Education

PhD in Chemical Engineering (thesis submitted in July 2001, defended in August 11, 2003) NCL, Pune & Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

M.Tech. in Chemical Engineering with Petroleum Refinery Engineering and Petrochemical Technology as specialization (1993), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering (1990), College of Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.

Honors and Awards

• 2024: 1st prize winner in HPCL New Generation Ideation Contest (NGIC 2024), organized by HPCL R&D Center, Bengaluru, India. (PhD Student name: Rupali Gautam)
• 2024: Best Paper Award in International conference CHEMCON 2024 “Role of Chemical Engineering towards sustainable development and Atmanirbhar Bharat”, organized by IIChE.(PhD Student name: Debarun Banerjee)
• 2024: Best Poster Award in the Chemical Engineering discipline during INAE Annual Convention 2024, organized by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE). (PhD Student name: Debarun Banerjee)
• 2024: Poster Award Winner for the poster, “Single-Stage Hydrogen Production from H₂S through Pasma Catalysis” in IIT Delhi Open House 2024. (PhD Student name: Rupali Gautam).
• 2023: Research featured as Cover Page photo in ACS Journal, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol 62 (41) 2023.
• 2023: 3rd Best poster award in ChEmference 2023 held at BITS Pilani, K.K Birla Goa campus, Sept 30-Oct 2, 2023.
• 2023: LKMT PhD Thesis award for 2023 by Lovraj Kumar Memorial Trust to a supervised PhD thesis titled “Modulating active sites to decipher primary carbon source for methanol and dimethyl ether synthesis from coal/biomass derived CO₂ rich syngas via tandem catalysis” (PhD student Komal Tripathi).
• 2023: CO₂INDIA BEST PhD Thesis award 2023 to student Komal Tripathi’s thesis titled “Modulating active sites to decipher primary carbon source for methanol and dimethyl ether synthesis from coal/biomass derived CO₂ rich syngas via tandem catalysis”.
• 2023: 3rd Prize for Undergraduate (UG) Poster in TRYST 2023 held at IIT Delhi (UG Student name: Shriya Sharma).
• 2023: Applied Research Award 2021-2022 (Prof. K.L. Chopra Faculty Research Award), IIT Delhi.
• 2022: Recognized as "75 women in STEAM (fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)" by the PSA office.
• 2022: Member Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Engineering Au an international journal of American Chemical Society.
• 2021: Subbarao Research Excellence in Chemical Engineering 2021 (Student Name: Gul Afreen).
• 2021: Golden Peacock Inovative Product/Service Award 2021 (Student Name: Rajeev Kumar).
• 2021: Member of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology’s Research & Development committee.
• 2021: Member of Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR–IIP), Dehradun, Research & Development committee.
• 2021: Member of Proposal screening committee for DST and DST-SERB.
• 2021: Member of Expert Committee to suggest the suitable legislative framework for development of Chemicals and Petrochemicals by Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals.
• 2020: “CLASS of 66 Chair Professor" for teaching and research focused on Enviromental issues.
• 2020: "Special Achievement Award in research" by EET CRS 8^th Academic Achievement Award 2020 (Student name: Gul Afreen).
• 2019: “Best Poster Award" in NANOBIOTECK – 2019, 4^th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Nanomedicine in collaboration with DBT, Government of India (Student Name: Chitrangda Singh).
• 2019: “Innovation Award 2018-2019" for “K-Model: Quick and Accurate Prediction of Crude Oil Blend Compatibility and Blend Optimization of N-Number of Crude Oils” from Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, India.
• 2019: "Best oral presentation Award" at 22^nd International Conference on Green Chemistry and Technology, Paris, France (Student name: Gul Afreen).
• 2019: "Dr AV Rama Rao award for Best PhD thesis in Chemical Engineering", (Thesis title Conversion of low H₂/CO ratio syngas into liquid hydrocarbon by Fischer Tropsch synthesis over multifunctional catalyst ", (Student name: Sonal)
• 2019: "Best Poster Award" at 13^th International Conference on Chemistry and Heterogeneous Catalysis, Paris, France (Student name:Gul Afreen).
• 2019: Associate Editor in Journal of the Institution of Engineers (India): Series E, 2019
• 2019: Member of Domain Expert Group (DEG) in the CSIR Mission Mode project under ‘Green Petrochemicals and Fuels’ theme, 2019
• 2019: Distinguished Woman in Engineering (Major Area of Study - Chemical Engineering) - 4^th Venus International Women Awards - VIWA 2019 by Venus International Foundation, Adambakkam, Chennai
• 2019: Chairman of the Selection Committee for the selection of Senior Project Fellow for R&D Projects of OEC 2019
• 2019: Member of the Selection Committee for the selection of Senior Project Fellow for R&D Projects of OEC 2017, 2018.
• 2019: Member of the Screening and Shortlisting committee for Scientist C&D posts for DST, 2017-2018.
• 2019: Special Technical Award by PETROTECH-2019 (Student name: Rajeev Kumar).
• 2019: Best Poster Award in 23^rd Refining & Petrochemicals Technology Meet (RPTM) 12-14 January 2019 (Student name: Rajeev Kumar).
• 2019: Invited talk in the Hydrogen Energy session at the DAE-BRNS 7^th Interdisciplinary Symposium On Materials Chemistry, Dec 4-8, 2018 at DAE Convention Centre, BARC, Mumbai.
• 2018: Best industry relevant M.Tech project, awarded by FITT, IITD (Thesis title: "Experimental investigations into the catalytic decomposition of sulfuric acid in the Sulfur-Iodine (S-I) process for Hydrogen Production", Student name: Satyam Gangwar)
• 2018: Member of the screening committee of DST, India proposals review, 2018
• 2018: Invited Member of the screening committee for WOS-A proposal review and selection by DST, India, 2018
• 2017: BHARAT VIKAS AWARD 2017, Institute of Self Reliance, Baramunda, Bhubaneswar-751003, ODISHA.
• 2017: Best Oral Research Paper Presentation in Asia Pacific Congress on Catalysis (APCAT 7), January 2017, Mumbai (Student name: Sonal).
• 2016: Best Oral Research Paper Presentation in ICPC&SE, April 25-26^th, 2016, Dubai, UAE (Student name: Wondalem M. Golie).
• 2015: Member of steering committee for project proposal review for Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA), 2015 till date.
• 2013: Er. BN Chaterjee Award, by Minning Engineering Science Association, Visakhapatnam for paper entiled Application of Low Grade Phosphate Rock as Fertilizer with Urea and Urea along with Organic Manure in Alkaline Soil: A Preliminary Study (Student name: Shashank Bahri)
• 2013: SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institution) Gandhian young TechnologicaIlnnovation Award (GyTl), 2013 under the category MLM (More from less for Many) for Reactor & Catalyst development for oxygen evolving step in Sulfur Iodine cycle for Hydrogen production (Student name: Kishore Kondamudi)
• 2010: National award for best M.Tech thesis in Chemical Engineering, awarded by ISTE-IPCL.Thesis title: "Catalytic Cracking of Polyolefins" (Student name: Richa Singhal)
• 2009: Best industry relevant M.Tech project, awarded by FITT, IITD (Thesis title: "Synthesis,Characterization and Kinetic investigations of Methanol assisted methane conversion to gasoline over bifunctional zeolite based catalyst". (Student name: Pradeep Kumar Budde)
• 2009: Hindustan Platinum award for Best Poster presentation in CATSYMP-19 held at NCL(Poster title: "Novel Sulfonic acid catalysts for alkylation of p-cresol with tert-butyl alcohol".(Students names: P. Elavarasan, Kishore Kondamudi)
• 1999: Senior Research Fellowship awarded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• 1993: National award for best M.Tech thesis in Chemical Engineering, awarded by ISTE-IPCL (Thesis title: "Alkylation of Aromatics with alcohols over zeolites").