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Preface to the Professor J. B. Joshi Festschrift It is a distinct pleasure and an honor for us to present this Festschrift to honor Professor Jyeshtharaj Bhalachandra Joshi (popularly known as J.B.) of Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (formerly known as the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT)) on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Professor Joshi was born on May 28, 1949 near Karad, a small town in central Maharashtra on the Deccan Plateau in India. The region has produced many spiritually advanced souls, who worked through the teachings of the ancient Indian scriptures referring and addressing many social and socioeconomic problems. It is also considered as the origin of cooperative movement of sugar farmers, resulting into more than 100 sugar mills. This spiritual, philosophical, and sociological psyche is an integral part of J.B. He came to Mumbai and was admitted to UDCT in 1967. He received his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from UDCT in 1971. Despite being among the top ranking graduating students, he chose the untrodden path and continued to pursue his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at UDCT. He completed his Ph.D. in 1977 under the mentorship of the legendary Professor Man Mohan Sharma. J.B. started working as an associate lecturer at UDCT from 1972 while pursuing his Ph.D. He became a full professor in 1986 and the Director of UDCT in 1999, because of his credentials and extensive research contributions. Professor Joshi’s academic leadership has resulted in significant growth in quality and stature of the undergraduate and graduate programs at UDCT. J.B. is known as a scale-up expert in industry. He literally took onto himself the scaling of UDCT’s research output in terms of quantity, without compromising on
quality. His tenure has seen compounded growth, in terms of resource generation and research publication output. In the recently concluded year (2008-09), the average number of citations per faculty per year for the chemical engineering department was 150, which is one of the highest. In that year, the ratio of external revenue generations via consultancy and research projects to salary grants received from the government was 10:1; which, again, is probably the highest among the state funded academic institutes in the world. With a single-minded determination and great perseverance, he spearheaded and continued the efforts of many past directors, in realizing the dream of the department of first becoming an autonomous institute (in 2004) from being a “mere one of the many Departments of Bombay University” and then converting this Institute into a full fledged “University”, recognized by the Government of India as the only university in India dedicated exclusively to the area of chemical engineering and technology on September 12, 2008. Professor Joshi has been a distinguished researcher in the field of chemical engineering for more than 35 years. Through creative experimental and theoretical research, J.B. has made pioneering contributions to the understanding, analysis, and design of multiphase reactors, wastewater treatment, NOx absorption, wet air oxidation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), hydrodynamic stability, and turbulence, just to name a few. In these areas, he has authored or co-authored more than 330 archival original research publications/book chapters and monographs and has contributed to many professional activities. Professor Joshi’s early work was focused on trying to understand and explain the common underlying theme of energy
10.1021/ie900951m CCC: $40.75 2009 American Chemical Society Published on Web 08/26/2009
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balance in a variety of multiphase sparged reactors. Any physical, chemical, and biological transformation in a reactor either must supply or remove energy, and the rates of these transformations are dependent on the availability of this energy at the location of the desired transformation and its rate. This theme was elaborately and rigorously explained by J.B., through simple and/or complex analysis that was supported by experiments and the measurements for a variety of multiphase reactors. J.B. was a pioneer in initiating sophisticated and long-term experimental programs using state-of-the-art measurement techniques in India. He established and developed measurement techniques such as Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA) and Computer Tomography (CT) in the early 1980s in India. He was also one of the earliest developers and users of CFD methods for chemical engineering applications. Professor Joshi explained many of the previously reported contradictory and anomalous observations by developing insightful models that were supported by sophisticated measurement techniques and CFD. J.B. has developed and proposed systematic design procedures for a variety of multiphase reactors. He then ventured into the explanation of the reactor stability, using the same theme of energy balance. He has contributed significantly to the understanding of the hydrodynamics of bubble column reactors and their modifications, stirred reactors, and its variations (such as surface aerators, gas-inducing impellers, jet loop reactors, film reactors, static and movingbed reactors, annular centrifugal extractors, etc.). Simultaneously, using this understanding, he explored and successfully exploited the use of these reactors in the area of NOx absorption to produce nitric acid and nitrate/nitrites, biomolecule separations, hydrogenation, and processes for gaseous and liquid waste treatment, leading to process intensification. More than hundred different types of multiphase reactors, designed by him, are currently functioning nationally and internationally in a variety of industries. His recent work on harnessing solar energy is likely to contribute significantly to the low- and mediumtemperature solar-energy-based industrial applications. His research has never lost focus on social and national needs, along with cutting edge science. Professor Joshi regularly and actively participates in professional society meetings, where he has organized/chaired several technical sessions on various chemical engineering topics in prestigious national and international conferences. He has also delivered several plenary and invited lectures at these conferences. He has actively participated and contributed in many state and central government decision-making bodies, steering their thinking toward the overall development based on the scientific temper and understanding. Professor Joshi is a gifted teacher with exemplary dedication and excellence in educating his students; putting students always at the forefront. His lectures are intellectually stimulating, characterized by careful preparation and his own special style of delivery. Professor Joshi has also held a couple of visiting faculty appointments in the United States: the first one was at Pittsburgh in 1979-1980, and the second one occurred in 1992, at the National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, CO.
Professor Joshi has received various recognitions for his research and teaching contributions. Some of these include: Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, 1981, given by the Indian National Science Academy; Herdillia Award for Excellence in Basic Research in Chemical Engineering, given by the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1989; Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, 1991; Shantiswarup Bhatnagar Prize for Engineering Sciences, 1991; selected as a UDCT Diamond during the Diamond Jubilee function of the Department of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai, 1994; Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, 1995; The Goyal Foundation Award for Engineering Sciences, Kurukshetra, 1998; Vishwakarma Medal by the Indian National Science Academy, 2000; Maharashatra State Best Teacher Award, 2004; and Diamond for Outstanding Contribution to Education, Research and Industry, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (CHEMCON), 2007. Also in 2007, the American Chemical Society (ACS) selected him among the top 100 research scientists over a period of 40 years of the existence of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, based on the high impact publications. Other more-recent awards include: J. C. Bose Fellow of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, 2008; Lifetime Achievement Award, Indian Chemical Council, The Apex Professional Organisation of the Indian Chemical Manufacturers, 2008; and Fellow, Third World Academy of Sciences, Trieste (Italy), 2008. We were fortunate to be among Professor Joshi’s first few Ph.D. students (A.B.P. is his first Ph.D. student) and have the opportunity to see and learn from J.B., his approach, modesty, humility, patience, and yet a strong resolve to meet the commitment. He has been a role model for many of us. Many of his undergraduate and postgraduate students (over 70 Ph.D. and 40 Master’s students) have contributed significantly to the scientific and academic fields, as well as the industrial world. On Professor Joshi’s behalf, we would like to thank all the friends and collaborators of J.B. for their contributions to this special issue. We also thank the various reviewers and the efforts of Professor Donald Paul as the Editor-in-Chief of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry and his staff for their expert handling of this issue. We are confident that Professor Joshi will be as productive in his second innings and that he will continue to motivate the chemical engineering and academic fraternity globally.
A. B. Pandit Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai 400019, India
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