About “George John”

George John is recognized for his active research in the field of functional molecular materials from renewable resources and their potential utility in food materials/energy technologies and materials science. After receiving his Ph.D. from NIIST-CSIR (India) in Chemistry, he held research positions in the Netherlands, Japan, and the United States before joining the City College of New York (CCNY). Currently he is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at CCNY. The research in John’s laboratory is highly interdisciplinary, and is focused on molecular design of synthetic lipids (biobased), membrane mimics, soft materials, trans fat alternatives, food materials and food chemistry, and organic materials chemistry. Current research thrusts are on (i) oleogel technology, (ii) green battery components from biomass, and the mechanistic understanding to design a future throw-away battery (iii) molecular gel based organic scintillators for cancer imaging and (iv) amphiphilic molecules, assembly and surfactants from biomass. His group has successfully developed molecular gel technologies, vegetable oil thickening agents, and trans-fat alternatives, environmentally benign antibacterial paints and oil spill recovery materials, He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), a senior Fulbright Scholar, and was a recipient of the Tokyo University of Sciences (TUS) President Award, the Pfizer Visiting Professorship at (IISc) Bangalore, and the Kerala Center Award. He holds more than a dozen patents on inventions related to value-added chemicals/surfactants from renewable resources and their potential utility in food and biomaterials.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Twente, The Netherlands (1994-1995)
Ph.D. Chemistry, NIIST Thiruvananthapuram (University of Kerala India) (1987-1992)
M.Sc. Chemistry, Mahatma Gandhi University, India (1983-1985)
B.Sc. Chemistry, University of Kerala, India (1980-1983)

Awards/Honors

• 2016 – Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)
• 2015 – Senior Fulbright Scholar Award
• 2015 – Visiting Professor, Max Plank Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany
• 2014 – Tokyo University of Science (TUS) President Award and Visiting Professor, Tokyo, Japan
• 2014 – Pfizer Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Science (IISc. Bangalore)
• 2014 – Visiting faculty, Department of Chemical and Biol. Engineering, Princeton 2014-15 (sabbatical)
• 2010 – RSC International Author Travel Award, UK
• 2010 – Second Best Poster Award at the Cosmetic Society of New York, NY
• 2010 – Feature in Discovery News, MSNBC, Nature Materials, Nature Chemistry and other media
• 2009 – Kerala Center Award, NY
• 2007 – Noritake Materials Chemistry (faculty development) Award, Japan
• 2007 – Royal Society of Chemistry – Best Cover Page of the Year Award
• 2001 – Japan Science and Technology (CREST) Fellowship, Japan
• 1995 – STA Fellowship by Japan JISTEC, Govt. of Japan
• 1987 – Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Fellowship by Govt. of India