Prashant M Bhatt Editor

Dr Yasser Azim is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Prior to his present position he completed is PhD in Chemistry from Department of Chemistry, Aligarh Muslim University in 2006, then joining University of Hyderabad and later on Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as DST Young Scientist in the research laboratory of Prof. G.R. Desiraju. His current research interests include, pharmaceutical cocrystals, metal organic frameworks, coordination polymers in the field of crystal engineering. In addition, Yasser’s laboratory is pursuing smart hydrogels and their biomedical and environmental application. His group has developed state of the art in mechanochemical synthesis of cocrystals and MOFs. Apart from research he is engaged in teaching of postgraduate and undergraduate students in the department and has served as member of various important administrative bodies of the university like elected member of the Academic Council of the University (2013-2015) and presently serving as program officer in National Service Scheme under Government of India. Sami-ullah Rather is a professor at the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 2008 from the School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Chonbuk National University, now Jeonbuk National University, S. Korea. He then joined as a postdoctoral research associate at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), S. Korea; Pennsylvania State University, USA; and Oklahoma University, USA. For the last 18 years, his research involved hydrogen storage studies of nanocrystalline metal and metal-CNT composites; complex metal hydrides and their composites for hydrogen storage applications; hydrogen and CO2 trapping in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), ionic liquids (ILs), and catalyst/MOFs composites; CNT functionalization and applications; ferrites and their composite synthesis and applications. He has more than 75 publications in high impact factor international journals. In addition, he served as an editor, academic editor, guest editor, and reviewer of many international journals and books. He ranked top 2% of scientists worldwide, published by Stanford University, USA, in Elsevier in 2021 and 2022. His current research interests focused on developing novel metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and ionic liquids for CO2 capture; synthesis, characterization, and energy storage of nanomaterials, highly porous materials, and composites; synthesis of ferrites and their composites applications. Dr Showkat Ahmad Bhawani is presently working as an Associate Professor at Department of chemistry, Faculty of Resource Science and Technology, UNIMAS Malaysia. In addition to this, he has a teaching experience of two years from King Abdul Aziz University- North Jeddah and a post-doctoral experience of Three years from the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. He has received his MSc in Analytical Chemistry and PhD in Applied Analytical Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. He is working on the synthesis of molecular Imprinting polymers for the removal/extraction of dyes, fungicides and various natural products from environmental and biological samples. In addition to this, he is also working on the development of new test methods and determining standard conditions for analysis (Separation, Isolation and Determination) of various analytes from environmental and biological samples. He is involved in the analysis of samples like: Surfactants, Amino acids, Drugs, Vitamins, Sugars and Metal ions. He has published 2 books and 13 book chapters and he has published more than 40 papers in various journals. He is life member of Asian polymer association and editorial board member of several journals. Dr Prashant M. Bhatt did his graduation and post-graduation in Chemistry from M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara. Later, he obtained his doctoral degree in Solid-state Chemistry from the University of Hyderabad. After Postdoctoral experience at the University of Stelleblsch, South Africa, Prashant moved to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. Currently, he is working as a Staff Scientist in the AMPM center, KAUST. Prashant is interested in developing new porous materials with interesting properties and applications with a special focus on adsorption and separation.