Keynote Speaker I
Prof. Dr.Manickam MAHENDRAN
Dr.M.Mahendran is the head of the smart materials research group in Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. He has awarded with the BOYSCAST fellowship award by the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi for doing advanced research work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has done his post doc in Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and he has worked as a visiting scholar in Okayama University, Japan. He is the recipient of the several sponsored research projects supported by various funding agencies including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi. He has served as the potential reviewer in various international journals. His research interests are focused on the Synthesis, characterization and processing of microstructuremagnetomechanical properties nanostructured magnetic materials (Nickel, Iron, cobalt), ferromagnetic shape memory alloys (FSMA) (Ni-Mn-Ga, Ni-Fe-Ga, Ni-Mn-Al) and FSMA composites (Ni-Mn-Ga/PU, Ni-Mn-Ga/MRF), Acoustic attenuation in FSMA. He has published 50 plus refereed papers and presented his findings in various conferences of International repute. He has designed new experimental set up to measure acoustic attenuation which has not been attempted by any other group.
Dr.M.Mahendran has organised an International Conference on Smart Materials which has witnessed 400 plus participants from around the globe. A short course on ‘smart materials’ has been conducted by him for the benefit of students and young researchers. He has delivered ‘invited talk’ in various places/Conferences including S.N.Bose National Institute for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He has addressed the students of various colleges to popularise ‘smart materials’ research. Dr.M.Mahendran has mediated the Nobel Lecture on “Is warm glass stickier than cold glass” delivered by Prof. Dr. Eric A. Cornell, the Nobel Laureate in Physics 2001.
Dr.M.Mahendran has designed new courses “MT 31 Smart Materials and Structures, MT 21 Materials Science for M.Sc and D25 Applied Materials Science for B.E. Currently he is holding the memberships in Institute of Smart Structures and Systems (ISSS), Magnetics Society of India (MSI), Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Indian Physics Association (IPA), Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT). He was an associate member in the Institution of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and was an annual member in Materials Research Society (MRS). Dr.M.Mahendran has served the Anna University Tirunelveli in the capacity as Chairman for various activities including the Board of Studies, Faculty of Technology. He has actively participated as organising committee member in several conferences including International tutorial on MEMS/ NEMS.
Keynote Speaker II
Dr KS Aithal Ph.D
Professor Dept of physics, Manipal Institute of Techology, India
As Head of the Dept for nine years, research officer four years, QA team for five yrs, member of senate, academic committee, member of research advisory committee, PhD scrutiny board, subject expert, examiner to site a few.
Member of Rotract, gave radio talk, popular talks to school and colleges, member in the community dental team in educating dental health care. Developed a medicinal garden containing 400 medicinal plants species for study and research purpose, established new research laboratories.
