Organizing Committee Member
Dr. Aman Ullah
Associate Professor
University of Alberta
Canada
Biography
Since their introduction at the beginning of the 20th century, the global production of petroleum-based plastics has continuously been increasing. It is almost impossible to imagine our future without the use of the plastics. Polymers have applications in very different areas such as packaging, automotive, aerospace, construction, electronics, medical, and other industrial fields. In the recent years, the development of the polymer nanocomposites has further improved their properties and broadened their applications. More recently, due to depleting petroleum resources and environmental concerns, the research efforts have been directed towards the utilization of the polymeric material from biodegradable and renewable resources as an environment friendly and sustainable alternative for the plastic production. However, the development of the enabling technologies to transform renewable resources into monomers and biopolymers and improvements in their physical properties are among the most pressing challenges and extremely important to be addressed for these materials to be used in wide range of applications. Exploitation of nanotechnology in the field of biopolymers is an emerging and cutting-edge research with future potential to address challenges to the bio-based polymeric materials.
Research Area
synthesis of monomers, biopolymers, nano-engineered biopolymers, nano-biocomposites and bioconjugates from renewable lipid resources for various applications. More specifically the research is focussed on: (1) the development of renewable monomers from lipids and preparation of biopolymers and biopolymer based nanocomposites for high performance industrial applications, (2) utilization of lipid and protein biopolymers for the preparation of bioconjugates and nano-structured biomaterials for water remediation and biodegradable packaging, (3) modification of lipids for therapeutic and cosmetic applications.