Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Ravindra Pogaku
University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Malaysia.
Keynote: Frontiers in Chemical Engineering for Sustainable Earth
Time : 10:00-10:40
Biography:
Ravindra Pogaku has diverse and intense, yet rewarding experiences in teaching, research, industry, executive and administrative fields spanning over 35 years. He has an expertise in the area of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology. At present, his research group is focused on green economy, green processes and products. He was a Visiting Professor at Pennsylvania State University and Visiting Scientist at Cornell University. He has received Gold and Silver medals for his research contributions in the Green Energy and Green Engineering Fields. He was a UNESCO consultant on sustainable energy projects. He is a consultant for many renewable and green based industries. He has published more than 200 papers in referred journals and proceedings. He has edited and authored books and articles related to green technologies. He has reviewed thousands of journal manuscripts for reputed international journals. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board Member, guest editor and reviewer for multiple referred journals. He focuses on developing green engineering and technology with different renewable feedstocks for sustainable development of the society.
Abstract:
The world has already warmed nearly 1ºC since the beginning of the industrial age. Global temperatures and sea levels have continued to rise, and the Earth has seen an extraordinary run of extreme weather, including rising sea levels, severe droughts, melting ice caps and storms. Mankind has made transitions intervening in the earth environment dangerously by inventing new technologies for their own livelihood. In this process, dynamic equilibrium between earth and nature is highly disturbed. There are brainstorming sessions on global warming in political forums, science deliberations by various stakeholders in international events particularly on petrochemical industry, value added chemicals, bioprocess technology, energy security and energy independence, etc. The future of our planet earth and people is in our hands to save present and future generations from an overheated planet earth. We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change on the planet earth and the last generation we can do something for earth. If we want to safeguard earth and our children’s health, we have to do more that chemical engineering science tells us. 100 years of chemical engineering history tells us that, it is the chemical engineers, who are always been at the forefront in commercialization of the sustainable technologies for the planet earth. By definition, chemical engineers scale up new chemical reactions from the test tube to develop and design plants, producing millions of product at an affordable price to a common man. The capabilities of chemical engineers are proven time and again as they always stood up to the challenges in developing process technology and products whenever there was a need for the humanity. Our chemical engineers are the trend setters in leading Renaissance of the sustainable planet earth. Therefore, it is presumed that with the help of proven track record the “Earth Renaissance” to sustainability is imperative with chemical engineers. Many case studies shall be highlighted along with sharing knowledge on cutting edge technologies to maintain dynamic equilibrium between nature and earth.
Keynote Forum
Suzanne Giasson
Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada
Keynote: Stimuli-Responsive and Nanostructured Polymer Films for Modulating Surface Properties: Fabrications, Applications and Limitations
Time : 11:00-11:40
Biography:
Suzanne Giasson has done her Post-doctoral research in Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA in the year 1995 and PhD in Physical-Chemistry from Université Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris. She has done her MSc in Chemical Engineering, Laval University (1990) and BSc in Chemical Engineering from Laval University (1988). She has expertise in surface forces, surface chemistry, soft matter, polymers, colloids, nanotribology, nanorheology and biomaterials. Her research interest focuses on controlling surface properties of a wide variety of materials ranging from biological systems (membranes and cells) to synthetics (drug carriers and smart materials) and complex fluids (colloids) using chemical and physical modifications of surfaces.
Abstract:
Whenever one material moves against another, some energy can be lost due to friction. That energy is transferred into unwanted heat, deformation, or reduction in the material’s lifetime. Friction depends on the characteristics of surfaces (i.e. surface energy, roughness and elasticity) and also on the medium the surfaces are immersed in or in contact with. A number of experimental studies have shown that polymer coatings can be efficiently used to control friction and adhesion between surfaces. Polymer coatings have properties and responsiveness that are contingent on the chemical composition, size and shape of structure, elasticity. However, they are generally suffering from major shortcomings such as lack of responsiveness selectivity and reversibility, poor environmental stability and limited understanding of the structure–function relationship, which are all critical to design reliable rules for building responsive or self-lubricating surfaces. Experimental surface forces studies of different classes of solvated polymer-bearing surfaces carried out using the surface forces apparatus and similar molecular techniques will be presented in order to elucidate the responsiveness mechanism and the structure–property relationship between polymer-coated surfaces in aqueous media. Conclusive understanding is still hampered by the difficulty of systematically controlling the grafting density, surface roughness and the location of slipping plane. Nevertheless, different studies suggest that the effective lubrication mechanisms involve the facility with which macromolecules under compression remain hydrated and hold a significant amount of water at the surfaces to be lubricated.