Biographical note

Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan is the Director of CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram. Before this, he served as Director of the National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur (an Institute of National Importance under MoFPI, Govt. of India). He obtained B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from A.C.Tech, Anna University, Chennai, and completed M.Tech at Anna University, Chennai. He has done his doctoral research in Chemical Engineering at the Loughborough University, United Kingdom. Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan is a renowned scientist and academician with vast expertise in the field of Food and Agro Processing. He is an active researcher with more than two decades of experience in research and administration. His research endeavors are well documented in the form of 216 impact factor publications with an average impact factor of 5.310 and an h-index of 64, three international patents, twelve Indian patents, and one commercialized patent. He is also the author and editor of 18 books and 125 book chapters published by coveted publishers. He has supervised 17 Ph.D. theses and more than 50 bachelor’s and master’s theses. He has been an invited speaker for 210 talks at national and international conferences, convocation addresses and panel discussions. He has transferred 17 technologies to various industries and has provided handholding support to more than 150 food processing start-ups and enterprises to facilitate product innovation and revenue growth. He is an elected Fellow of several national and international professional bodies, serves on the editorial boards of reputed peer-reviewed journals and was honored by the Hon'ble President of India with the highest recognition award in the field of science, technology and innovation, 'Rashtriya Vigyan Shri’ 2024 Puraskar, for the distinguished contributions to the Agricultural Science sector. Earlier, was awarded the prestigious ‘ICAR – Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award for Outstanding Research in Agricultural Sciences – 2019’, Tata Innovation Fellowship 2019-20 by DBT, Government of India and the prestigious NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award 2018. Dr. Jeyan A. Moses is a recipient of International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) Young Scientist Award, NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award, AFSTI Young Scientist Award, Society of Chemical Industry - Seligman APV Bursary, Dr. V. Subrahmanyan Best Scientist Award, iCFP Young Scientist Award (Bangkok), SERB Early Career Research Award, and multiple travel/training grants. He has also received Best Paper and Model Awards on various technical platforms. He completed his B.Tech. and M.Tech. from Karunya University, Coimbatore, India. For his outstanding academic performance in both degrees, he was awarded Gold Medals and received the Best Outgoing Student Award and Food Processing Award. He completed his PhD from NIFTEM-T and conducted his research at the Canadian Wheat Board Centre for Grain Storage Research, University of Manitoba, Canada. Currently, his research focuses on the 3D printing of foods, nutraceutical delivery systems, food nanotechnology, and computational modeling of food processing systems. He is a member of the International Coconut Community (ICC)’s Scientific Advisory on Health and serves on the editorial board of multiple scientific journals. He has authored over 300 publications and has handled 30 sponsored research projects in various capacities. Dr. Pramila Murugesan completed her Bachelor of Technology from Anna University Tiruchirappalli and Master of Technology from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirappalli. During her M-Tech, she received the rank holder award. Later, she was a post-doctoral Fellow under the SERB-nPDF scheme at NIFTEM-T. In the past, she made a remarkable contribution to the development of visible light-driven nanomaterials for energy and environmental applications, non-thermal plasma processes for water decontamination applications, CFD modeling, fluorescent sensors, and microfluidics. Her research works are well documented both in research publications as well as in conference presentations, including being the recipient of multiple best paper/poster awards. Dr. M. Maria Leena completed her B.Tech in Biotechnology and M.Tech in Nanotechnology, and a second Masters in Business Administration with a specialization in Project Management. She completed her Ph.D. in Biotechnology specializing in Food Nanotechnology from NIFTEM-T. She has received the DST Women Scientist Fellowship and the selected poster award of 19th IUFoST. Her research focus is on improving the bioavailability of nutraceutical compounds through encapsulation and customized delivery, nanomembrane preparation for food packaging, filtration, and sensing applications, and designing of nanomaterials and 3D printed biomaterials for food and tissue engineering applications.