Director

Prof. Sunil S. Bhagwat 

 

Prof. Sunil S. Bhagwat took charge as the Director of IISER Pune on April 22, 2023. Prior to joining IISER Pune, Prof. Bhagwat was at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, popularly known as the UDCT, for its former name as the University Department of Chemical Technology.

Prof. Bhagwat succeeds Prof. Jayant Udgaonkar, who led IISER Pune since 2017 and steered the institute through the pandemic years. Prof. Udgaonkar will continue his association with IISER Pune as a faculty member and continue his research in the area of protein folding and physical biochemistry.

A chemical engineer by training, Prof. Sunil Bhagwat was a faculty member at ICT Mumbai for about 35 years. Prof. Bhagwat's research is in the areas of interfacial science and engineering, energy and exergy engineering, computer process simulation, and artificial neural networks. He is passionate about teaching and was elected as the best teacher by students over ten times so far. 

In 2013, his research group won the first prize in the Bry-Air Asia awards for the HVAC for his work in the area of heat-based refrigeration. He was awarded NOCIL Award of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers for Excellence in Design or Development of Process Plant or Equipment in 2012 and the CSMCRI-Chemcon Distinguished Speaker Award at Chemcon Dec 2014. In 2016, the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) bestowed upon him the Best Teacher Award for the year 2016. In 2019, he was selected for the UDCT Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award-Academic category. In 2022, he was awarded the K V Mariwala Award for Industry- Academia interactions by the Indian Chemical Council, and in 2023 he was elected the Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Bhagwat is an active consultant to a wide range of companies in the chemical industry. He has guided 85 masters theses, 45 doctoral theses, has more than 100 international publications and over 80 national/ international conference presentations and 10 national and international patents to his credit.