Vijay Kumar Thakur

Dr Vijay Kumar Thakur is an Indian Scientist in the field of biorefining, polymer chemistry, nanotechnology, chemical engineering, manufacturing engineering, and materials science and engineering.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] His main area of focus is application oriented related to biomaterials, biorefining, polymers, nanocomposites, energy, functional materials, remediation, sensors, aerospace as well as all aspects of sustainable, and advanced materials fields.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Thakur is the book series editor for "Materials Horizons: From Nature to Nanomaterials (Springer Nature)" [9] Gels Horizon: From Science to Smart Materials (Springer) [18][19] and Polymers and Fibers (Elsevier).[20] Prior to commencing in the School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing at Cranfield University, Vijay Kumar Thakur was working as a Staff Scientist in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University, U.S.A.[21][22] Some of his other prior significant appointments include being a Research Scientist in Temasek Laboratories at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2009-2012)[23] and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. He did his post-doctoral study in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University and received a PhD in Polymer Chemistry (2009) at the National Institute of Technology.

Born and brought up in village Hatwar of district Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India, Thakur received all his education from government educational institutes.

Dr Vijay Kumar Thakur has earned the rare distinction of being ranked as one of the most highly cited researchers from across the world in the year 2020. Professor in new products from biomass at the SRUC (UK), Dr Thakur was named in the Highly Cited Researchers list-2020 by Clarivate. He is among 6,167 researchers from 60 countries and regions, who have been recognised this year. The list of scientists in 21 fields ranging from agricultural science to space science, also includes 26 Nobel laureates.

In his academic career, he has published more than 200 SCI journal research articles and holds one United States patent. Among these, 17 of his research papers have been highlighted as "Highly Cited Papers" in Web of Science (less than 1% of published papers receive this ranking) while 5 papers have been highlighted as "Hot Papers" (Hotbyselected by virtue of being cited among the top one-tenth of one per cent-0.1 %) in a current bimonthly period in Web of Science).

He has also published 50 books and 35 book chapters on the advanced state-of-the-art of polymer science/materials science/nanotechnology.

Vijay is an editorial board member of several SCI international journals, as well as a member of scientific bodies around the globe.

He also sits on grant review panels for governmental agencies and educational institutions in the UK, USA, Germany, Poland, Austria, Singapore, Portugal, Chile, Cyprus, UAE, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and India.