Professor G. D. Yadav, Emeritus Professor of Eminence and former Vice Chancellor, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai is elected to the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), USA and will be formally inducted on October 2-3, 2022. 

 

NAE recognizes those who make outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, and education, making significant contributions to engineering literature. He was elected for his contributions to research, innovation, and teaching in green chemistry, catalysis, nanotechnology, and chemical engineering.  

 

Till date, only 23 Indian nationals have received this membership. Most importantly, there are 5 ICT Mumbai Alumni - Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Prof. M. M. Sharma, Mukesh Ambani, Prof. J. B. Joshi, and Prof. G. D. Yadav. The others in the list this year are Elon Musk (Tesla), N. Chandrasekaran (Tata Group), and Satya Nadella (Microsoft). Previously Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Narayan Murthy, and Kiran Majumdar-Shaw were elected.

 

Prof. G. D. Yadav was awarded Padma Shri in 2016 and has received more than 125 honours, distinctions, and fellowships of all Indian science and engineering academies. 

 

Commenting on his elevation, Prof. G. D. Yadav said, "I feel humbled and honoured to be in the company of these great people. I am indebted to ICT and all my students, collaborators, and colleagues. This is an honour for ICT and also an honour for India as so far only 18 Indians have received it including veterans like Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Narayan Murthy, Prof. M. M. Sharma, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar and Prof. J. B. Joshi among others."

 

He serves as an independent director on the boards of Godrej Industries, Aarti Industries, Meghmani Organics, Bhageria Industries, and Clean Science & Technology and is associated with many decision making committees of the central government. He has so far done 77 industrial consultations and all his research for the past 20 years is supported by industrial sponsors. 

 

His research productivity is phenomenal with supervision of 107 Doctoral and 135 Masters Theses, and 47 post-doctoral fellows which is a record for any Engineering Professor in India. He has published 498 original research papers, 115 granted national and PCT patents, 8 new patent applications; 3 books; h-index of 64, i10 index of 314; 14,900+ citations in journals, patents, books, and monographs, and 850+ specials lectures/orations/seminars over the years. 

 

He is still actively involved in guiding doctoral students, patenting, publishing, consulting, and transferring technologies to industry. 

 

Under his leadership for over 10 years, the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai made phenomenal progress and was declared as Category I institute by the MHRD on par with IITs/IISc/IISERSs. The Government of Maharashtra’s assembly granted it elite status like IITs/IISc/IISERs. 

 

He started two new campuses with innovative programmes at Bhubaneswar with full support of IndianOil, first of its kind in Independent India, and at Jalna, Marathwada with full support of Government of Maharashtra. He was responsible for starting 23 new cross-disciplinary programmes, 5 new departments and several centres of excellence, making ICT as one of the topmost institutes in NIRF ranking.