Alok Sharma, Executive Director, Centre of High Technology, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India has joined as Director - R&D Indian Oil Corporation Limited.

Sharma joined IndianOil R&D as Chemical Engineer and is an MTech in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He was also the member of the first batch which completed the Hybrid Management Program from U21 Global Singapore. He has over 30 years of experience in R&D and Refinery in the areas of Process, Projects and Production. He went to Gujarat Refinery on deputation and has worked for three years in India’s first Hydrocracker Unit from 1994-97. Upon return from JR, he worked towards establishing the Hydroprocessing lab and Resid Block at IndianOil R&D.

In 2001, he was associated with the development of Food Grade Hexane Technology and was part of commissioning of the first technology from IndianOil R&D. He worked in the Hydroprocessing division till 2009-10 and assigned a new area Alternative Energy Department in 2010-11. He has been instrumental in setting up Gasification, Hydrogen, and Fuel cell related facilities at R&D. He also looked after the solar and battery group during 2015-2019. From 2020 onwards he was given the additional responsibility of IP Cell. Sharma, has guided two PhD scholars and also successfully mentored two startups in the area of alternative energy.

He received ICMA Award 2002 and World Petroleum Congress Excellence Award 2008 for Indigenous Hydroprocessing Technologies. Sharma was also selected for Endeavour’s Awards in 2009 and went to CSIRO, Melbourne on Commonwealth Scholarship. He has also won the FIPI Innovation award and CHT Innovation award for 2014 for Commercialization of Co-processing Non Edible Oils in DHDT. During his tenure, n 2020 and 2021, the IP cell of IOC R&D also won the Clarivate Top Innovate Award. He has over 50 publications and 16 granted patents in his name.

Before joining CHT, Sharma was leading the research in the area of New and Renewable Energy at the R & D centre of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. and looked after new energy areas like Gasification, Hydrogen & Fuel Cell, Battery, CO2 capture, Biofuels etc.

He is also a member of International Association of Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) and Treasurer of Hydrogen Association of India (HAI). An Avid traveler, he has covered different parts of India and has also visited several countries.