Keynote SPEAKERS
Professor James Njuguna
Robert Gordon University, United Kingdon
Professor Njuguna is the Director of Research and Innovation at the National Subsea Centre (NSC) at Robert Gordon University (RGU). Professor Njuguna is an internationally recognized expert in composite materials, with a particular focus on their application in high-performance and extreme environments, including the oil and gas, aerospace, automotive, renewable energy, and construction sectors. His research addresses the durability and safety of advanced materials and structures under operational conditions, with significant contributions to understanding failure mechanisms in polymer fibre-reinforced nanocomposites, especially the emission and diffusion behaviours of nanofillers. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), and currently serves as Vice-President (International) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Professor Sudesh Sivarasu
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Prof. Sudesh Sivarasu holds the DSTI/NRF SARChI South African Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering Innovation and serves as Director of UCT’s Biomedical Engineering Research Centre and Head of Biomedical Engineering. As UCT’s most prolific inventor, he has 67 patent applications (27 granted) across multiple countries and has created FrugalBiodesign™, a methodology for developing medical devices for resource-constrained environments. His innovations have led to five UCT spin-off companies and numerous award-winning health technologies including reScribe, Laxmeter, and ZiBiPen. Prof. Sivarasu maintains international connections as adjunct professor at Northwestern University USA, MAHE- India and Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma – Italy. His research on appropriate health technologies for low-resource settings has produced 1 text book, over 100 peer-reviewed journal & Conference articles , a book on medical device innovation and earned prestigious accolades including the UCT Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Innovation. Prof. Sivarasu has successfully supervised 62 students to completion and currently guides 18 more, while his work has garnered 16 MedTech awards across four continents.
Professor Yogendra Kumar Mishra
University of Southern Denmark
Yogendra Kumar Mishra, Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), UK, is currently working as professor and the Leader of the Smart Materials group at Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Sønderborg, Denmark. Before SDU, he was leading an independent research group on 3D Nanomaterials at Functional Nanomaterials Chair, Kiel University. At SDU, NanoSYD, the Smart Materials group’s main focus is to develop a new class of ‘Functional Materials for Advanced and Sustainable Technologies’. He is an Editorial Board Member/Associate Editor for many prestigious magazines (Advanced Functional Materials, Materials Today Family, Nano Energy, etc.). He has received many notable awards, like Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2008 ) and the Young Investigator Award (under 40 ) from BHJ Fonden-Denmark and has won several successful grants.
Dr Lerato Shikwambana
South African National Space Agency
Dr. Lerato Shikwambana is a Senior Scientist at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) within the Earth Observation directorate. He holds an NRF rating and serves as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), affiliated with the School of Geography, Archaeology, and Environmental Studies. Dr. Shikwambana completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Physics at Wits, followed by a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Physics at the same university. His passion for physics led him to pursue and earn a Master of Science degree in Physics at Wits, with a focus on using lasers for the synthesis of new materials. This sparked his interest in laser physics, which he later applied to atmospheric and space studies. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Physics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2017. After completing his PhD, Dr. Shikwambana joined SANSA as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Space Science Directorate. His research focuses on studying atmospheric emissions through satellites, in-situ instruments, and model data. Additionally, he explores topics such as climate change, meteorology, and atmospheric dynamics. Dr. Shikwambana has authored over 40 articles in these areas.
Professor Shivani Mishra
Associate Editor, RSC Advances, UK
Prof Shivani Mishra is Fellow member of Royal Society of Chemistry and currently working as Associate Editor, RSC Advances, journal published by Royal Society of Chemistry, UK. She is also the founder and Director of Academy of Nanotechnology and Waste Water Innovations, South Africa. Besides, she is also working as Adjunct Professor at Vaal University of Technology as well as Hebei University of Science and Technology, China. Her entrepreneurship venture engaging with academicians and researchers in order to promote translational research. As an International Advisory Board member, she is am serving at Technical University Vienna, Austria. Prior to this, she was appointed as Full Professor at University of South Africa and served at University of Johannesburg as an Associate Professor She holds experience of Postdoctoral fellow at various academic institutions in South Africa. Her research expertise is material development using nanotechnology, waste water treatment and waste valorization and has accumulated research funding for her projects and has supervised many Doctoral and Master’s student. Over and above 120 research articles, 45 book chapters and five edited books goes to her research credentials and output. She has been Fellow of royal Society of Chemistry and has received many recognitions for her performances including Distinguished Woman in Science by Department of Science and Technology, South Africa and Woman in Research leadership by University of South Africa.
Professor Pierre P.D. Kondiah
University of University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
Pierre P.D. Kondiah is a Full-Professor in Anatomical Pathology and Clinical Human Anatomy/ General Surgery. He is currently a Director of the Anatomical Pathology and Surgical Research Unit in the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN), Faculty of Medicine. He is recognized internationally for pioneering research and European Patents, filed and granted in Europe (Germany, Bayern Munich), in his field of expertise. His innovations further extend in the biotechnological 4D-bioprinting, and auto-immune as well as chemotherapy research, with an impressive academic portfolio including an MBBS (UK), MMed, PhD, MBA (UK), with highest ranks in his Business and entrepreneur qualifications, including: AMBER-AACSB-EQUIS-EFMD. After completing his studies in the UK (University of London); He returned to SA, and leads groundbreaking research in Anatomical Pathology and innovative therapeutics. As the CEO of his company, 4D-SupraMolecular Engineering, based in the UK and South Africa, Full- Prof Kondiah spearheads the commercialization of advanced supramolecular systems; designed to address critical healthcare challenges in SA and on Global scale. His visionary leadership integrates cutting-edge stem cell technologies, biomaterials which are anatomically bio-compatible, as well as Quantum-computational modeling, significantly advancing therapeutic optimization. Prof Kondiah’s research excellence is evidenced by four European patents Filed and Granted, over 120 ISI-accredited publications, and extensive international collaborations in over 21 Countries. He is extensively committed to societal impact, where he fosters innovation, mentors emerging researchers, and bridges academia with economic industry collaborations, to enhance healthcare solutions globally.
Professor Ajeet Kaushik
Florida Polytechnic University, USA
Ajeet Kaushik, Fellow-ICS, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Department of Environmental Engineering, Florida Polytechnic University, USA. He is exploring nano-enabled technologies for health and environmental monitoring, involving efficient sensing and nanomedicine. He is an accomplished scholar (supported by over 300 publications, editorial roles, 12 edited books, 3 patents, and international collaborations) and the recipient of several international awards in support of his credentials. His research interests include green chemistry, electrochemistry, chemical sensors, biosensors, nanomedicine, targeted drug delivery, point-of-care sensing, and personalized health wellness. To achieve goals, Dr. Kaushik is focused on cutting-edge research and seeking collaborations.
Dr Mritunjay Chaubey
Dr Mritunjay Chaubey is sustainability, environment and water expert of international repute. He has done Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He has nearly 27- years of professional working experience in renowned MNCs Pentair, Shell, Unilever & UPL. Recently Dr Chaubey elected as Governing Council Member of United Nations Global Compact Network India. Dr Chaubey has made an unique position in corporate world by embedding sustainability & reducing the environmental footprint of big corporates such as Pentair, Shell, Unilever & UPL. Currently more than 100 environmental protection sustainable technologies are successfully working in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America & South America designed by him. Under his leadership UPL has reduced 40% water consumption, 21% carbon emission & 57% waste disposal in last 3-years. UPL is also known for its pioneering University of Sustainable Technology. Dr Chaubey is Editorial Board member of renowned international journal “Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment” as well as “Arab Water World”. He is also member of Bureau of Indian Standards for making BIS Standards for water & wastewater treatment and environmental protection. More than 50 technical papers has been published in renowned international journals & conferences with his name. Dr Chaubey is author of a renowned book “Wastewater Treatment Technologies Design Considerations” published by Wiley publisher USA. Dr. Chaubey is currently working as Global Vice President & Head – Sustainability & Environment with UPL. Recently Dr. Chaubey is awarded with “Most Influential Sustainability Leader Award”, “Chief Sustainability Officer of the Year Award” and “Asian Sustainable Leadership Award”. In March 2023, Dr Chaubey delivered lecture in UN Water Conference New York.
Dr Rangabhashiyam Selvasembian
SRM University-AP, India
Dr. Rangabhashiyam Selvasembian, currently working as Head and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Sciences, SRM University-AP, India. Previously worked in the Department of Biotechnology, School of Chemical & Biotechnology, SASTRA Deemed University, India. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from National Institute of Technology Calicut, India. He was awarded a Post-Doctoral Fellowship by Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, 2015, Germany. He was further awarded the National-Post Doctoral Fellowship from SERB-DST, 2016-2018, India. Dr Rangabhashiyam Selvasembian was awarded as Young Scientist by DST, India for the BRICS Conclave held in Durban, 2018, South Africa and was the recipient of Hiyoshi Young Leaf Award from Hiyoshi Ecological Services, Hiyoshi Corporation, 2018, Japan. His major research interests are waste valorization and wastewater treatment. He is Editorial Board Member in Separation & Purification Reviews (T&F); Inorganic Chemistry Communications (Elsevier); Current Pollution Reports (Springer); Scientific Reports (Nature); Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (Springer); Environmental Management (Springer). He is also serving as Associate Editor in South African Journal of Chemical Engineering (Elsevier); Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry; International Journal of Environmental Science & Technology (Springer); IET Nanobiotechnology (Wiley) and as an Academic Editor for Adsorption Science and Technology. He has published more than 130 peer reviewed articles and contributed several book chapters. He is editing books from prestigious publishers such as Elsevier, Wiley, CRC, and Springer. Dr Rangabhashiyam Selvasembian was listed in Top 2% (2021, 2022 and 2023) most cited research scientists in the world as per data published by Stanford University USA.
Professor Leslie Petrik
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Prof Leslie Petrik obtained her PhD in Chemistry in 2008 at the University of the Western Cape and has independently developed and led the Environmental and Nano Sciences research group, in the Department of Chemistry, being grant holder and principal investigator of industrial and agency research projects with many successfully completed local and international research contracts. Prof Petrik is regarded as a leading and well-established expert in chemistry, with a focus on material science and environmental chemistry & water treatment. Her scientific output includes 5 granted patents; 11 book chapters; 236 journal publications; 333 conference presentations; and numerous technical reports to industry and research agencies, with a Google Scholar h-index (56), i10-index (182), 10238 citations. Prof Petrik was recipient of the Water Legends Award of the Water Research Commission of South Africa in 2021, and won the National Science and Technology Forum NSTF-South32 award in 2018 for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering, technology (SET) and innovation.
Dr Saeid Hosseini
Univar Solutions, Belgium
Dr. Hosseini received his PhD degree (2010) from the Dept. of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (ranked 3rd THE 2022), at the Notational University of Singapore where he conducted research studies on molecular separations as a recipient of prestigious A*STAR scholarship. He is currently European Product Dev. Manager responsible for Water Treatment at Univar Solutions, a major company in the chemical industry. Prior to that he served as a scientist at the Dept. of Chemical Eng. at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium) involved in projects related to separation technologies, biogas valorization and development of structured adsorbents. He has had joint appointment as an Extraordinary Prof. at Ins. of Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability at Uni. of South Africa, UNISA. Dr. Hosseini has served in various academic and executive positions such as faculty member in the Dept. of Chem. Eng., (2011-21), Head of Dept. (2017-19), Director of University Central Labs (2016-21) during his tenure at Tarbiat Modares Uni. He has also gained hands-on experiences in industrial R&D by holding positions in renowned companies and international organizations. Dr. Hosseini has supervised more than 50 graduate students for their projects on molecular design, formulation, fabrication, testing and analysis, as well as modeling and simulation of molecular separation processes related to energy, water, environment and biomedicals through which he has established collaborations with institutions, universities and industries worldwide. Beside research, he has instructed few graduate level courses for more than a decade to MSc and PhD students. He is an editorial board member of few journals and has served as scientific reviewer for evaluation of proposals, theses, and projects relevant to his expertise. The records of his scientific contributions exceed 150 including publications, conference proceeding, patents and technical report of which almost half are peer-reviewed papers appeared in reputable journals.
Professor Mohsen Rahmani
Nottingham Trent University, UK
Mohsen Rahmani is a professor of optics and photonics and the leader of the advanced optics and Photonics laboratory at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), in the UK. He obtained his PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2013, followed by a postdoc fellowship at Imperial College London and the Australian Research Council Early Career Fellowship at the Australian National University. In 2020, he joined NTU via the Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship. Shortly after moving to the UK, he was also awarded the UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship. Recently, he has secured an ERC Consolidator Grant. His research activities span over light-matter interactions with nanometre-scale particles for applications in flat optics, near-infrared imaging, bio-sensing, and reconfigurable optics. He has received several prestigious awards and prizes, including the Australian Eureka Prize (Australian Oscar of Science), the Early Career Medal from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and the Australian Optical Society Geoff Opat Award. Professor Rahmani has delivered 40+ invited talks, seminars and keynotes at international conferences and has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal papers (H-index=43). He is the past chair of the IEEE Nanotechnology Chapter across the UK and Ireland section (2021-2023) and a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council 2024-2025.
Professor Michael Claeys
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Professor Claeys obtained his PhD (with distinction) in Fischer-Tropsch catalysis at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1997 and then joined the Catalysis Institute at the University of Cape Town. Here he was instrumental in establishing a large research activity with focus on Fischer-Tropsch catalysis, a technology, which lies at the heart of South Africa’s synthetic fuels and chemicals industry and which is playing an increasingly important role in the production of green future fuels via Power-to-X processes. Other research interests include the preparation and characterisation of nano materials and their use in catalytic applications, as well as the development of catalysts and novel instrumentation for characterisation of catalysts at working conditions. Professor Claeys has published extensively on these topics, he holds a number of patents and he has been awarded an A-rating (‘leading international researcher’) by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. A large portion of his research is conducted in conjunction with industrial partners, in particular a longstanding industrial collaboration with Sasol R&D. Professor Claeys directed the Director of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis, c*change, a large virtual and multidisciplinary Centre, where he also acted as the Manager of the Scientific Synthesis Gas Programme, which includes processes of catalytic valorization of CO2. He is currently involved in various large PTL projects including the BMBF-funded CARE-O-SENE consortium and the South African national Coal CO2-to-X flagship programme. Moreover, he is the co-founder and director of three spin-off companies and the founding Chairperson of the Syngas Convention, a triennial international meeting on synthesis gas technologies held in Cape Town.
Professor Amit Rawal
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India
Professor Amit Rawal obtained his PhD from the University of Bolton, UK, and a Master of Philosophy from The University of Manchester, UK. He is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for experienced researchers to conduct research in the field of nonwovens in Germany. He has also been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship to initiate collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. In addition, he has received numerous awards, including the Young Researcher Fellowship from the prestigious M.I.T, Cambridge, for exemplary research in Computational Mechanics, Fellowship of the Textile Institute, CSIR special research award, and an Outstanding Young Faculty Fellowship by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD). Currently, he is working as a Professor at the Department of Textile and Fibre Engineering, IIT Delhi. He has published over 100 papers in reputed journals and has delivered numerous keynote, invited, and plenary lectures at national and international conferences. He has developed various three-dimensional (3D) analytical models for predicting geometrical, mechanical, and wetting properties of a diverse range of textile and allied structures. His research interests are not only limited to the structure, mechanics, and wetting behavior of textile and allied materials but also focused on the structure-property relationship of buckypapers, battery separators, electrospun mats, superhydrophobic fibrous mats, geotextiles, composites, auxetic, piezoresistive, and piezoelectric materials. He is an editorial board member of Textile Research Journal, Journal of Industrial Textiles and Research Journal of Textile & Apparel. Recently, he was honored as the twenty-ninth recipient of the King Carl XVI Gustaf Professorship in Environmental Science for the year 2024/25.
Professor Malik Maaza
UNESCO UNISA-ITLABS-NRF Africa Chair, South Africa
Professor M. Maaza is a native of North Africa, holds a PhD from the University of Paris-VI, is the current incumbent, in South Africa, of the UNESCO UNISA-ITLABS-NRF Africa Chair in Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies. He is a joint staff of the University of South Africa and the National Research Foundation of South Africa. His Hindex is about 107 and i10 =563 with a total citation above 37000. He is a fellow of various Academies, including the African Academy of Science, the European Academy of Arts & Sciences as well as the National Academy of Science of India, the Islamic Academy of Sciences & the Royal Society of Chemistry-London as well as the New York Academy of Sciences. Prof. M. Maaza has been bestowed several awards & accolade among which; the African Union Nkwame Nkrumah award for Excellence in Science & Technology & the Galileo-Galilei award by the International Commission for Optics (ICO)as well as the J. Vasconcelos award for education by the World Cultural Council-Hong Kong in addition to the recent International Khawarizmi award as well as the International Union for Pure & Applied Physics (IUPAP)award. Prof. M. Maaza has been the architect behind several continental & National ongoing platforms including the UNESCO-UNISA-iTLABS/NRF Africa Chair in Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (U2ACN2) African Laser Centre (ALC), the African Materials Research Society (AMRS), the African Light Source (AfLS), the Nanosciences African Network (NANOAFNET), the National Laser Centre (NLC) among others including the recently implemented African Centre of Competencies in Enhanced Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies for SDGs (ACCENTS).
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