Handbook of Membrane Separations (ePub)

Mumbai. He is serving as Secretary, Indian Association Nuclear Chemist and Allied Scientist, Tarapur chapter since 2008. He has delivered several keynote/plenary/invited talk in national and international conferences. He has also served as chairman of the different sessions in conference in India and abroad .

Dr. Ranil Wickramasinghe has published over 200 peer reviewed journal articles, several book chapters and is co-editor of a book on responsive membrane and materials. He is active in the American Institute of Chemical Engineeers and the North American Membrane Society. He is executive editor of Separation Science and Technology. Prof Wickramasinghe's research interests are in membrane science and technology. His research focuses on synthetic membrane-based separation processes for purification of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, treatment and reuse of water and for the production of biofuels. Typical unit operations include: microfiltration, ultrafiltration, virus filtration, nanofiltration, membrane extraction etc. A current research focus is surface modification of membranes in order to impart unique surface properties. His group is actively developing responsive membranes. These membranes change their physical properties in response to changed environmental conditions. A second research focus is the development of catalytic membranes for biomass hydrolysis by grafting catalytic groups to the membrane surface. Prof Wickramasinghe obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia in Chemical Engineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of Minnesota, also in Chemical Engineering. He worked for 5 years in the biotechnology/biomedical industry in the Boston area before joining the faculty of Chemical Engineering at Colorado State University. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas in 2011 where he holds the Ross E Martin Chair in Emerging Technologies and is an Arkansas Research Alliance Scholar.

Ana Maria Sastre is a professor of Chemical Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), where she has been teaching Chemistry for more than 40 years. She received the Ph.D. from Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1982 and has been working for many years in the field of solvent extraction, solvent impregnated resins and membrane technology and adsorption processes. She was a visiting fellow at Department of Inorganic Chemistry, The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, during 1980-1981 and carried out postdoctoral research work during October 1986-April 1987 at Laboratoire de Chimie Minerale, de l'Ecole Europeenne des Hautes Etudes des Industries Chimiques d'Estrasbourg, France. During 2015 she was Fulbright visiting scholar at Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of California, Berkeley. Prof. Sastre has published more than 200 journal publications and more than 80 papers in international conferences. She holds 7 patent applications. She has advised 13 Ph.D. students and 16 master theses and is a reviewer of many international journals. She was awarded the "Narcis Monturiol medal for scientific and technological merits" given by the Generalitat de Catalunya for outstanding contribution in science and technology in 2003. Prof. Sastre has been the head of the Chemical Engineering Department from 1999 till 2005 and from 2006 till 2013 has been Vicepresident for Academic Policy of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.