Man Mohan Sharma

Man Mohan Sharma (born May 1, 1937 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan) is an Indian chemical engineer He was educated at Jodhpur, Mumbai and Cambridge At the age of 27 years, he was appointed Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Institute of Chemical Technology (UDCT), Mumbai He later went on to become the Director of Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT/ UDCT/ UICT), the first chemical engineering professor to do so from ICT
In 1990, he became the first Indian engineer to be elected as a Fellow of Royal Society, UK He was awarded the Padma Bhushan (1987) and the Padma Vibhushan (2001) by the President of India he has also been awarded the Leverhulme Medal of the Royal Society, the SS Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences (1973), FICCI Award (1981), the Vishwakarma medal of the Indian National Science Academy (1985), GM Modi Award (1991), Meghnad Saha Medal (1994), and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (2001)
Man Mohan Sharma obtained Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (1958) from UDCT (ICT) and subsequently MSc (Tech) in 1960 He obtained PhD (Chemical Engineering) (1964) at Cambridge University with PV Danckwerts In 1964, he returned to India as Professor at the University of Bombay, and later became Director of the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT), now ICT (Institute of Chemical Technology A Deemed University) He remained Director, UICT for 33 years He has been honored by several universities including IITs by honorary doctorates
Sharma made contributions to chemical engineering science and technology His studies on Bronsted based catalysis in CO2 hydration (published in the Transactions of Faraday Society) and subsequently kinetics of COS absorption in aqueous amines and alkanolamines brought out linear free energy relationship between CO2 and COS absorption in solutions of amines and alkanolamines He has contributed extensively on the role of microphases in multiple reactions which he pioneered He also became an independent Editor of Chemical Engineering Science at a young age He taught different subjects in chemical engineering and encouraged his doctoral students, from the very beginning, to publish independently their work in renowned journals Under his stewardship, UICT got autonomy of UGC He brought about allaround improvement in all the departments of the Institute leading to exceptionally high number of PhDs each year based on the number of faculty members He served in Petroleum and Natural Gas as Chairman of the SAC and in the SAC to Cabinet and PM He was INSA Council Member (198082) and Vice President (198788)