Prof. Manish M Pande's research interests include secondary steelmaking, clean steel production (steels containing low non­metallic inclusions), thermodynamics of steel refining reactions and simulating high temperature equilibrium experiments at a laboratory scale. He has set­up a clean steel laboratory, at Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science department (MEMS), IIT Bombay. Before joining MEMS, IIT Bombay, Prof. Pande has worked full­time in research and development departments of steel industries in India (Essar Steel Ltd.) and (Tata steel Europe/MPI) UK. His total industrial experience is nearly 7 years. During his doctoral (KU Leuven, Belgium) and post­ doctoral (MU Leoben, Austria) studies, he worked in collaboration with ArcelorMittal Gent and voestalpine, Linz respectively, on the steelmaking projects. At present, his research group has been working on the experimental and thermodynamic analysis of high alloy steels. Prof. Pande is also interested in developing new alloy steels and new materials such as metallic foams.

Prof. Jayasree Biswas’s research interests are mainly in the area of high­temperature kinetic studies for both ferrous and nonferrous systems (both experimental and mathematical modelling) and metal recycling. During her Masters, she worked on developing dynamic model for BOF steelmaking process, where she developed a dephosphorization model based on the thermodynamics and reaction kinetic principles[1]. The model was able to capture the P reversion phenomenon with blowing time in the steelmaking. During her Ph.D., she worked on decarburization kinetics of liquid Fe­C droplets in oxidizing slag, of various electrical conductivities. Her experimental work was mainly focused on capturing the compositions relevant to HISARNA process(Tata Steel Europe). She identified the enhancement of decarburization kinetics with increasing slag electrical conductivity, due to faster oxygen transport. She also developed a kinetic model to predict the oxygen transport kinetics[2]. Her studies also revealed the influence of competitive adsorption (O,S) on refining reaction kinetics at slag/metal interface. During her post­doctoral research, she explored the area of battery recycling and investigated the sulfation roasting­water leaching route for selective extraction of metals from various battery scraps and successfully extracted 99% Li from LIB (LCO) black mass and 65% REEs from NiMH scrap[3]. Apart from that, she also explored the molten oxide electrolyte route for ferrochrome production from chromite pellets and briefly worked on carburization of HDRI pellets. Currently, at IIT Bombay, she is continuing working in both the areas of metal refining and metal recycling.

Prof. Deepoo Kumar’s research interests are in the experimental and computational studies related to extraction and processing of metals. His experimental work includes reduction of hematite pellets using hydrogen, steel refining, steel­slag and slag­refractory interactions, inclusion characterization, processing of electronic waste 4 and quenching of steel. Laboratory and characterization facilities include atmosphere­controlled induction furnace, high temperature confocal laser scanning microscope 2 and SEM­based automated inclusion analysis. He has developed kinetic models for ladle refining 1 , RHdegassing and BOF process using FactSage macro. These models can predict changes in steel and slag composition during steel production. In addition, ladle refining and RH­degassing models can calculate changes in inclusion composition and amount with time as well. He works in close collaboration with major steel producers of the country on experimental, modeling and characterization related problems. Some examples are as follows: heat transfer model for a bell annealing furnace for Theis Precision Steel 3 , static models for BOF and EAF to perform sustainability studies for Tata Steel. He is currently working with JSW on developing ASPEN+ model for iron and steelmaking plant to find a balance between cost and CO2 emission. He has conducted workshops on FactSage and clean steel production.

Prof. Bhattacharyya’s research interests are in the area of ‘ProcessingStructure­Property’ relationship studies in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene based polymer nanocomposites, wherein he has addressed the challenge of nanomaterial dispersion in polymer matrix. In this context, he has developed a novel organic dispersant to disperse agglomerate free nanomaterials in various polymer matrices, which could establish an adequate interfacial interaction between the polymer matrix and the nanomaterials. The method was extremely innovative and was adopted to commercially viable polymer processing technique viz. melt­mixing to prepare electrically conducting polymer nanocomposites of very high strength, modulus and thermal stability. Currently, he is working extensively on graphene, CNTs, h­BN, MoS2 based PVDF nanocomposites for piezoelectric applications. Prof. Bhattacharyya has collaborated with DMSRDE, Kanpur (DRDO laboratory) to develop melt­spun CNTs based polypropylene nanocomposite fibers. Further, he has also collaborated with Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai to develop electrically conducting