Recent Advances in Natural Products Science

Prof. Ahmed Al-Harrasi received his BSc in Chemistry from Sultan Qaboos University (Oman) in 1997. Then, he moved to the University of Berlin from where he received his MSc. degree in Chemistry (2002) followed by PhD in Organic Chemistry (2005) as a DAAD fellow under the supervision of Prof. Hans-Ulrich Reissig. His PhD work was on New Transformations of Enantiopure 1,2-Oxazines. He received the Fulbright Award (2008) for postdoctoral research in chemistry for which he joined Prof. Tadhg Begely group at Cornell University to work on the synthesis of isotopically labeled thiamine pyrophosphate. After postdoctoral research from Cornell University (2009), he started his independent research at the University of Nizwa, Oman, where he founded the Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center merging chemistry and biology research that has now became a center of excellence in natural and medical sciences. He is currently Professor of Organic Chemistry and Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies, Research and External Relations at the University of Nizwa. The budget of his interdisciplinary funded projects exceeds 10 million USD. He was a chair and invited speaker in many international conferences. He is a referee for more than 15 international chemistry and biotechnology journals. He served as a guest editor in chemistry journals. While enduring his research aptitude, he has authored and co-authored over 400 scientific papers, 2 books, and 12 book chapters of high repute. He taught chemistry courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Dr. Saurabh Bhatia graduated from Kurukshetra University, India, in 2007, followed by postgraduation in 2009 from Bharati Vidyapeeth University, India. He has successfully completed a PhD program in Pharmaceutical Technology at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India (2015). Currently, he is working as an Associate Professor at Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center, University of Nizwa, Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Amity University Haryana, India. He has 12 years of academic experience, and his areas of interest include nanotechnology (drug delivery), biomaterials, natural products science, biotechnology (plant and animal), microbiology, modified drug delivery systems, analytical chemistry, parasitology (leishmaniasis), and marine science. He has promoted several marine algae and their derived polymers throughout India and has published more than 10 books and 67 articles in many areas of pharmaceutical science. He has participated in more than 30 national and international conferences.