Dr. Sergio C.  Trindade

Dr. Sergio Trindade is a globally recognized expert in fuels and sustainable energy, Dr. Trindade served as Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations for Science and Technology for 5 years and is a consultant to the UN, World Bank and many private/public  organizations on energy and environmental  and technology issues. Dr. Trindade is a co-laureate of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - IPCC. At International Fuel Technology, Inc. he provides strategic guidance and leadership in technology development and intellectual property rights. The company has pioneered a fuel efficiency enhancement technology built upon the interaction of surface phenomena and nanotechnology. He is a former Vice-President of Arthur D. Little International, Inc. and founder of the Promon Technology Center, the first private technology organization in Brazil. In addition to several committees, Dr. Sergio is the chairman of the International Society of Alcohol Fuels (ISAF) who never missed any of its 18 symposiums since 1976. Dr. Sergio earned BSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering with minors in international business and energy economics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT.

Dr. David E. Reisner is a 1978 University Honors graduate from Wesleyan University and received his Ph.D. at MIT in 1983 in the field of chemical physics.  He is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.  Dr. David Reisner is a cofounder and Director, and former Chairman and CEO (1996-2009) of The Nano Group, Inc and it’s subsidiary nanotechnology companies in Connecticut, Inframat^® and US Nanocorp.  He is an MIT-trained Ph.D.and has extensive background in energy storage and conversion, nanotechnology, and environmental technologies.  He manages Intellectual Property portfolios, export licensing, and forges strategic alliances with companies in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, India, and China.  David has over 175 publications and is an inventor on 11 issued patents.  He edited the Bionanotechnology section of the 3^rd Ed. of The BioMedical Eng. Handbook and edited the monograph Bionanotechnology : Global Prospects for Taylor & Francis Press (under contract to do a follow-on volume).  He has written articles on the business of nanotechnology in Nanotechnology Law & Business as well as the prestigious Chinese publication Science & Culture Review. David served a 3-year term as a Technology Pioneer for the World Economic Forum and was a panelist at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Davos and at the WEF Beijing Business Summits in 2004, 2005, and 2006 and the WEF Dalian event in 2007.  He also has been active on the Board of the Connecticut Venture Group and was Chairman of the Board of the Connecticut Technology Council (2007-2009).  He was a NASA NanoTech Briefs Nano50 awardee in 2006.  For his efforts in the field of medical implantable nanocoatings, Reisner won the 1^st annual BEACON award for Medical Technology in 2004. 

Dr. Thomas W. Ryan III is a mechanical engineer who began his career at Southwest Research Institute in 1979 after spending two years as an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Pennsylvania State University.  Over the past 35 years Dr. Ryan has specialized in the areas of engine, fuels and combustion technology.  He has performed both basic and applied combustion research in experiments involving very basic combustion processes and sophisticated diagnostics to actual internal combustion engine systems.  Much of his work has involved the application of the appropriate diagnostic techniques in experiments involving both real and simulated combustion environments, examining the effects of variation in fuel composition and conditions in the combustion environment.   He has for the past several years managed a large international consortium of engine manufacturers and suppliers focused on the development of advanced low emissions and high efficiency diesel engines.  Dr Ryan was the 2008 President of SAE International.  He retired from Southwest Research Institute in January 2010 and is currently managing his own consulting company.

 Dr. Tiancun Xiao received his Doctoral Degree of Chemistry from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993, and worked in Shandong University until 1999, China as the deputy Dean of Environmental Engineering Department later. Dr. XIAO is currently a senior research fellow in the University of Oxford, and a co-founder  and Senior Scientific Advisory of Oxford Catalysts plc, a spin-out company from Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University. He has a range of interests spanning natural gas combustion, hydrodesulfurisation, catalytic conversion of biomass, syngas gas production and conversion, flue gas purification and hydrogen generation through photocatalysis. Dr. Xiao has undertaken various research projects, and collaborated with Saudi Aramco, Sionpec, Schlumberger and BP.  He won the Carbon Trust Innovation Award in 2005 for his pioneering work on the biomethane conversion. He has industrialized 3 catalyst preparation processes, ranging from Fischer Tropsch synthesis, hydrodesulfurisation and industrial gas cleaning up. In particular, the Fischer Tropsch catalyst designed and developed by him can improve the liquid productivity by 10-20 times, which make it possible to recover the flare gas and convert biomass into super clean diesel economically.

Professor IshaqueKhan is the Director of the Materials and Chemical Synthesis Program, and Associate Dean of the College of Science and Letters at Illinois Institute of Technology.  He has over 25 years’ experience in academia, where he has been engaged in teaching, research, and related professional activities at national and international levels. Dr. Khan is leading a research program that concerns with nanoscience and nanotechnology, energy, environment, health, and sustainability. Currently, the emphasis of his research is on the design, development and property studies of advanced materials including nanomaterials for applications in chemical sensing, energy storage, and biomedical usage, and nanostructured catalysts for detection and removal of toxic gases from industrial exhaust and flue gas streams, selective oxidation (of hydrocarbons into useful industrial feed-stocks) and hydrotreating catalysis in petroleum refineries.  His research work has been published in the form of some 80 research papers in refereed top tier international journals, expert chapters and review articles in 5 Monographs, and 3 US Patents.  Dr. Khan has been active at the forefront of higher education and curriculum development. He pioneered the Professional Science Master’s Program in Materials and Chemical Synthesis, the first such program that combines modern materials’ design and synthesis strategies with innovative characterization techniques, computational & simulation methods, environmental regulations, project management, technical communication, and intellectual property management.

Dr. Valérie CAPS has a PhD from the University of Reading (United Kingdom, 2001) in material chemistry and catalysis. Valérie Caps was appointed Associate Research Scientist in Johnson-Matthey Technology Centre (Sonning Common, UK) and pursued post-doctoral studies in Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) with Nobel Prize K. Ziegler’s student Prof. H. Bönnemann. She joined CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research) in 2003 as a Full Research Scientist, leading a small research team in IRCELYON (Institut de recherches sur la catalyse et l’environnement de Lyon), which focused mainly on gold nanoparticles for oxidation catalysis, through French and international, academic and industrial collaborations. She was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal for this work in 2008. Involved in the IDECAT European Network of Excellence, she co-authored 35 publications, 45 oral communications and 2 patents. She moved to KAUST in 2009, where she is currently holding an Associate Research Scientist position in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Catalysis Center (KCC) headed by Prof. Jean-Marie Basset.

Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Swailem

 Dr. Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Swailem is an associate professor at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). Dr. Al-Swailem obtained his PhD in 1998 from Sheffield University in UK. His PhD thesis was entitled ‘Applications of Alteration and Maintenance of Generic Material”. Currently Dr. Al-Swailem is the Director for the “natural Resources and Environment Research Institute”, Chairperson for the “National Committee of Bio and Medical Ethics”, chairperson for the “International Governmental Bioethics Committee UNESCO. He also held a number of high profile positions including; Chairperson for the Biotechnology Research Center 200-2009, Chairperson for “Arab Committee of Ethics of Science and Technology” 2005-2009. Dr. Al-Swailem research experience covers a wide area including genetic modification of organisms, antibiotic resistant bacteria, classification and DNA fingerprinting and cloning. He authored and co-authored over 20 papers and a number of invited presentations. He has produced a number of reports and is the editor of a number of publications and has received numerous appreciation letters for his work.

Dr. Suheel Amin

Dr. Suheel Amin joined Saudi Aramco in 2007 and received a PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of Salford, UK. Suheel is a member of the Outlook & Insights Group within the Engineering Services Technology Management Division, providing timely, valuable technology insights and market outlook, as well as technology landscape mapping to the Engineering Services business line to support new and on-going projects in the oil and gas industry and also identifying technology opportunities that can be readily adopted and implemented within Saudi Aramco to deliver value and improve operations. Suheel comes to the oil and gas industry with a strong technical and commercial background in the nuclear industry where he provided decision analysis to support business planning, strategy development and construction of Value Propositions to identify key risks/uncertainties and alternatives.

Dr. Sunder Ramachandran

Dr. Sunder Ramachandran is a Technology Advisor for Baker Hughes Fluids & Chemicals at its central research facility in Sugar Land TX. He has been with Baker Hughes for over 14 years.  He is involved in developing corrosion inhibitors to prevent corrosion of low alloy carbon steels in a variety of challenging oil field environments. He has also been involved in the development of chemical methods for unloading liquids from gas wells, and iron sulfide elimination through hydrogen sulfide scavenging in the aqueous phase and the development of new hydrogen sulfide scavengers. Dr. Ramachandran was a post doctoral associate at the California Institute of Technology from 1994 to 1996. Dr. Ramachandran has doctorates in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State University and from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras. He obtained his BSc degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Dr. Ramachandran has 50 publications on a variety of subjects related to his research, and over 40 additional industry presentations and four US Patents.  He is a member of AIChE, SPE,  ACS, NACE.  Dr. Ramachandran is currently serving as the Technology Associate Coordinator of the S -Corrosion Science and Technology Committee of NACE.

Dr. Mohammed Gondal

Dr. Mohammed Gondal got his PhD from University of Bonn, Germany, 1983. He is currently a memeber in King Fahad University of Petroleum an Minerals (KFUPM) and he is main areas of interest are lasers, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, laser applications in nanotechnolgy (synthesis of nano materials), Plasma sources,  environment, development of laser based analytical techniques for materail characterization like Photoacoustic, LIBS, LIDAR(Remote Sensing),Optogalvanic, Laser enhanced ionization (LEI)  and laser induced photo-catalysis for Fuel cell, water purification, hydrocarbons and petrochemicals using nano materails, mineral exploration    and analysis of geological rocks which are in line with National strategic plan and the kingdom  needs. 

Dr. Zain Yamani

Dr. Zain Yamani got his PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1999). He is currently a memeber in King Fahad University of Petroleum an Minerals (KFUPM) as an associate Professor of Physics [Condensed Matter]. He is also the director of the  Center of Excellence in Nanotechnology and he is a board member of The Saudi Physics Society (SPS) 

Dr. Husam Alshareef

Dr. Husam Alshareef is an Associate Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). He holds a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University.   Following graduation from NC State in 1996, Dr. Alshareef worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Sandia National Laboratory for two years.  He then joined Micron Technology, where he worked on various aspects of semiconductor memory device fabrication.  In 2001, he joined Texas Instruments where he worked on several projects in microelectronic process development and integration.  The author of more than 135 articles, he has over 45 issued patents, and 80 international presentations.  His research has been funded by NSF, ARL, Texas Instruments, Texas Micropower, and the II-VI foundation, among others.  His research interests are in emerging electronic and nanoelectronic devices as well as energy harvesting and storage.  Dr. Alshareef is a senior member of the IEEE and is a member of the Materials Research Society. He has won numerous awards including the United Nations Undergraduate Fellowship, the Seth Sprague Physics Award, the NC State Dean’s Fellowship, the U.S. Department of Education Electronic Materials Fellowship, and the Sematech Corporate Excellence Award.

Dr. Bhabendra Pradhan

Bhabendra Pradhan PhD, CSO and Managing Partner.  Bhabendra is an experienced entrepreneur and nanotechnologist. Prior to joining Nanoholdings, he was the Director of the Novel Carbon and Fuel Cell Business for Columbian Chemicals Company where he developed two unique products lines – noble metal supported catalysts for fuel cells and carbon nano-materials.  Previously he was a consultant to Carbolex, a nanomaterials startup where he directed the program for electrode development for high yield single walled carbon nanotubes. He was also Senior Research Associate in the Energy Institute and Department of Physics at Penn State University, a Lecturer at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials at Tohoku University, Japan, and Research Fellow at the Institute of Technology in Delhi. Bhabendra received his PhD from the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India.

Dr. Manuel Quevedo-Lopez

Dr. Manuel Quevedo-Lopez is currently an associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. Prof. Quevedo received his B.S. (Chemistry) and M.S. (Materials Science) in Mexico and his PhD in Materials Science from the University of North Texas (2002).  In 2002 he joined Texas Instruments Silicon Technology Development Group as Member of Technical Staff (MTS). While at Texas Instruments he was appointed SEMATECH assigned from 2004-2006. At TI and SEMATECH he worked extensively in advanced gate stack materials for Si-based technology. In April 2007 He joined the University of Texas as Dallas as Research Professor and in September 2010 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Materials Science and Engineering Department in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. Prof. Quevedo has authored or co-authored over 110 publications in peer reviewed journals and proceedings and holds 10 US patents.  He is a member of the Materials Research Society and IEEE. His interests include materials and devices for flexible electronics, flexible non-volatile memory, large area sensors and novel nanostructured semiconductor, dielectrics and contacts for TFT and Energy applications.

Mr. Ahmed Al-Umair

Mr. Ahmed Al-Umair is a Sr. Engineering Consultant in the area of corrosion control and materials engineering.  He joined Saudi Aramco back in October 1979 and started his career working in SCECO Transmission and Distribution Projects and after two years he was transferred to work in Aramco’s Offshore Platforms Projects.   On May 1986, Ahmed elected to transfer to Engineering Services and he developed his career as a corrosion control and materials engineer with CSD.  Ahmed has handled many technical and management responsibilities during his 30 years of service and worked in several operating organizations such as Pipelines, RT Terminal, and NA Oil Operations.  Ahmed also continued to be very active in the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) as a member and officer.  He was the NACE West Asian/African Region Director during 1993 to 1994.  He also was the chairman of the 8^th Middle East Corrosion Conference that was held on 1998. In addition to his technical leadership role in Saudi Aramco, Ahmed is contributing to several National Research Centers. He is a member in the Board of Directors of KFUPM Center of Research Excellence in Corrosion and a member in the Advisory Committee of KSU Center of Excellence for Research in Engineering  Materials. He is also a member in KACST Advanced Material Program Committee

Dr. Joongmyeon Bae

Dr. Joongmyeon Bae holds PhD degrees from the Imperial College London, UK, in 1996. He has been an associate professor at the department of mechanical engineering in KAIST since 2002. From 1996 to 1999, he worked for Electrotechnical Lab.(currently AIST), Japan, where he developed new polymer electrolyte for PEMFC applications. From 1999 through 2002, he worked for Argonne National Lab., USA, where he carried out solid oxide fuel cell and fuel reformer development programs. He received the National Fuel Cell Research Award in 2000, R&D 100 award in 2001, Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellent in Technology Transfer in 2002.