Dr. Eswaraiah Chinthapudi obtained his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from S.V. University, Tirupati, and subsequently received his M.Tech. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Indian Institute of Technology Madras, respectively. Prior to joining CSIR-IMMT as a scientist, he worked as a project officer at IIT Madras in a BHEL sponsored project. He worked as a CSIR-Quick Hire Fellow during the year 2006-2007 at CSIR-IMMT. Currently, he is a senior principal scientist in the Mineral Processing Department at CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, and a professor of Engineering Sciences, AcSIR. He has more than 15 years of R&D and teaching experience in the area of mineral processing. During his tenure, he has been involved in several projects as a project leader/team member and made commendable contributions to the mineral and metallurgical process industries. He has developed several beneficiation processes for low-grade ore fines and slimes, which has led the industries to produce the quality of raw materials required for steel production. He has published over 50 research articles in national/international journals and conferences to his credit. His area of specialization is advanced particulate processing, modelling, and simulation. In recognition of his outstanding contributions in particulate processing, he has been awarded several prestigious awards from various organizations/professional societies. He is a fellow of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (FIIChE), a fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) (FIE), and a member of several professional societies. He was awarded Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Fellowship to work at CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia, for one year. He also worked as a senior researcher at the University of Lorraine, Nancy, France, for 12 months. Currently, he is working on an energy-efficient dry beneficiation process development to treatthe low-grade ores, slimes. He has significant exposure and experience in equipment design. He designed and developed an indigenous advanced computer monitored twin-pendulum device, a unique facility in India for online determination of actual breakage energy during grinding. At present, Dr. Eswaraiah and his team are designing an indigenous energy-efficient stirred mill to treat the Indian low-grade ores. Prof. Suddhasatwa Basu completed Ph.D./M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, after obtaining B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Calcutta University. He worked for five years as a research fellow and as a visiting faculty at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Prior to taking over as the director of CSIR-IMMT, he was an associate dean (research development) and a former head of Chemical Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He has vast work experience in developing energy materials and their application to energy conversion and storage devices, e.g., fuel cells, supercapacitors and batteries, electrolyser for hydrogen generation by water splitting, and CO2 reduction to organics. He worked on Oil-Sands Extraction at Alberta, Canada, specializing in slurry transport and separation of oil and sands. Earlier, he also worked on Colloids and Interfacial Phenomena, particularly on de-emulsification and removal dye from wastewater. He has published over 200 papers in high-impact journals (H-index 38), holds 7 patents, successfully transferred 2 technologies to various industries, and completed Rs 20 Crore worth of projects at IIT Delhi. He is a fellow of Indian Academy Engineering, National Academy of Science of India, fellow of Royal Soc. Chem. U.K., fellow of International Association of Advanced Materials, received Herdillia Award - Excellence in Basic Research in Chemical Engineering, Dr. A. V. Rama Rao Foundation's Research Award in Chemical Engineering/Technology. He is an editor/associate editor/editorial board member of several international journals published by Willey, Springer, Elsevier, and ACS. Prof. Bhaskar N. Thorat completed graduate and postgraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from ICT-Mumbai. He later received his Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from ICT-Mumbai under the guidance of Padmabhushan Professor J.B. Joshi. He worked under multiple renowned mentors, namely Prof. Arun S. Mujumdar, Prof. M.M. Sharma, and Prof. G.D. Yadav. He started his career at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, as a scientist. Then, he worked as a senior lecturer in Chemical Engineering at ICT, Mumbai, and was later appointed as a professor of Chemical Engineering Department at the Institute of Chemical Technology/ UDCT, Mumbai (2006-2018). Meanwhile, he also served as the head of Department, Dept. of Chemical Engineering from 2015-2018, at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. Since August 2018, he has been appointed as the director of a newly established Odisha off-campus of ICT, supported by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). He has over 30 years of experience in developing grass root and sustainable technologies based on the fundamentals of chemical engineering products and allied branches. He has had more than 250 consultancy assignments in the last 20 years. He has authored more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and international proceedings and has co-authored and edited more than 10 monographs. He also holds more than 10 patents, with 100% commercialization. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Indian Chemical Society. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Drying and Dehydration, 2019, by Taylor and Francis. He also received several renowned awards such as NOCIL AWARD for excellence in the design of new equipment and process in 2015, Gunther Oertel Startup Innovation Award for Microbutor Innovation in 2017, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award of USD 260,000 for Innovative Dryers in 2013, etc.
