Pollution Control Technologies - Volume III

Bhaskar Nath received his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (India) in 1960, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Wales, UK, in 1964. In 1983 he was awarded a D.Sc. degree by the University of London for his outstanding original research (according to citation) in numerical mathematics. In 2001 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa (Dr.H.C.) by the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia (Bulgaria), for his contribution to environmental education.

Professor Nath taught at the University of London for twenty-seven years till 1995. Currently he is Director of the European Centre for Pollution Research (ECPR), London, Executive Director of the International Centre for Technical Research, London, and visiting professor to several major European universities. He is also consultant to a number of UK and US companies.

To date he has organized and participated in eleven international postgraduate teaching and training programs, sponsored by (among others) the Commission of the European Communities and NATO, in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Turkey. On behalf of ECPR, to date he has also organized four major international conferences and fifteen dedicated short courses in various European countries.

Professor Nath's professional interests include elasto-hydrodynamics, numerical mathematics, philosophy, environmental protection, environmental management, environmental education, and sustainable development and related issues. To date his publications on these subjects number over 120, including sixteen books. He has been founder and editor of three international journals, including Environment, Development and Sustainability, published by Springer.

Georgi St. Cholakov is Associate Professor at the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy in Sofia and Head of its Organic Synthesis and Fuels Department.

He received his first hands-on experience of ecological problems during compulsory military service as Head of the Fuels and Lubricants Unit of an airbase. His PhD dissertation was on development of replacements for lubricant additives synthesized from the sperm oil, obtained from blue whales. He did a post doc specialization in tribology at the University of Birmingham, U.K. Later he specialized in effective and ecological processing and use of petroleum derivatives at Imperial College, London, the French Institute of Petroleum, and other leading universities.

The scientific and research interests of G. St. Cholakov are centered around petroleum processing and petroleum derivatives – environmentally compatible processes and products, process and product design for the petroleum industry, chemistry of combustion and ecology, etc. He is teaching advanced courses in related academic disciplines – Alternative Fuels and Lubricants, Air Pollution Management, Chemistry of Combustion and Ecology, Additives for Fuels and Lubricants, Computation in Petroleum Processing, etc. In 2002 as an invited lecturer, he gave a course on Chemistry of Combustion and Pollution from Vehicles at The Ben-Gurion University, Israel.

Cholakov has contributed more than 60 papers in refereed international journals and co-edited the Bulgarian edition of Miall’s Dictionary of Chemistry. He is member and has served in elective positions in different Bulgarian and Balkan professional organizations. He has been member of the editorial boards of three journals, published in Bulgaria in the English language.