Phase Change Materials. The Silent Architects of Thermal Control

Authors

Atul Sharma Professor in Physics, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Amethi, India. Atul Sharma is currently a Professor in Physics at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (set up through an Act of Parliament by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as an Institute of National Importance on the lines of Indian Institutes of Technology). He has worked as a Scientific Officer at Devi Ahilya University, India; as a Research Assistant at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejon, South Korea; and as a Visiting Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kun Shan University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China. Dr. Sharma completed his MPhil and Ph.D. from the School of Energy and Environmental Studies, Devi Ahilya University, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. Dr. Sharma has published several edited books from various well-known international publishers and research papers in various international journals and conferences. Prof. Sharma completed several projects as principal investigator with funding from agencies, including the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, and the Council of Science and Technology, Uttar Pradesh, India. Prof. Sharma is working on the development and applications of phase change materials, green buildings, solar water heating systems, solar air heating systems, and solar drying systems. Further, Prof. Sharma served as a reviewer for many national and international journals, project reports, and book chapters. Prof. Sharma also secured a place in the list of the world's top 2% of scientists during 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020, a study conducted by world-renowned Stanford University. Karunesh Kant Research Scientist, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA. Karunesh Kant is a mechanical engineer and research scientist at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA, with expertise spanning thermal and fluid sciences, thermal energy storage, materials characterization, solar energy systems, and particle erosion dynamics. He earned his Ph.D. in Energy from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (India) and has held different research positions in Europe, including postdoctoral fellowships at Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), Universit� Clermont Auvergne, and INSA Lyon (France). During his doctoral studies, he was a Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy Fellow at Virginia Tech. Dr. Kant has played a pivotal role in several U.S. Department of Energy-funded projects targeting erosion mitigation and wear testing, as well as the development of solar-selective coatings for next-generation concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. His work has also advanced fields like superhydrophobic coatings, lithium-ion battery thermal management, thermochemical, and phase change thermal energy storage. With more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, over 3,500 citations, he is consistently ranked among the top 2% of most-cited researchers globally (2021-2024) by Elsevier and Stanford University. Dr. Kant is a co-editor of the CRC Press book "Thermal Energy: Storage, Applications, and Future Directions" and continues to shape the field through impactful research and international collaboration.