Claudio Paoloni Editor

Dr. Thomas is the vice–chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. He is also currently designated as the director of the School of Energy Materials. He is the founder director of the International and Inter-university Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and a professor of polymer science and engineering at the School of Chemical Sciences and the International and Inter-university Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, India. He is an outstanding leader with sustained international acclaim for his work in polymer science and engineering, polymer nanocomposites, elastomers, polymer blends, interpenetrating polymer networks, polymer membranes, green composites and nanocomposites, nanomedicine, and green nanotechnology. Dr. Thomas’s ground-breaking inventions in polymer nanocomposites, polymer blends, green bionanotechnological and nano-biomedical sciences, have made transformative differences in the development of new materials for automotive, space, housing, and biomedical fields. Very recently, Prof. Thomas has been conferred Honoris Causa (DSc) by the University of South Brittany, Lorient, France. Professor Thomas has published over 1,300 peer reviewed research papers, reviews, and book chapters. He has co-edited 150 books and is the inventor of 15 patents. Prof. Claudio Paoloni is the Head of the Engineering Department at Lancaster University and is a Professor of Electronics. He is author of more than 230 articles in international journals and conference proceedings in the field of high-frequency electronics, vacuum electronics, and wireless communications. He holds three patents. He is a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Vacuum Electronics Technical Committee of the IEEE Electron Devices Society. He is Coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project TWEETHER and of the H2020 ULTRAWAVE. He was Chair of the Technical Programme Committee of the International Vacuum Electronics Conference 2017 (IVEC) held in London, 24-26 April 2017. He was General Chair of "2nd Toward Terahertz Communication Workshop", Brussels, March 2019. He was General Chair of the workshop "From Evolution to Revolution, a roadmap for beyond 5G" at 2019 IEEE 2nd 5G World Forum (5GWF'19) in Dresden, Germany. Avinash R. Pai is a full-time doctoral student at the International & Inter-University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. He received his Bachelor's degree (B.Tech) in Polymer Engineering from Mahatma Gandhi University and held a Master's degree (M.Tech) in Polymer Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. His research was funded under the auspices of Visvesvaraya Ph.D. Scheme instituted by Digital India Corporation, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India. As a part of his doctoral research, he was also a visiting researcher at Lancaster University, UK, under the Newton Bhabha Ph.D. Placement Programme, which was funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Newton Bhabha Fund. His research interests include the development of flexible polymer nanocomposites for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shielding applications.