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Associate Professor; Graduate Program Director vthomas@uab.edu
Education & Engineering 358F
(205) 975-4098

Research and Teaching Interests: Polymers/composites, Biomaterials/Nanomaterials, Tissue Engineering & Drug Delivery, Nanospinning & 3D Printing of Scaffolds and Thermal & Rheological Characterization

Office Hours: Mon/Wed 11 am -12 pm or by appointment

Education:

  • B.S., University of Kerala, India
  • M.S., University of Kerala, India
  • MPhil., University of Kerala, India
  • Ph.D., Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences & Technology, India

Vinoy Thomas training spans from Chemistry/Polymers to Materials Science and Nanotechnology with specific training and expertise in Polymers and Biomaterials. He also holds secondary appointments at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Department of Environmental Science & Health (School of Public Health). He is also a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB). After his PhD in Biomaterials & Technology he completed postdoctoral training at Friedrich-Schiller University, Germany, and at the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), [as NRC Fellow of the National Academies USA)]. He joined at UAB in 2007 as a Research Associate, first at the Department of Physics and later as an Assistant Professor at MSE Department in 2012. His research focuses on biomaterials processing-property relationships, nanomaterials for tissue engineering, and nanodiamonds for joint-implants. He has published more than 80 research papers (h-index =27; i10-index= 40; RGscore = 35.78).

Dr. Thomas’ Polymers & Healthcare Materials/Devices Lab is a multi-disciplinary research group including graduate students, undergraduate students including Sci-tech students and K12 students (from JCIB, Altamont etc.). His students have received many awards for their research accomplishments including Outstanding Graduate Student from MSE, 3MT Thesis presentation prize from Graduate School, Excellent Poster Presentation, were able to win competitive fellowship from NASA and NSF EPSCoR programs and placement in Industries.

Teaching and Mentoring are his passion and life. Dr. Thomas’ goal is to establish himself as a scholar in Healthcare Materials/Engineering and as a successful academician. According to him “Teaching is a service activity and an Instructor is a facilitator."