Academic Editors
The following people constitute the Editorial Board of Academic Editors for PeerJ Materials Science. These active academics are the Editors who seek peer reviewers, evaluate their responses, and make editorial decisions on each submission to the journal. Learn more about becoming an Editor.
Damien P. Debecker
Damien P. Debecker is Associate Professor at the UCLouvain (Belgium), teaching physical chemistry, process engineering, principles of biorefining, and industrial waste treatment. His research group aims at developing new heterogeneous catalysts and biocatalysts, paving the way to the design of more sustainable chemical processes. At the interface between green chemistry, materials chemistry, biochemistry and chemical engineering, his expertise lies in the preparation of innovative solid (bio)catalysts and in their evaluation in relevant reaction conditions. Catalyst preparation methods include the aerosol-assisted sol-gel, emulsion-templating, non-hydrolytic sol-gel, colloidal methods, enzyme immobilization. Targeted applications cover biomass upgrading, volatile organic compounds total oxidation, biocatalyzed organic synthesis, CO2 methanation, olefin metathesis, etc.
Matthieu J Verstraete
Professor of Physics, head of the nanomat group, quantum materials center (Q-MAT) of the CESAM research unit.
Chair of Steering Committee, European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility. Elected Fellow APS, Young Academy of Europe.
Laurence Weatherley
Laurence Weatherley is the Albert P Learned Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Kansas. Weatherley received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in Chemical Engineering for research on ion exchange kinetics in macroporous resins. He has published over 250 research papers, articles, conference papers and other contributions. Dr Weatherley is a chartered professional engineer (UK), is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, United Kingdom, and is a Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand. He also holds a visiting Professorship at the Lodz University of Technology, Poland. His research interests are in the area of environmental process engineering and green chemical engineeringwith a focus on the intensification of chemical reaction and separation processes involving liquid mixtures and solid/ liquid mixtures. Process intensification is the development of small, highly efficient methods of processing which take up less space, use smaller amounts of hazardous chemicals, and are suited to the application of new “green” chemistry.
Maura Pellei
Maura Pellei is Associate Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Camerino. In 1993 she graduated in biological science at the University of l′Aquila. She obtained her degree in chemistry in 2003 and her Ph.D. in chemical sciences in 2010 at the University of Camerino. Her research interests are in coordination
chemistry, bioinorganic systems, and metal-based drugs.
Biplab Joarder
He received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune in 2015 on functional properties of biomolecule-based coordination polymers. He was an AITF postdoctoral researcher with Prof. George Shimizu at the University of Calgary followed by a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at Kyushu University, Japan. His current research endeavors are focused on developing inorganic and organic hybrid porous materials for energy and environmental applications.
Jiang Cui
Dr. Cui is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research is focused on the development of electrode materials for energy storage applications. He is also interested in applying first-principles calculations and in-situ TEM to study the thermodynamics and kinetics of battery materials.
Patrick S Barber
My professional goals center around the intertwined areas of research and education within science. I am passionate about discovering new science that addresses global needs and sharing these discoveries with a broad audience. I'm committed to technical excellence and exploration in the laboratory and enjoy learning new techniques that increase the breadth of my interdisciplinary background. As a scientist and educator, I want to promote the power of the scientific method through discussion of scientific literacy across disciplines and increase the general awareness of the importance of critical thinking. I seek to develop a balance between my professional life and my personal life in order to maintain a well-rounded view which will result in increased communication, productivity, and organizational skills, as well as to being open to new ideas and cultures, and, ultimately, to contribute to my community and society.
Valentin O Rodionov
Prof. Valentin Rodionov began his undergraduate studies in 1997 at the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2000, after moving to the United States, he was accepted to the University of Maryland and promoted directly into the graduate program without having to complete an undergraduate degree. He earned his M.S. in 2002 and enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.
At Scripps Dr. Rodionov worked under the guidance of Profs. M.G. Finn and K.B. Sharpless. His thesis project was focused on mechanistic investigation of copper (I) catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition and provided the first glimpse of the inner workings of this most widely used "click" reaction (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, p. 2210; and J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, p. 12696).
As a postdoctoral fellow with Professor J.M.J. Fréchet at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Rodionov applied the powerful “click” chemistry approach to the development of enzyme-inspired catalytic polymers (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, p. 2570).
Since late 2010, Dr. Rodionov has been an Assistant Professor of Chemical Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. IN 2018, The group transitioned to Case Western Reserve University.
Prof. Rodionov’s research interests are broadly focused on catalysis with soft materials and chemistry of nonbenzenoid allotropes of carbon (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, p. 17999).
Sasanka Deka
Dr. Sasanka Deka is an Assistant Professor and joined the Department in June, 2010. He received his M.Sc. in Chemistry from Gauhati University, Guwahati in 2001 and Ph.D. degree from National Chemical Laboratory (NCL-Pune) in 2007. He has been awarded the TMS Foundation 2008 SHRI RAM ARORA AWARD, by the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), Warrendale, USA for his contribution and leadership in materials science. He then moved to National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL), CNR-INFM, Lecce, Italy and Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy for postdoctoral research in the nanochemistry research group of Dr. Liberato Manna. Dr. Deka has published more than 50 research papers in different international peer-reviewed journals and meetings, and also wrote 2 books and 1 book chapter published by international publisher. He has been awarded with DAE-BRNS Young scientist research award. His current research interest deals with synthetic nanochemistry, multifunctional hybrid nanocrystals, novel nanomaterials for energy conversion and energy storage applications.
Jian Zheng
Jian Zheng (郑剑) obtained his Ph.D in inorganic chemistry at Technical University of Munich (Germany) in 2014. He was a research scientist at Southwest University of Science and Technology (China) from 2015 to 2016. He worked as a postoc (2016-2019) and staff scientist (2019-2020) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (USA). Currently, he is a professor at Sichuan University in China. Research interests: Heterogeneous catalysis; In situ spectroscopic techniques; porous materials.
Aniruddha Adhikari
Dr. Adhikari is a highly accomplished Biochemist currently associated with University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), USA. Dr. Adhikari's research is focused on the development of nanohybrid drug delivery systems and nanomedicines for the treatment of chronic diseases. His particular focus was to explore the therapeutic potential of nanomaterials against chronic diseases where redox modulation plays a crucial role with an emphasis on their molecular mechanism of action including bio-molecular interactions, toxicity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Dr. Adhikari's seminal work on the chemoprevention of bilirubin encephalopathy has led to the discovery of a new and groundbreaking one-of-its-kind nanomedicine, which is currently under phase 2 clinical trial. His current research interest includes bacteriophage mediated nanotherapy and stimuli-responsive antibody conjugated nanomaterials.
Dr. Adhikari has received numerous prestigious national and international awards and grants for his research contributions. Most notable ones are Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award/Appreciation from the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Office of the President, Republic of India), DMM Travel Grant from Company of Biologists, UK, Nano-challenge Award, Indo-US and four GRC Travel Grants from Gordon Research Conference, USA.
Dr. Adhikari's research contributions are widely acknowledged, and in his short research career span of about seven years he has published more than 50 research articles in high-impact prestigious international peer-reviewed journals (h-index: 13, i-10 index: 17), filed 3 patents, delivered lectures in 16 international conferences. Additionally, he has twice served as the discussion leader at Gordon Research Seminar (GRS). He also serves as the Editorial Board member and reviewer of various journals.
Marco Evangelisti
I am a senior staff scientist at the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragón, within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and I am affiliated to the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Zaragoza.
I hold a Laurea (Bachelor’s degree) from the University of Camerino (1996) and a joint PhD degree awarded by the Universities of Leiden and Zaragoza (2001). I worked at the University of Leiden (2001–2004) and the CNR Institute of Nanoscience in Modena (2004–2009), before joining the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragón as a "Ramón y Cajal" CSIC Fellow. I tenured as a CSIC scientist in 2010, becoming senior scientist in 2017.
I am an experimental physicist with a keen interest in caloric materials and in the development of advanced instrumentation.