Bharat Chaudhary, Ph.D., principal research scientist in Dow Electrical & Telecommunications, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). This honor recognizes Dr. Chaudhary’s outstanding contributions and impact in the field of plastics engineering, science or technology. Chaudhary is based in Dow’s Northeast Technical Center in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

Chaudhary began his Dow career in 1990 in Germany. Over his 26 year R&D career, he has made significant contributions to Dow. Chaudhary explored areas primarily in areas related to polymer modification, particularly sustainable approaches based on blends, functionalization and crosslinking. His research led to successful commercialization of products such as ETHAFOAM™ Extruded Polyethylene Foam made with blowing agents of zero ozone depletion potential and ECOLIBRIUM™ bio-based plasticizers for the modification of PVC.

Bob Maughon, Ph.D. Vice President for Performance Plastics and Hydrocarbons R&D notes, “Bharat applies his world-class expertise in polymer science to develop and commercialize significant value-creating products, products that also set the standard in sustainability. He collaborates extensively with universities worldwide to conduct fundamental research in support of technology development, bringing state-of-the art science to solving customer needs.

Chaudhary is the author of 32 journal articles, 20 conference presentations, and is an inventor on 52 U.S. patents. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London (U.K.) and a B.Eng. from the University of Benin (Nigeria).

Three Dow scientists were among the 12 scientists selected for induction into the fellows of the Society of Plastics Engineers in 2016. Stéphane Costeux, Ph.D. and Mridula (Babli) Kapur, Ph.D. join Chaudhary as Dow 2016 inductees.

“Three SPE fellows named in the same year is an amazing feat,” says A.N. Sreeram, Dow senior vice president and chief technology officer. “Babli, Bharat and Stéphane are all incredible researchers, all well deserving of this honor. This is a great personal achievement for each of them, having excelled at developing new products that meet critical customer needs while finding time for committed service to the Society of Plastics Engineers. It is also a great day for Dow, once again highlighting our exceptional R&D team”.