Dr. K. Annapurna is presently working as Chief Scientist at CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute and also serving as Professor at Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), an Institute of National Importance. She obtained her Ph.D. in 1993 followed by postdoctoral research at Sri Venkateswara University, India. She joined CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, India, in 1996, and since then, she is actively involved in the research and development of specialty glasses like Nd-doped phosphate laser glass for high power laser systems, infrared absorbing and infrared transmitting filter glasses, non-oxide chalcogenide glasses for thermal imaging applications, space grade optical glasses, including their process technology. Her basic research includes structure and property studies of rare earth/transition metal-doped glasses and transparent glass ceramics for photonic and energy applications. She has around 140+ publications in international and national journals of repute and 1 Indian and 6 international patents to her credit. She has served as Lab Coordinator for the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) at CSIR-CGCRI. For notable contributions in field of materials science and technology, she has been conferred with the R. L. Thakur Award for Young Scientists 1998.Dr. Atiar Rahaman Molla is presently working as Principal Scientist at the CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata, where he started his research career as Junior Scientist in 2001. He is also currently serving as Associate Professor of the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, New Delhi. He obtained his B.Tech. in Ceramic Technology from University of Calcutta and M.Tech. in Materials Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur prior to obtaining his Ph.D. in Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He worked at Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil as Visiting Scientist. His major areas of research interests includes specialty glasses and glass-ceramics, particularly on high-strength glasses and glass-ceramics, glass-ceramics for energy storage and photonics applications, chalcogenide glasses for diamond processing and thermal imaging applications and utilization of industrial wastes for synthesis of glasses and glass-ceramics. He has published more than 50 papers in international journals of repute, 6 granted patents in India, Germany, EU, Indonesia, Turkey and China, one Malaysian patent is pending, contributed 2 book chapters.
