Aqueous Microwave Assisted Chemistry: Synthesis and Catalysis

Dr Vivek Polshettiwar was born in Mangli (India) in 1979. He obtained his Ph.D. (2005) under the supervision of Prof. M. P. Kaushik from Jiwaji University and DRDE, Gwalior. He investigated nanostructured silica-catalysis, with Prof. J. J. E. Moreau and Prof. P. Hesemann in 2006 during his postdoctoral research at ENSCM, Montpellier (France). He also worked as project leader in Jubilant Chemsys, Noida for short time.. Then he moved to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (2007-2009) to research nano-catalysis and MW-assisted new synthetic methods for green chemistry with Prof. R. S. Varma. Currently, he is working as senior research scientist at KAUST catalysis center directed by Prof. J. M. Basset. His research interests are in the area of advanced nano-materials for perfect catalysis. He has over 50 publications including various review articles and book chapters. Prof. Rajender S. Varma was born in India (Ph.D., Delhi University 1976). After postdoctoral research at Robert Robinson Laboratories, Liverpool, UK, he was a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine and Sam Houston State University prior to joining the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1999. He has over 35 years of research experience in management of multi-disciplinary programs that include nanomaterials and development of environmentally friendlier alternatives for synthetic methods using microwaves, and ultrasound etc. He has published over 300 scientific papers and has been awarded 6 US Patents.