Asokan Pappu is a Senior Principal Scientist at the CSIR—Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (AMPRI), India. He holds a Ph.D. from IIT Bombay besides Master in Public Health Engineering and B. Tech. in Civil Engineering from India. Dr. Asokan pursued Postdoctorate research on GRP waste recycling in cement and concrete composites at the Loughborough University, United Kingdom during 2007–2008. Dr. Asokan has been a Sir CV. Raman Research Fellow and carried out advanced research on hybrid composites at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, in 2010. Dr. Asokan has received six best papers awards and two best and most cited paper awards from Elsevier Sci. publisher. He has published more than 172 research papers and delivered 87 invited/key note lectures and technical presentations and has authored 11 book chapters.