January 12, 2014
Dr. T.S.R. Prasada Rao Honored with the Petrotech Lifetime Achievement Award 2014
Dr. T.S.R. Prasada Rao, Chairman, Sarasijam Technologies and former Director of Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehra Dun was today honoured with the Petrotech Lifetime Achievement Award for his R&D contributions to India's oil, gas, and petrochemical industry. Honorable Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh presented the award to Dr. Prasada Rao today, January 12, 2014, at the inauguration of PETROTECH 2014 in Greater Noida, UP.
Dr. T.S.R. Prasada Rao was Director, Indian Institute of Petroleum during 1990-1999 and is currently Chairman, Sarasijam Technologies, a successful consulting company he founded in 1999. In his 45-year career that began at FCI and IPCL, Dr. Prasada Rao made pioneering R&D contributions in the Indian petroleum and petrochemical industries. In particular, Dr. Prasada Rao has developed and commercialized over 10 refining and petrochemical processes in companies such as IOCL, BPCL, GAIL, and Reliance enabling the growth of India's petroleum refining and petrochemical industries. These processes enabled adequate supply of transportation fuels through the growth of India's petroleum refining and petrochemical industries.
In spite of an entirely industrial R&D career, Dr. Rao made numerous important scientific contributions to catalysis by supported metals, mixed metal oxides, and zeolites. The impressive scientific output includes ~100 papers, ~50 patents, three books, ~300 presentations, ~250 invited seminars, and 10 Ph.D. students many of whom are now in R&D groups at Indian and foreign petroleum companies.
As Director of IIP, Dr. Prasada Rao turned around the institution from a sick CSIR laboratory to a vibrant innovation center. During his leadership, IIP increased its external cash flow from less than Rs. 10 lakh to over Rs. 8 crores and raised over Rs. 35 crores for infrastructure investments. During this time, he made concerted efforts leading to technology transfer partnerships with IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL, EIL, ONGC, Reliance, ExxonMobil, BP, ABB, and UOP.
Further, Dr. Prasada Rao championed R&D for India's petroleum industry by being a founder member of the PETROTECH conference and serving as Chairman of the Technical Committee of PETROTECH 1997. He also served as a member on the governing councils of OIDB, CSIR, PCRA and LPG Equipment Research Center. In addition, he advised the Research Councils of a number of PSUs, including GAIL, ONGC, and IPCL. In other service, Dr. Prasada Rao was a member of the Prime Minister's Hydrocarbon Vision 2025 and Rakesh Mohan Petrochemical Committees. Finally, he was Chairman of the Gujarat Refinery Accident Investigation and a member of the Vizag Refinery Accident Investigation, both constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
Recognizing Dr. Prasada Rao with PETROTECH Lifetime Achievement Award for R&D caps a number of other national and international honors Dr. Prasada Rao has received, including Fellowships of INAE, IASc, and IIChE and awards from FICCI, Kamal Kumari, Chemtech, and Bhasin Foundations. Also, he was elected President of Catalysis Society of India and Member of International Association of Catalysis Societies and Editorial Board of the international journal, Applied Catalysis.