Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai secures the 122nd rank in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2021. The institute stands 4th amongst 63 Indian universities that participated in these rankings.
These rankings use 13 performance indicators specially calibrated to reflect the priorities of Asian institutions. They aim at providing a holistic approach towards judging universities and therefore, are grouped into five areas:
Time and again, these rankings have proved that ICT Mumbai works tirelessly to provide world-class education and research opportunities to its students.
"My journey in ICT has been one of the most interesting rides, with significant crests and troughs.
“The biggest challenge that I faced in these four years was when I was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 2017. It took a toll on my mental and physical health. It happened at a time when I was under grave pressure of doing well. I had been advised to take rest, on account of which I had to miss a lot of classes. But I still had all the notes from all the classes, from my close-knitted circle of friends. We might appear for tests with the same syllabus, interview for the same job; but that’s the wonder of friendships at ICT. We always lift each other up in the spirit of healthy competition and camaraderie.
“I remember the day we had a group presentation and I felt really overwhelmed just before it was my turn to present. It was a feeling I had never felt before because I don’t fear making presentations in front of a large audience. Even though I am laughing while typing this now, I had started crying back then, for no particular reason. But I got through it because of my professor who understood my delicate situation and let me appear for a test at a later time and my friends that stood by me and made sure that I felt better.
“I had a similar overwhelming feeling multiple times during my end-term exams. It was immensely uncomfortable for me to sit in one place and write for three hours at a stretch but I still managed to pass my semester without letting my grade drop too much. This was because my parents supported me and never let me fall through it all, aiding my recovery, which took nearly six months.
“One of the things I have learned in this pandemic is that positive psychiatry includes celebrating small wins.
“I celebrate the time that I have spent with my dear friends,
I celebrate the supportive, loving and caring family that I have,
I celebrate graduating from ICT with a degree that makes me more desirable for the personal care industry,
I celebrate the professors that gave me knowledge,
I celebrate learning not just technical things but also a lot about life,
I celebrate my experience through my graduate years, for its contribution in making me the person I am today, is irrefutable.
“This has truly been more of an emotional degree than a B.Tech degree for me; and I’m very grateful to everyone that has been a part of my journey."
ICT Mumbai’s endeavors extend well beyond the confines of the classroom and help young creators with sprouting knowledge to innovate technologies that will benefit mankind at large.
Mr. Rajat Goel, a second-year student pursuing his M.Tech (Food Engineering and Technology) and working under the mentorship of Prof. Rekha Singhal, is a great example of the same. He has been selected as one of the hundred delegates from all over the world to attend the Youth Ag Summit, 2021.
The Youth Ag Summit is a biennially organized conference where young leaders collaborate to develop sustainable solutions for food security and global agriculture; and hence work towards becoming global instruments of change. Food security, as defined by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, means that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Over the coming decades, a changing climate, growing global population, rising food prices, and environmental stressors will have significant yet uncertain impacts on food security. Therefore, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set up by the United Nations General Assembly encourage us to eliminate hunger and poverty by devising sustainable solutions for food security.
Following the Summit, he will be participating in the first-ever virtual YAS University to develop his Thrive for Change project called 'Feeding the Planet Through Alternative Agriculture'. Hardships motivate people to do extraordinary work and Rajat has seen such affliction in his grandfather’s life which inspires him to address this issue of hidden hunger by sustainable growth of our produce. His vision is to develop alternative agriculture practices like the use of hydroponics, aeroponics, microgreen cultivation and work towards a food-secure world with a more sustainable future. He is working towards making agriculture more lucrative than a corporate job before his final project pitch in early 2022.
In recognition of his contribution to education and research, our Hon'ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. A.B. Pandit has been bestowed with the esteemed ICC D.M.Trivedi Lifetime Achievement for the year 2020.
Prof. A.B. Pandit needs no introduction when it comes to Chemical Engineering and allied fields. Falling under the bucket of the top 2% scientists in the world as announced by Stanford University, California, Prof. Pandit is the crème de la crème of the professionals in the field. He is also a member of the Board of Governors at IIT Bombay and the Heavy Water Board at the Department of Atomic Energy.
He completed his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT BHU Varanasi in 1980 and earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from UDCT (now ICT Mumbai) in 1984. He worked as a Research Associate with Prof. J. F. Davidson at the University of Cambridge from 1984 to 1990. Upon returning to India, he joined ICT Mumbai as a research scientist and was subsequently promoted to the position of a Professor.
The remarkable areas of his commendable research include:
His work in the design of multi-phase reactors, bubble break-up, design of gas-liquid contactors, proposed hydrodynamic cavitation, new impeller designs and an alternative means of physico-chemical-biological transformations has been path-breaking. He is now working with tribal committees to harness solar energy, expedite the drying of farm products and optimize water disinfection.
Prof. Pandit has undoubtedly been a connoisseur of chemistry and chemical engineering, wherein he has fervently authored over 400 publications, 5 books and has been cited over 30,000 times. He has 16 patents under his name and is on the Editorial Board of 5 International Scientific Journals. He was elected as the Vice President of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in December 2020 before adding another feather to his cap this year by being conferred upon by the ICC D.M.Trivedi Lifetime Achievement Award 2020.
His arduous journey and countless accolades inspire young researchers to believe in themselves and prove to be the forthcoming leaders of the nation. This award is undoubtedly an achievement of a lifetime; but there are many more revolutions waiting to be made by the works of Prof. A.B. Pandit.
It is our pleasure to announce that two faculty members from ICT Mumbai-Marathwada Campus, Dr. Manoj B. Gawande and Dr. Girish M. Joshi have been elected as Life Fellows of the prestigious Indian Chemical Society by the council meeting held on July 30, 2021.
Currently led by Prof. Chittaranjan Sinha (Honorary Secretary) and Prof. G. D. Yadav (President), the Indian Chemical Society (ICS) is a premier scientific society of India founded in 1924 as National Forum for the community of chemists and members of allied disciplines in the country.
Dr. Gawande (FRSC) has undertaken several research stints in Germany, South Korea, Portugal, Czech Republic, USA, and UK. He has also worked as a visiting professor at CBCSPMS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2013. He has published over 135 research as well as review articles, with over 9300 citations! Last year, he has been included in the global list of the top 2% of scientists in the chemistry field by Stanford University.
Dr. Joshi has published more than 100 research as well as review articles in reputed international journals and one patent on his credit. He served as a visiting scientist to the University of Castilla-La-Mancha, Spain (2009, 2016). He is an editorial board member of MSE journal, Ukraine and Modern Plastic India (MPI). The popular book of Elsevier publishers entitled ‘Functionalized Nanomaterials-Based Devices for Environmental Applications’ was co-edited by him.
Aforementioned are just some of the exemplary works that afforded them this prestigious nomination. ICT Mumbai is proud of these faculty members for adding yet another feather to an already well-decorated cap of achievements!
Institute of Chemical Technology houses various research groups that are supervised and mentored by professors of the Institute. We are commencing a series that highlights the research work done by various groups. The purpose of this series is to help you understand the scope of dynamic research, its impact on society, and everything between.
In the first interview of the series, we talked to Prof. Parag Gogate from the Department of Chemical Engineering about the research work being pursued by his group.
Prof. Parag R. Gogate completed his B.Chem. Engg. in 1996, M.Chem. Engg. in 1998 and Ph.D. (Tech.) in Chemical Engineering in 2002, all from Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, India. He joined ICT in 2004 as Scientist A and currently holds the position of Professor of Chemical Engineering. His research interests include cavitation phenomena, wastewater treatment, design of multiphase reactors, separation processes, and process intensification. He has published over 315 research papers in international journals and is also a well-cited researcher with over 21000 citations. Prof. Gogate has been the recipient of many awards including the Young Scientist/Engineer awards of INSA, ISCA, IEI, and INAE as well as the Amar Dye Chem Award and Hindustan Lever Biennial Award for the ‘Most Outstanding Chemical Engineer of the Year’ of the IIChE.
We mainly deal with process intensification using cavitational reactors. Cavitation is a phenomenon in which the reduction of pressure to or below the liquid's vapor pressure leads to the formation of small vapor-filled cavities in the liquid. This generates physical and chemical effects in the solution which can be helpful in intensifying the processes limited by intrinsic kinetics of mass transfer resistances. Our research group is focusing on exploring the applications in different areas and then scaling up the reactors based on engineering aspects including theoretical simulations.
Our research finds application in a variety of areas such as wastewater treatment, enzymatic reactions, synthesis of specialty chemicals, crystallization of pharmaceutical compounds, emulsification, atomization, food preservation especially focusing on liquid foods, and also in petroleum refining/vegetable oil processing. Currently, the group is working on a couple of sponsored projects in the area of wastewater treatment and improving the thermal and membrane desalination operations in addition to various Ph.D. projects.
In my opinion, an effective research group should have a lot of interactions between the members as well as within the ecosystem. Sharing of ideas and problems in regular group meetings can lead to quick solutions and directing the research in the correct direction. The members should also understand the fine balance between freedom and responsibility.
Process intensification using cavitational reactors is an entirely new area that has not seen many industrial explorations, it has been difficult to convince people to actually implement it at the commercial level. We are working hard to develop prototypes and demonstrate the benefits in different application areas.
The work was an extension of the Ph.D. dissertation and collaborations worldwide allowed widening the scope of the research into different application areas. The innovativeness in the topic was one of the main reasons for selecting the topic for my Ph.D. I must say that the research has been very rewarding in terms of quality publications and citations.
Application of ultrasound to intensify the recovery of valuable products such as lactose and whey proteins from whey, which is a dairy waste generated in huge quantities. Transforming the knowledge to the commercial level can lead to significant economic benefits as well as environmental benefits due to the tackling of the dairy effluent.
A basic understanding of reaction engineering and environmental engineering concepts will be good for the different applications being explored in the group. Fundamental knowledge in fluid flow and numerical methods will be useful for theoretical simulations that can be planned. Our group has seen a lot of UG interns both from ICT and outside ICT and a lot of them could get publications in international journals. At least 5 students also got the IIChE award for best publication resulting from UG internship.
The initial 6 months or so weren’t very fruitful, in terms of any research activity. The group was quite affected as a large part of the work is experimental which cannot be done online! However, the group utilized this time partly in writing manuscripts, especially reviewing articles which have helped students to learn more about the research areas. We have restricted entry into the lab, staggered at times and all the institute guidelines are clearly followed. We have been successful to date on zero incidences in the lab and we are looking forward to continuing this success in the future.
Our group mainly plans to continue the application-oriented research and explore different areas important to the Indian industry. We are also planning to research in health care especially in terms of improving the particle characteristics of the pharmaceutical compounds and also the synthesis of microspheres as improved drug delivery systems. We are planning to venture into projects of societal importance, say in terms of developing efficient and economical wastewater treatment systems also allowing water recycling.
We hope that this interview with Prof. Parag Gogate was resourceful for young students planning to take up research as a career as well as a pleasant read for science enthusiasts.
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In Conversation with the Director of ICT IOC Bhubaneswar, Prof. B.N Thorat
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Spark Achieve Series Workshop #4 - How to Prepare for Job Interviews
Power Talk on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’
The Change of Guard Ceremony
UAA Annual Reunion Day Jan ‘22