Biographical note

Dr. Ram Gupta is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Pittsburg State University. He is the Director of Research at the National Institute for Materials Advancement (NIMA). Dr. Gupta has been recently named by Stanford University as being among the top 2% of research scientists worldwide. Before joining Pittsburg State University, he worked as an Assistant Research Professor at Missouri State University, Springfield, MO then as a Senior Research Scientist at North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC. Dr. Gupta’s research spans a range of subjects critical to current and future societal needs including: semiconducting materials & devices, biopolymers, flame-retardant polymers, green energy production & storage using nanostructured materials & conducting polymers, electrocatalysts, optoelectronics & photovoltaics devices, organic-inorganic heterojunctions for sensors, nanomagnetism, biocompatible nanofibers for tissue regeneration, scaffold & antibacterial applications, and bio-degradable metallic implants. Amir Motallebzadeh received his Ph.D. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 2015. During his Ph.D., he studied microstructural characterization and mechanical properties of hardfacing coatings at high temperatures. In 2016, he joined Koç University Surface Science and Technology Center (KUYTAM) as a researcher. His research activities focus mainly on metallic and ceramic thin films, magnetron sputtering, high-entropy alloys, hard facing alloys, surface characterization methods, mechanical properties of coatings and tribology. Dr. Saeid Kakooei is currently a Senior Research Engineer (Research Scholar) with the School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA He received his PhD in Mechanical (Corrosion) Engineering from University Technology PETRONAS, Malaysia in 2014, MSc in Corrosion Engineering and BSc in Material Engineering from Iran in 2006 and 1999, respectively. His research specialization is Material/Corrosion engineering. He has been involved in several research and consultancy projects related to corrosion problems in the oil & gas industries. Tuan Anh Nguyen is Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Institute for Tropical Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam. He received B.S. in Physics from Hanoi University in 1992, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Paris Diderot University (France) in 2003. He was Visiting Scientist at Seoul National University (South Korea, 2004) and University of Wollongong (Australia, 2005). He then worked as Postdoctoral Research Associate and Research Scientist in the Montana State University (USA), 2006-2009. In 2012, he was appointed as the Head of the Microanalysis Department at Institute for Tropical Technology. His research activities include smart sensors, smart networks, smart hospitals, smart cities and digital twins. He edited over 70 Elsevier, 12 CRC Press, 1 Springer, 1 RSC and 2 IGI Global books. He is Editor-In-Chief of "Kenkyu Journal of Nanotechnology & Nanoscience". Dr. Ajit Behera is an Assistant Professor in the Metallurgical and Materials Department at the National Institute of Technology, India. He completed his Ph.D. from IIT-Kharagpur in 2016. Dr. Behera has received several prestigious awards, including the National "Yuva Rattan Award" in 2020, the "Young Faculty Award" in 2017, and the "C.V. Raman Award" in 2019. His research interests encompass smart materials, additive manufacturing, 3D & 4D printing, NiTi-alloys, plasma surface engineering, nanotechnology, magnetron-sputtered thin film, cryo-treatment, and the utilization of industrial waste. Dr. Behera has also contributed to the field with the publication of two patents related to smart materials.