Gurumurthy Hegde obtained his PhD in liquid crystals in 2007 from the Centre for Nanomaterials and Soft Matter Science, Bengaluru. Expert in photoalignment and waste to wealth technologies, Dr Hegde has more than 18 years of R and D experience. His major research is in the field of liquid crystals, LCDs, nanoparticles, energy, water, and health. He has invented many concepts for aligning materials, waste to wealth technologies, and so forth. Presently he is working as the Director, Centre for Advanced Research and Development (CARD), CHRIST (Deemed to be University) and also as the Professor of Materials Science, Dept of Chemistry, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. He has published more than 220 scientific publications and has more than 25 patents. He also has obtained more than 60 international awards and guided many PhD and MSc, MTech students.