A dangerous optimist, Mashelkar is uniquely multifaceted. In 1998, this scientist received J.R.D. Tata Corporate Leadership Award, an exclusive honour reserved for Indian Corporates. In 1998, he was also elected Fellow of Royal Society, the topmost honour reserved for world’s pathbreaking scientists. But then he also pioneered `Gandhian Engineering’ -`More from less for more people’ - catering to the needs of the poor. And why? Mashelkar says, as a poor boy, he studied under streetlights. He understands the pains of poverty. Mashelkar valiantly fought and revoked the wrong US patents on turmeric and Basmati rice based on India’s traditional knowledge. But to US multinationals, he licensed patents based on modern knowledge of Indian laboratories, pioneering the trend of reverse transfer of technology. He is a Director on boards of India’s leading companies, from Tatas to Reliance. 38 global universities have bestowed honorary doctorates upon him. The Government’s trust in him shows through the twelve high-powered Mashelkar Committees, many of them on contentious issues. As its leader, Mashelkar transformed CSIR, the world’s largest chain of laboratories-heralded as one of the top ten achievements of Indian Science & Technology in the 20th century. He has received Padmavibhushan at the hands of President of India and Star of Asia at the hands of George Bush (Sr), former US President.

Dr Dominique Bernard is the research director and scientific leader at ICMCB-CNRS. Dr Bernard research interests includes X-ray computed micro tomography (XCMT) to characterise 3D microstructure of multi materials, to understand and quantify their modifications in time and to perform realistic numerical simulations of the coupled phenomenon occurring during those modifications. The group that he heads covers a domain going from data acquisition (using synchrotron or micro focus laboratory micro tomograph), data treatment (artefacts correction, filtering, 3D reconstruction, 3D registration) and data analysis (3D visualisation, 3D image analysis) to numerical modelling and numerical models development (change of scale methods, effective properties calculation, direct numerical modelling at the pore scale). Through a large number of industrial and academic projects, a great variety of materials have been studied: polymer foams under dynamic loading, aluminium alloys during solidification, ceramics during sintering, concrete during leaching, carbonate rocks during reactive percolation, ferroelectric composites.

Research at ICMCB mainly concerns chemistry, physico-chemistry and physics of materials. The objective is to conceive, prepare, process and characterize materials in order to discover, control and optimize specific functionalities linked to the intrinsic qualities of the materials but also to surfaces and interfaces attributes. All scales from molecules, nano materials and mono crystals to massive multi-materials are considered. At ICMCB a large variety of physical, physico-chemical and chemical techniques of characterization are operational. Modelling, numerical simulation and visualisation are taking an increasing place in the research projects in close relationship with experiments. ICMCB is a multidisciplinary institute having strong partnership with physicists, geologists, biochemists and physicians in France and abroad.

Born 1966 in Potenza, Italy, studied Nuclear Engineering (1989), and successively Physics (1998) at the University of Bologna, Italy. He got his Ph.D. in Materials Science at the University of Ancona, Italy, in 1997 working on residual stress analysis in welds of several metallic alloys. He worked as a Post-Doctorate in the UK, in Germany, and in France, working on residual stress analysis and mechanical properties of metals and ceramics. He then moved to industry (Corning Incorporated), where he worked first as the head of the Physical, Mechanical and Structural Characterization Group in France and then as a project leader in the United States. He is head of the Division 8.5 Micro NDT at BAM and Professor at the University of Potsdam as of 2012. His research interests are focused on the use of microstructures determined by computed tomography for the determination of mechanical properties and damage mechanisms of composites and ceramics.

Professor Muruganant is a Commonwealth fellow and a doctorate from University of Cambridge, UK. Having worked with some of the most prestigious research institutes across the globe, his contributions in the field of structure-property correlation, understanding of the components of high temperature creep strength of ferritic steels have benefitted the scientific community. His contributions have benefitted corporate Jaints like ABB Sweden, Siemens Westinghouse corporation USA, ESAB Sweden and the like. Prof. Muruganant has a great passion for research, academia and technology. His contributions have been recognized through various publications in peer-reviewed Journals, invitation for keynote lectures in premier conferences across the globe. His models for structure-property correlation were the first in world to predict properties of steel as required by commercial standards. He has implemented modules through computational methods that have saved several million dollars in steel plants. He is the founder Chairman of the major International Conferences series in Materials like FiMPART (Frontiers in Materials Processing, Applications, Research and Technology) and FiNSTA (Frontiers in Nanoscience, Technology and Applications). He served as the Ministry of Steel Chair Professor having selected by the Ministry of Steel and Mines, Govt. of India as one of the Chair Professors from PSG College of Technology a 100 year old institute whose Design data book is used by all engineering fabricators in India and elsewhere. It is worthy to note that he is the youngest Chair Professor in the history of this Chair position - a befitting reward for his sustained and positive contribution to education, research and industry alike. He also served as the director of the Steel Academics, Research and Consultancy Center (SARCC). He is an expert consultant selected by ORC International (earlier Intoda) USA. He is the Editor in Chief of Steel communications and Editor in Chief of the FiMPART Series Book published by Springer. He currently serves as the Vice Chancellor of Indus University, Ahmedabad.