On Jule 8， Prof. Virender Sharma from Florida Institute of Technology, was invited to present a lecture with the title of “Ferrites and Ferrates as Environmental Friendly Materials in Photocatalytic Remediation and Energy Processes”. The lecturing session was presided by Prof. Tao Zhang.

In this lecture, Prof. Sharma introduced the works of his group in iron oxides, especially in the research of high-valent iron species recently, his group focus on the ferrates in aqueous solutions due to their importance application in greener technology for organic syntheses, as well as in environmentally friendly water and wastewater treatment processes. The presentation explain the fundamental chemistry of ferrites and ferrates, followed by examples to show their applications in the development of alternative energy for fuel and chemicals for purifying waters from toxins and micropollutants to meet major challenge for environmental sustainability.

Virender Sharma is a Director of the Center of Ferrate Excellence and a Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the Florida Institute of Technology. Virender is considered expert in properties and applications of ferrates. More recently, his research has also been recognized for green synthesis and antibacterial activities of silver nanoparticles. He has published widely with 186 peer-reviewed journal articles, 39 book chapters and 44 proceedings and preprint articles. His articles have been highly cited and some articles have more than 450 citations. He has edited one book and two others are in production for publication in 2013.