Nanoclays: Materials Properties and Advanced Applications

Suprakas Sinha Ray is a Chief Research Scientist and Manager of the Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. He received his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry at the University of Calcutta, India in 2001 and was a recipient of the "Sir P. C Ray Research Award" for the best PhD work. Prof. Ray current research focuses on the applications of advanced nanostructured & polymeric materials. He is one of the most active and highly cited authors in the field of polymer nanocomposite materials, and he has recently been rated by Thomson Reuters as being one of the Top 1% most impactful and influential scientists and Top50 high impact chemists.

Prof. Ray is the author of 9 books, co-author of 12 edited books, 32 book chapters on various aspects of polymer-based nanostructured materials & their applications, and author and co-author of 455 articles in high-impact international journals, 30 articles in national and international conference proceedings. He also has 6 patents and 7 new demonstrated technologies shared with colleagues, collaborators and industrial partners to his name. So far, his team has commercialized 19 different products. His honors and awards include South Africa's most Prestigious 2016 National Science and Technology Award (NSTF); Prestigious 2014 CSIR-wide Leadership award; Prestigious 2014 CSIR Human Capital development award; Prestigious 2013 Morand Lambla Awardee (top award in the field of polymer processing worldwide), International Polymer Processing Society, USA. He is also appointed as Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of Johannesburg.

Jonathan Tersur Orasugh received his PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering, from the University of Calcutta, India. Currently, he is working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Department Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg and associated as a senior researcher at Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. His research work focuses on the processing and characterization of biopolymer based immiscible polymer blends for biomedical applications, particularly drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Lesego Tabea Temane received her M-Tech in Chemical Engineering from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a Polymer Characterization Technologist at the Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. Her research focuses on synthesizing, processing, and characterizing advanced nanostructured polymeric materials.