Start
May 24, 2018 - 16:00
End
May 24, 2018 - 17:00
Venue
Room No. 240 first floor next to Chem. Engg. deptl. office
Event Type
Speaker
Prof. V. M. Naik Department of Chemical Engineering IIT Bombay
Title
The Philosophy Practice and Pedagogy of ‘Product Research and Development’ (PR&D)
Abstract: ‘Chemical Processes’ have been the traditional forte and focus of a Chemical Engineer’s activities and responsibilities in Industry. However the Chemical Process Industry itself has undergone radical transformation into sectors such as specialty chemicals personal care health care food paint semiconductor energy etc. over a period of time. As a result today's Chemical Engineer is less entrusted with tasks of process design and increasingly involved in creation of novel ‘Chemical Products’ in the form of structured materials formulations and devices satisfying the needs of end-consumer or end-customer. He is required to be a versatile multi skilled person with sound insights in some topics/subjects which are currently not part of traditional undergraduate curriculum. More importantly often he needs to transcend the textbooks and ‘construct’ new knowledge on the way to creation of a product discontinuity. In this sense it is not merely a ‘Design’ or ‘Applied Science’ activity but a hypothetico-deductive Research and Development Activity; - epistemologically very similar to basic research but different in purpose and criteria of success. The talk will illustrate above assertions with real life examples. Hopefully it will provide one perspective during future revisions of undergraduate course curriculum. Sanguinely it will stimulate postgraduate students to reflect on methodology of science.Bio-sketch: V. M. Naik is a B.Tech from IIT Bombay and an M. Chem. Engg. from UDCT Mumbai. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering and was formerly Vice President - Corporate Research - Unilever. He has 37 years of R & D experience in a Multinational Company in various roles including head of a laboratory comprising more than 40 PhDs as a practicing scientist/technologist trainer of advanced scientific talent and strategic leader of R&D; in the areas of Industrial-Speciality-Oleo chemicals Beverages-Foods and Home-Personal Care Products; leading to number of inventions innovations and technology transfers to the business resulting in more than 25 inventions patented in more than 30 different countries; total no of international patents granted being more than 200. He joined IIT Bombay in 2008 after his retirement from Unilever as a Vice President of its International Corporate Research Programme.The areas of his current research interests are electrodynamics materials science of soft condensed matter interfacial engineering and bio-fuels. He has several peer reviewed research publications some of which have appeared on the cover pages of prestigious journals viz. Langmuir and Soft Matter. He is a Co-Editor of two books on Materials Science published by Royal Society-Imperial College Press UK. He has been serving on various expert committees set up by the DST- SERB and on Research Councils of several CSIR Laboratories. Currently he is the Chairperson of the R&D Experts Committee which was setup jointly by SERB and the central Ministry of Foods Processing Industries. Besides active research and teaching he has keen interests in Epistemology of Science Socio-Economic history and creative photography.