Ahmed Barhoum is the Head of the Nanostruc Research Group in the Chemistry Department at Helwan University. Dr. Barhoum obtained his Ph.D. and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Sciences at the Department of Materials and Chemistry (MACH) of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. His professional journey includes substantial experience in research institutions across various countries, including Ireland, Belgium, Germany, and France. He leads an interdisciplinary team focused on wet chemistry synthesis (nanoparticles imprinted polymers, polymers, and hydrogels) with applications in catalysis, drug delivery, and biosensing. Dr. Barhoum's academic excellence has been recognized with numerous awards, including Helwan University Prizes (2019-2023), the Irish Research Council Award (2020), a Chinese Academy of Sciences Fellowship (2019), Institut français d'Égypte Fellowships (2018 & 2020), Research Foundation Flanders Fellowships (2015 & 2016), Medastar Erasmus Mundus Fellowship (2012), Welcome Erasmus Mundus Fellowship (2012), and Gold Medals from the Egyptian Syndicate of Scientific Professions and Helwan University (2007). He serves as an expert evaluator for the National Science Centre (Poland), Czech Science Foundation (Russia), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, Switzerland), and Innovators Support Fund (ISF, Egypt), and acts as an examiner for the international students' research work in countries such as India, Pakistan, Australia, etc. Dr. Barhoum is on the editorial boards of Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Frontiers in Nanotechnology, Nanomaterials, and Frontiers in Materials, and has edited 12 handbooks published by Elsevier and Springer Nature. He has secured 15 research grants, acting as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on 10 funded projects and as a member of 8 additional projects. These grants have been awarded by various institutions, including ASRT & STDF (Egypt), CAS (China), JSPS (Japan), NSF & USAID (USA), SIM & FWO (Belgium), AGYA (Germany), and Imhotep (France). Dr. Barhoum has co-authored 170 papers (+10,000 citations) published in top-tier journals such as Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Applied Materials Today, Nanoscale, Carbohydrate Polymers, Materials Science and Engineering: C, and Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. His works have been highlighted in research, news articles, and journal covers. His handbook "Emerging Applications of Nanoparticles," published by Elsevier, has been featured on CNN, Forbes, and Inc. as one of the top nanostructure books of all time. Dr. Kalim Deshmukh, is a senior researcher at the New Technologies-Research Centre, University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic. He has over 20 years of research experience working with wide variety of nanomaterials, and polymeric materials, especially polymer blends, nanocomposites and nanohybrids for various applications. His research interest is mainly focused on the synthesis, characterization and property investigations of polymer nanocomposites reinforced with different nanofillers including various metal oxide nanoparticles and carbon based nanomaterials for energy storage, energy harvesting, gas sensing, EMI shielding and high-k dielectric applications. He has over 185 publications to his credit which were published with renowned international publications such as the The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), The American Chemical Society (ACS), Elsevier, Wiley, Springer and Taylor & Francis etc. Besides, he has edited/co-edited over 25 books for Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-VCH, Wiley Scrivener, ACS and RSC publications.
