Sustainable Ammonia Production

Dr Rajender Boddula, is currently working as a CAS-PIFI Fellow in the CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystems and Hierarchical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China. He obtained Master of Science degree in Organic Chemistry from Kakatiya University, Warangal, India, in 2008. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry with the highest honors in 2014 for the work entitled “Synthesis and Characterization of Polyanilines for Supercapacitor and Catalytic Applications” at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) and Kakatiya University (India). Before joining National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) as a CAS-PIFI Research Fellow, China, he worked as senior research associate and Postdoc at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU, India) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU, Taiwan), respectively, in the fields of biofuel and CO2 reduction applications. His academic honors include University Grants Commission National Fellowship and many merit scholarships, Study Abroad Fellowships from Australian Endeavor Research Fellowship and CAS-PIFI. He has published many scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals and has authored nine book chapters and also serving as an editorial board member and referee for reputed international peer-reviewed journals. His specialized areas of energy conversion and storage technologies include nanomaterials, graphene, polymer composites, heterogeneous catalysis, photoelectrocatalytic water splitting, biofuel cell, and supercapacitor applications.

Prof. Abdullah M. Asiri is the Head of the Chemistry Department at King Abdulaziz University since October 2009, and he is the Founder and the Director of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR) since 2010 till now. He is a Professor of Organic Photochemistry.

He graduated from King Abdulaziz University (KAU) with a B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1990 and a Ph.D. from University of Wales, College of Cardiff, UK, in 1995. He was promoted to a Professor in 2004. His research interests cover color chemistry, synthesis of novel photochromic, thermochromic systems, synthesis of novel coloring matters and dyeing of textiles, materials chemistry, nanochemistry and nanotechnology polymers and plastics.

Prof. Asiri is the principal supervisors of more than 20 M.Sc. and six Ph.D.theses; he is the main author of ten books in different chemistry disciplines. Prof. Asiri is the Editor-in-Chief of King Abdulaziz University Journal of Science. A major achievement of Prof. Asiri is the discovery of tribochromic compounds, a class of compounds which change from slightly or colorless to deep colored when subjected to small pressure or when grind. This discovery was introduced to the scientific community as a new terminology published by IUPAC in 2000. This discovery was awarded a patent from European Patent Office and from UK patent and some other patent office in Europe.

Prof. Asiri played a major role in advancing the chemistry education and research in KAU, and he has been awarded the best researchers from KAU for the past five years. He also awarded with the Young Scientist Award from the Saudi Chemical Society in 2009, and also the first prize for the distinction in science from the Saudi Chemical Society in 2012. He also received a recognition certificate from the American Chemical Society (Gulf Region Chapter) for the advancement of chemical science in the Kingdome. Also, he received a Scopus certificate for the most Publishing Scientist in Saudi Arabia in chemistry in 2008.

He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Pigments and Resin Technology (UK), Organic Chemistry in Sight (New Zealand), Designed Monomers & Polymers, and Journal of Single Molecule Research. He is the Vice-President of Saudi Chemical Society (Western Province Branch). He holds four USA patents, more than 800 publications in international journals, seven book chapters, and 10 books.