Advances in Biofuels and Bioenergy

Sung Hoon Kang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics at Harvard University and M.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT. He has been investigating bioinspired solutions to address current challenge in engineering materials and mechanical systems with applications including energy, protection, and healthcare. In particular, he and his colleagues have been studying harvesting ambient mechanical energy using rationally designed and/or synthesized piezoelectric materials through the support of the Office of Naval Research and Johns Hopkins University. Throughout his career, he has co-authored 36 peer-reviewed papers, has given over 80 presentations (including ~50 invited talks), and has two patents. He served as an editorial board member of Scientific Reports and currently serves as the Vice Chair of ASME Technical Committee on Mechanics of Soft Materials and will serve as Chair in 2020.

Shams Al Ajrawi associate faculty of the Department of Cyber Security in University of San Diego, Electrical and Computer Engineering in San Diego State University, and Applied Engineering in National university. Her M.S and Ph.D. degrees at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and San Diego State University (SDSU) under the guidance of Dr. Sarkar and Dr. Ramesh Rao. She received her B.S. degree in Computer Engineering in May 2000 from Technology University. She has worked previously as a research scientist at SDSU, San Diego, CA. Her research interest lies in the area of Wireless Data Networks. She is investigating MAC layer power management algorithms and Quality-of-Service issues and protocols in WBANs, sensor networks, and wireless ad-hoc networks

Dr. Huiming Yin received his Bachelor degree from the Hohai University, China, in 1995, Master Peking University, China, in 1998, and PhD The Iowa University in 2004. Before joining Columbia University in 2008, Dr. Yin was employed by Caltrans as a Civil Engineer, for two years and by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for two years. Dr. Yin’s research focuses on the multiphysical and mechanical characterization and modeling of civil engineering materials and their applications in energy efficient infrastructure systems. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2010. He founded the Pao Sustainable Engineering and Materials Laboratory, and serves the Site Director of NSF IUCRC Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems. Dr. Yin has actively worked with Columbia Technology Ventures for commercialization of the applied research through small business companies and start-ups. From his research, two STTR projects have been awarded by DOE (for solar roofing materials) and AFOSR (for particulate composites), respectively. He is the leading author of the book - The Introduction to Micromechanics of Composite Materials, CRC Press and Spon Press, 2016, and has authored or co-authored 4 other book chapters and >70 refereed journal papers.

Nesrin Ozalp is a Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at University of Minnesota Duluth, and an Affiliate Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington’s Mechanical Engineering Department. Dr. Ozalp specializes in the areas of designing novel solar reactors for emission-free generation of fuels. She is the Lead Principal Investigator of research projects totaling more than $4M, the corresponding author of 100+ peer reviewed journal, book chapter, and conference papers, Co-PI of completed Phase I of Solar Carbon Black commercialization with Fraunhofer, supervised 25 graduate students’ theses, served in 7 Editorial Boards and 22 Scientific Advisory Boards of international conferences and associations. She has given 30 invited/keynote talks on her research at institutes including the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Fraunhofer-IWS, NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), and others. She is an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering, and the recipient of many research and teaching awards including the Outstanding Reviewer Award by the ASME Heat Transfer Division, and the College-Level Distinguished Teaching Award by the Texas A&M Association of Former Students. Dr. Ozalp is an ASME Fellow.

Confident, motivated and articulate with 12+ years’ experience in Academic and Management Sectors Key skills in academic deliveries, critical analysis of different management principles and thoughts and training and coaching people Capable of developing creative solutions through formulating, implementing and evaluating action plans Major strength in training, counselling, marketing, communication, and thriving new challenges

Marc A. Rosen is a Professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Canada, where he served as founding Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Rosen was President of the Engineering Institute of Canada. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of several journals and as a Director of Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation. With over 60 research grants and contracts and 800 publications, Dr. Rosen is an active teacher and researcher in sustainable energy, environmental impact, and energy technology (including renewable energy and efficiency improvement). Much of his research has been carried out for industry, and he has written numerous books. Dr. Rosen has worked for such organizations as Imatra Power Company in Finland, Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, and the Institute for Hydrogen Systems near Toronto. Dr. Rosen has received numerous awards and honors, and is a fellow of several societies and organizations.

Prof. S Mandal possesses 17 years of teaching experience and has published research papers in the broad area of structural engineering. He has guided 3 PhD theses and 44 M. Tech. dissertations in the broad area of structural Engineering. He has published 19 research papers in peer reviewed journals and 35 papers in National and International Conferences. His main research areas are Wind effects on Structures (WES), Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Advanced Concrete Technology (ACT).

Professor Thakur, FNASc, FNAAS, FIBA, FBRS, ENESA, Former Dean, presently a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, developed bacteria by genetic breeding, and characterized by genomics, proteomics and metabolomics for Green House Gases sequestration for biofuel, bioflocculant, bioplastic and biomaterials production. Microorganisms applied for degradation of pentachlorophenol in tannery, lignin biovalorization, degradation of melanoidin, dioxin-like compounds, ecoestrogens, phthalates and emerging contaminants in industries, municipal sludge, landfill leachate, risk assessment and characterization was performed. Cyanobacteria and algae used for biofuel and biodegradation of emerging contaminants in waste water and risk assessment. Metagenomics of microbes from Pangong lake, caves and lysimeter performed for environmental management, pesticide degradation and nutrient management. He published more than 200 research papers in peer reviewed journals, 4 patents and 26 Ph.D. students completed Ph.D. under his supervision.

I have completed my PhD at the age of 29 years from TUNIS University. Actually, I have a postdoctoral in the The Research and Technology Center for Energy, The Thermal Processes Laboratory, Hammam Lif, Tunis, Tunisia. I have published 7 papers in reputed journals.

Carla Duarte-Nass is Civil Industrial Engineer and Master of Philosophy degree in Engineering Sciences with Specialization in Biotechnology from La Frontera University in Temuco, Chile. Currently, she is student of the Program of Doctorate in Engineering Sciences with Specialization in Bioprocesses in the same university. Before she started her doctorate studies, she worked for 4 years in the Research and Development Department of Procesos Naturales Vilkun S.A., a berry dehydrating company, developing new technology related with freeze-drying. Now, she is working on a project related with heavy metal bio-precipitation, particularly in copper removal of wastewater from mining industry. She had presented her work on three Chilean congresses and is co-author in the published article “Can Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) through a Ureolytic Pathway Be Successfully Applied for Removing Heavy Metals from Wastewaters?” (doi.org/10.3390/cryst8110438). Carla grew up in Temuco and loves teaching and make research in food and environmental subjects.

Parmjit Singh is working a Graduate Engineer Trainee in Central Institute of Hand Tools (MSME Tool Room, Jalandhar) Govt of India. He received his Master of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Lovely Professional University at Jalandhar in 2015. During the past decade his work has focused upon developing cost-effective methods for reducing cost of production of Alternative Fuel. He has two years experience in heat treatment and his area of interest including Heat Treatment and Alternative fuel.

Dr. Debabrata Das has pioneered the promising R&D of Bioenergy production processes by applying fermentation technology. He is actively involved in the research of hydrogen biotechnology for a period of last twenty years. His recent work on biohythane process for the maximization of gaseous energy recovery from the organic wastes is worth mentioning. He has 6 books, 150 research publications in the peer reviewed journals (h-index 48) and 36 chapters in the books published by International publishers. He has two Indian patents. Recently, he successfully demonstrated 10 m3 biohydrogen pilot plant study for the commercial exploitation of biohydrogen production process. He IAHE Akira Mitsui Award in 2008 and BRSI Malaviya Memorial award (for senior faculty) in 2013 for his biohydrogen research work. He is the member of the editorial board of International Journal of Hydrogen Energy;Indian Journal of Biotechnology; Biotechnology for Biofuels; The Open Microalgae Biotechnology Journal; INAE Letters

Sebastian Zapata is a system engineer and PhD in computer science. He holds his PhD in Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and he made a research stay in Imperial College London during 6 months in which he studied the Argentine electricity market. He has also been involved in outbreak investigations of Colombian, Brasil and UK electricity. He has papers in Energy Policy, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Energy, Energies and Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments. Daniel grew up in a small town in Colombia and he likes to play basketball and play videogames.

Sarvar Hussain Nengroo received his B.Tech. degree in Electrical and Renewable Energy Engineering from the Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Currently, he is a graduate student at Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea. His research interests include renewable energy aggregation, smart microgrids, power system protection, power electronics, and intelligent control for high-power electronics applications.

Dr. Gerson P. Almeida is Associate professor at University of Ceará State, on the Brazil’s most impoverished region. His main experience is based on the use and development of cloud models to simulate precipitation processes taking in to account the influence of different aerosols background. He has been active in the area of numerical modelling of cloud microphysics since 2001 and currently he is developing two projects. The first one is dedicated to the development of cloud models to simulate rain. The main propose of this work is to test parameterization of mixed phase to be used in large scale models in cooperation with Brazilian center for weather forecasting and climate studies (CPTEC). The second area of interest is dedicated to study and characterize atmospheric aerosols and its ability to work as CCN over different regions of Brazil.