Dr. R.A. Mashelkar

Raghunath Anant Mashelkar FTWAS FNA FASc FRS FREng FRSC (born 1 January 1943), also known as Ramesh Mashelkar, is an Indian chemical engineer who is a former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He was also the President of Indian National Science Academy, President of Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK) as also the President of Global Research Alliance. He was also first Chairperson of Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences.Raghunath Anant Mashelkar was born on 1 January 1943 in Marcel, Goa in Portuguese India. He was brought up in Bombay, British India.[citation needed] Mashelkar is a member of the Kalawantin community (now known as Gomantak Maratha Samaj in Goa).
He studied at University of Bombay’s University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT; now the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai) where he obtained B.Chem Engg degree in chemical engineering in 1966, and PhD degree in 1969. He also served as chancellor of the institute during 2014–2024.
He served as the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – a network of thirty-eight laboratories-for over eleven years. Prior to this, he was Director of National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) for six years.
He has been a visiting professor at Harvard University(2007–2012), at University of Delaware (1976, 1988), and at Technical University of Denmark (1982). He has been Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Professor at Monash University for fifteen years (2007–2022).
He has been on the board of directors of several companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Thermax, Piramal Group, KPIT Technologies, etc.
He has been a member of External Research Advisory Board of Microsoft (USA), Advisory Board of VTT (Finland), Corporate Innovation Board of Michelin (France), Advisory Board of National Research Foundation (Singapore), among others.
As Director of India’s National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) during 1989–1995,[6] Mashelkar gave a new orientation to NCL’s research programmes with strong emphasis on globally competitive technologies and international patenting. NCL, which was involved only in import substitution research till then, began licensing its patents to multinational companies.