Kal Renganathan Sharma

Born on October 8th 1963 in Madurai, India, Dr. Kal Renganathan Sharma was discovered as a ‘omnicient intelligent’ kid at age 7 by the Rev. Brothers of St. Gabriel at RSK Higher Secondary School, Trichy, India. He received the once in a school time (KG-I – XI Std) prize in 1980 for the Best All Round Student of the Penultimate Year, in 1980 from Rev. Brother Camillus at RSK. He was also the winner of the statewide science talent search examination and had stood All India first in mathematics (146/150) at the Central Board of Secondary Education, X Std. Examinations in 1979. He got admission to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai in 1980 after XI std.

He graduated with a B.Tech. in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India in 1985. He had completed all the credit requirements for B.Tech. in 9 semesters instead of 10 semesters as planned. He served as General Secretary of Ganga Hostel in 1983-1984 and represented the Atheletics team at Inter-IIT tournaments from 1980-1984. After a brief stint at Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices at N.Delhi, he came to West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV for graduate studies in 1985. He received his Masters and Ph.D degrees in chemical engineering in 1987 and 1990 respectively. The research work that he performed for his masters’ thesis has been cited more than 60 times world wide. The Japanese hypercoal process is based on his work on coal extraction using supersolvents. A white paper was sent to President Clinton’s White house on clean coal and carbon materials derived from clean coal extracts. He worked under Richard Turton for his Ph.D. Emertius Professor Octave Levenspiel had 6 Ph.D students: Ken Bischoff was his first and Richard Turton was his last.

Upon graduation with a Ph.D., Kal joined Monsanto Plastics Technology under the Director, Victoria Franchetti, Ph.D. At Monsanto, he received 5% and 7% raises and a bonus the first year he was with them. Based on excellent performance reviews he was told that he was on their “fast track” and when the time comes he would be nominated into their Fellow program. He served on their technology protocol team between 1990-1993.

Dr. Kal Renganathan Sharma has held high level academic positions in India and USA. He is a naturalized USA citizen since 1998. In summary, Kal R. Sharma has authored 11 Books, 4 Book-Chapters, 64 Journal Articles, 534 Conference Papers and 111 other Presentations. He has instructed 2750 students in 95 courses in India and USA. He has introduced 4 new dimensionless groups into the literature.

Honors received include Honorary Fellow, Australian Institute of high Energetic Materials, Melbourne, Australia, Fellow, Indian Chemical Society, Kolkata, India, Who’s Who in America, Marquis Who’s Who, New Providence, NJ, Who’s Who in Plastics and Polymers, CRC Press, Baco Raton, FL, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Cash Awards from SASTRA University,2003-2004, 2004-2005, Thanjavur, India and Monsanto Plastics Technology , Indian Orchad, MA, 1990, New York Academy of Sciences. He has reviewed a number of journal articles for journals and served as co-chairs at major symposiums including one at the 2013 AIChE Spring Meeting at San Antonio, TX, Apr' 28th - May 2nd 2013.