New Trends in Emerging Environmental Contaminants

Dr. Shihabudheen M. Maliyekkal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Tirupati. He earned his master's and Ph.D. from the IIT Madras in Environmental Engineering. The focus of his research is to address the challenging task of providing safe water for all. One of his arsenic removal technologies has been implemented in the field, and more than one million affected people benefit from the invention. He has extensive experience in the synthesis and characterization of nanoscale materials and their application in water purification. Besides water and wastewater treatment, his interests include developing green and smart materials for energy and infrastructure applications. Dr. Maliyekkal has authored over 70 articles in reputed journals and conference proceedings, and he is an inventor/co-inventor in 16 patents or patent applications. He is one of the founding directors of an IIT Tirupati incubated start-up NGEN Water Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Prof. Tarun Gupta is a doctorate from Harvard University & M.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He has authored over 175 ISI indexed journal publications, 6 books, 15 book chapters, 6 patents, and has been reviewer of more than 36 journals. He has guided 11 Ph.D. and 40 M.Tech. theses. A submicron aerosol sampler designed, developed and evaluated by him at IIT Kanpur has been commercialized by Envirotech (Delhi). He has developed a high volume fine PM2.5 sampler and transferred technology to BARC. He has won INAE Innovator and Entrepreneur Award (2018), VNMM award (2017), NASI-SCOPUS Award (2015), INSA Medal for Young Scientist (2011), INAE Young Engineer Award (2009) and IEI Young Engineer Award (2008). He is N C Nigam Chair Professor and serving as the Head of Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kanpur.

Prof. Avinash Kumar Agarwal joined IIT Kanpur in 2001. He worked at the Engine Research Center, UW@Madison, the USA as a Post-Doctoral Fellow (1999 – 2001). His interests are IC engines, combustion, alternate and conventional fuels, lubricating oil tribology, optical diagnostics, laser ignition, HCCI, emissions, and particulate control, 1D and 3D Simulations of engine processes, and large-bore engines. Prof. Agarwal has published 435+ peer-reviewed international journal and conference papers, 70 edited books, 92 books chapters, and 12200+ Scopus and 19000+ Google Scholar citations. He is the associate principal editor of FUEL. He has edited “Handbook of Combustion” (5 Volumes; 3168 pages), published by Wiley VCH, Germany. Prof. Agarwal is a Fellow of SAE (2012), Fellow of ASME (2013), Fellow of ISEES (2015), Fellow of INAE (2015), Fellow of NASI (2018), Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2018), and a Fellow of American Association of Advancement in Science (2020). He is the recipient of several prestigious awards such as Clarivate Analytics India Citation Award-2017 in Engineering and Technology, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award-2012; INAE Silver Jubilee Young Engineer Award-2012; Dr. C. V. Raman Young Teachers Award: 2011; SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award -2008; INSA Young Scientist Award-2007; UICT Young Scientist Award-2007; INAE Young Engineer Award-2005. Prof. Agarwal received Prestigious CSIR Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award-2016 in Engineering Sciences. Prof. Agarwal is conferred upon Sir J C Bose National Fellowship (2019) by SERB for his outstanding contributions. Prof. Agarwal was a highly cited researcher (2018) and was in the top ten HCR from India among 4000 HCR researchers globally in 22 fields of inquiry.