Dr. Ashutosh Sharma
Dr. Ashutosh Sharma headed the department of Chemical Engineering (2003-05) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and was the founder of Nanoscience’s Center and Advanced Imaging Center there. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the State University of New York, Masters from the Pennsylvania State University. He led the Department of Science and Technology (DST) as Secretary to the Government of India from January 2015 to August 2021, initiating numerous national policies and programs in advanced manufacturing, innovations, quantum technologies, waste processing, and clean energy with industry-academia collaboration. He worked as a research faculty at SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine, as visiting faculty at the University of Texas, University of Western Ontario, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the World Class University Program of South Korea as a Member of the European Research Commission.
Dr. Ashutosh’s research contributions are highly interdisciplinary, spanning a wide range of nanotechnology, thin polymer films, nanocomposites, soft matter; nano-patterning and nanofabrication; colloid and interfacial engineering; biomaterials & bio surfaces. He has published over 360 peer-reviewed papers and filed 15 patents. Ashutosh is a recipient of the Infosys Prize in Engineering and Computer Science, TWAS Science Prize of the World Academy of Sciences, Bessel Research Award, J. C. Bose Fellowship, Bhatnagar Prize, Homi J. Bhabha Award of UGC, The Syed Husain Zaheer Medal and the Meghnad Saha Medal of INSA and Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Science Congress. Dr. Ashutosh worked as an associate editor of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Proceedings of Indian National Science Academy, and ASME Journal of Micro- and Nano-Manufacturing. He has also been on the editorial boards of several high-impact international journals that are peer-reviewed. He is an elected Fellow of The Indian National Science Academy, The Indian Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Sciences, India and Indian National Academy of Engineering, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and the Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials.