Paul Ratnasamy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 June 1942 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Alma mater | Loyola College, Chennai |
| Years active | since 1967 |
| Known for | Catalysis |
| Children | Chandra Ratnasamy - Sylvia Ratnasamy (Elina Shrikande) |
| Awards | Padma Shri Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award INSA Viswakarma Medal VASVIK Industrial Research Award TWAS TWNSO Award International Zeolite Association Award FICCI Award Firodia Award Om Prakash Bhasin Award Bhangur Award FIE Foundation Award KG Naik Gold Medal, Life Time Achievement Award of the Petrotech Foundation |
Paul Ratnasamy is an Indian catalyst scientist, INSA Srinivasa Ramanujan Research Professor and a former director of National Chemical Laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). [1] [2] [3] [4] He was honored by the Government of India, in 2001, with one of the highest Indian civilian awards of Padma Shri. [5]
Paul Ratnasamy was born on 11 June 1942 in Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. [2] He graduated (BSc) in chemistry from Loyola College, Chennai in 1961 and continued his studies at the same institution to secure MSc in 1963 and PhD [3] [6] on his thesis, Catalytic properties of alumina based materials in 1967. [1] [2] [4] His post doctoral research was at the Clarkson College of Technology, New York from 1967 to 1969 under the guidance of Prof. D. Rosenthal and moved to Belgium for further research as a research associate of J. J. Friplat at the Catholic University of Leuven where he stayed till 1972. [1] [2] [3] [6] His professional career started at the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) [6] in 1972 where he worked till 1979. During this period, he secured a post graduate diploma in Industrial Administration and Management from the British Institute of Commerce in 1975 [1] and had a stint at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as the Senior Humboldt Fellow [4] under H. Knozinger. [2] Ratnasamy joined National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in 1980 as the Head of the Catalysis Division, got promoted in 1995 as the Director of the institution and retired from there in 2002. [1] [2] [4] [6] He also worked as the Professor of Biofuels at the J. B. Speed School of Engineering of University of Louisville for a period from 2009 till 2011. [3] [4] [7]
During his tenure as the director, NCL started the Catalysis Division as a dedicated facility for advanced research on the subject. [1] [2] His contributions are also reported in the establishment of the National Centre for Catalysis Research, Chennai. [1] [8]
Ratnasamy is credited with several scientific and technological innovations. [1] The team at NCL, led by him, is reported to have developed six catalysts and catalytic processes in the discipline of zeolite catalysis. [1] [4] He is known to have proposed, with H. Knozinger [9] as his associate, alumina surface models and, together with S. Sivasanker, models of Co-Mo-alumina hydrodesulfurisation catalyst which are considered as valid models. [1] He is also credited with the synthesis and characterization of twelve molecular sieves. [1]
Ratnasamy has developed and patented a catalytic method for the production of biofuel for jets from plant and animal triglycerides and fatty acids. [10] The method deploys a technique where the hydrocarbons in the oils are unlocked by removing the oxygen and releasing it in the form of carbon dioxide, instead of in the form water, which requires the use of expensive hydrogen. This has been sourced by AliphaJet and marketed by them under the name, BoxCar™. [4] [10]
Paul Ratnasamy is the holder of 150 patents including 35 US patents [4] and has published over 200 research papers in peer reviewed international journals. [1] [4] [6] [11] [12] He has served on the editorial boards of such international journals as Journal of Catalysis, [13] Applied Catalysis, [14] Catalysis Letters, Topics in Catalysis, [15] Cattech, [16] Zeolites [17] and Microporous and Mesoporous Materials. [1] [6] [18] He has attended many seminars and conferences and delivered keynote addresses on Catalysis [3] [4] and has served as a consultant to many global companies. [6]
Ratnasamy is a former member of the council and the Ambassador at large of the International Zeolite Association during 2004-2006. [1] [4] [6] He is a founder member and former president of the Indo-Pacific Catalysis Association. [1] He is also a founder member of the Indian Catalysis Society [4] and an Emeritus Theme Leader at the Conn Center. [6]
Ratnasamy, an INSA Srinivasa Ramanujan Research Professor at National Catalyst Laboratory during 2004 to 2009, received the VASVIK Industrial Research Award from the Vividhlaxi Audyogik Samshodhan Vikas Kendra (VASVIK) in 1982. [4] [6] [19] Two years later, he was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences, in 1984. [1] [3] [4] [6] Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, awarded him the K. G. Naik Gold Medal in 1989. [4] [6] He received the Om Prakash Bhasin Award in 1992, [1] the TWAS technology award from the Third World Academy of Sciences and the Viswakarma Medal by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), [3] both in 1994. [4] [6] The Government of India honoured him with the civilian award of Padma Shri in 2001. [1] [3] [4] [6] The International Zeolite Association conferred on him their annual award in 2004. [4] He is also a recipient of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Award, Firodia Award, Bhangur Award, FIE Foundation Award. [1]
Catalysis Today, a peer reviewed journal, honoured Ratnasamy on his 70th birthday by dedicating their December 2012 issue to him. [4] He is an elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), the Third World Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. [1] Recently, the Petrotech Foundation had bestowed its Life Time Achievement Award (Category - R & D) for 2016 to Paul Ratnasamy.
The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India.
Man Mohan Sharma FREng is an Indian chemical engineer. He was educated at Jodhpur, Mumbai, and Cambridge. At age 27, he was appointed Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. He later went on to become the Director of UDCT, the first chemical engineering professor to do so from UDCT.
A molecular sieve is a material with pores of uniform size. These pore diameters are similar in size to small molecules, and thus large molecules cannot enter or be adsorbed, while smaller molecules can. As a mixture of molecules migrate through the stationary bed of porous, semi-solid substance referred to as a sieve, the components of highest molecular weight leave the bed first, followed by successively smaller molecules. Some molecular sieves are used in size-exclusion chromatography, a separation technique that sorts molecules based on their size. Other molecular sieves are used as desiccants.
A mesoporous material is a material containing pores with diameters between 2 and 50 nm, according to IUPAC nomenclature. For comparison, IUPAC defines microporous material as a material having pores smaller than 2 nm in diameter and macroporous material as a material having pores larger than 50 nm in diameter.
Sir John Meurig Thomas, also known as JMT, was a British scientist, educator, university administrator, and historian of science primarily known for his work on heterogeneous catalysis, solid-state chemistry, and surface and materials science.
Thirumalachari Ramasami is the former Indian Science and Technology Secretary. He assumed charge in May 2006. Prior to this assignment, he served as the Director of the Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India. He is a distinguished researcher and leather scientist. He was awarded India's National Civilian Honour the Padma Shri for excellence in Science and Engineering in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the highest award for science in India, for notable and outstanding research in Chemical Sciences in 1993.
Ryoo Ryong FRSC is a distinguished professor of chemistry at KAIST in Daejeon, South Korea. He is the head of the Center for Nanomaterials and Chemical Reactions, an Extramural Research Center of the Institute for Basic Science. Ryoo has won a variety of awards, including the Top Scientist Award given by the South Korean government in 2005. He obtained the KOSEF Science and Technology Award in 2001 for his work on the synthesis and crystal structure of mesoporous silica.
Charles T. Kresge is a chemist and retired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Saudi Aramco. He was R&D Vice President at the Dow Chemical Company. His area of expertise is inorganic synthesis and his primary field of research is in the area of crystalline aluminosilicate materials, particularly for the discovery of mesoporous molecular sieves.
MCM-41 is a mesoporous material with a hierarchical structure from a family of silicate and alumosilicate solids that were first developed by researchers at Mobil Oil Corporation and that can be used as catalysts or catalyst supports.
Prem Shanker Goel is an Indian space scientist, former secretary at the Department of Ocean Development, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India and a former director of Indian Space Research Organization. He was honored by the Government of India, in 2001, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Alla Venkata Rama Rao is an Indian inventor and chemist, known for his pioneering researches in the field of drug technology. He is the founder of the A. V. Rama Rao Research Foundation, a non governmental organization promoting research and doctoral studies in chemistry and Avra Laboratories, an organization dealing in intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients, used in therapeutics. An elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, and Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Rama Rao is a recipient of several awards such as TWAS Technology Award, VASVIK Industrial Research Award and Om Prakash Bhasin Award. The Government of India awarded him Padma Shri in 1991 and Padma Bhushan in 2016.
Swaminathan Sivaram is an Indian polymer chemist, inventor, institution builder and a former director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He is known for his pioneering work on alkylation of tertiary alkyl halides with trialkylaluminum and olefin polymerization and holds the highest number of US patents by an Indian working outside the US. He is a fellow of several significant professional organizations. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2006, for his contributions to Indian science.
Laxmangudi Krishnamurthy Doraiswamy (1927–2012) was an Indian chemical engineer, author and academic, known for his contributions in developing Organic synthesis engineering as a modern science discipline. Chemical Engineering journal of McGraw Hill listed him among the 10 most distinguished chemical engineers in the world in 1988. He was the author of nine texts in chemical engineering, including Organic Synthesis Engineering, a 2001 publication which is known to have introduced the topic as a definitive scientific stream and Heterogeneous reactions: Analysis, Examples, and Reactor Design, reportedly the first comprehensive text in chemical engineering.
Ganapati Dadasaheb Yadav is an Indian chemical engineer, inventor and academic, known for his research on nanomaterials, gas absorption with chemical reaction and phase transfer catalysis. He served as the vice chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai from 2009 until November 2019. He is currently the Emeritus Professor of Eminence at ICT Mumbai.
Paramasivam Natarajan (1940–2016) was an Indian photochemist, the INSA Senior Scientist at the National Centre for Ultrafast Process of the University of Madras and the Director of Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He was known for his researches on photochemistry of co-ordination compounds and macromolecular dye coatings for stabilization of electrodes and was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1984, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Rajinder Kumar is an Indian chemical engineer and a former professor at the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his studies on multiphase phenomena and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 1976. He received the third highest Indian civilian award of the Padma Bhushan in 2003. He is also a recipient of Om Prakash Bhasin Award and the VASVIK Industrial Research Award.
Vivek Vinayak Ranade is an Indian chemical engineer, entrepreneur and a professor of chemical engineering at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the Queen's University, Belfast. He is a former chair professor and deputy director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He is known for his work on bubble column, stirred and trickle-bed reactors and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy. and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2004.
Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos was an American chemical engineer and, at the time of her death, had been the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professor in Energy Sustainability and a Distinguished Professor at Tufts University. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos had also been the Raytheon Professor of Pollution Prevention at Tufts. She published more than 160 scientific articles with over 14,000 citations as of April 2018. She was a Fellow of AIChE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She lived in the Greater Boston Area with her husband, Professor Gregory Stephanopoulos of MIT.
Michael Tsapatsis is an American chemical engineer and materials scientist. Tsapatsis is the 36th Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to this position he was the Amundson Chair (2008–present), professor (2003-present), and McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair (2017–present) in the department of chemical engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. Prior to his appointment at the University of Minnesota, Tsapatsis was an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Steven L. Suib is an American inorganic chemist, academic and researcher. He is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at University of Connecticut. He is a Director of the Institute of Materials Science and of the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Materials Analysis.
