Prof Ashok Misra

• Distinguished Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

Prof Ashok Misra is Distinguished Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Previously, he was Director, IIT Bombay; Chairman (India), Intellectual Ventures; and Faculty & Dean, IIT Delhi.

A distinguished engineer and scientist, Prof Misra has for more than three decades served in the field of education as a teacher and a researcher. Prof Misra obtained his BTech (Chemical Engineering) from IIT Kanpur in 1968, an MS (Chemical Engineering) from Tufts University in 1969 and PhD in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1974. He also completed the Executive Development Program at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1999.

Prof Misra has been at IIT Delhi since 1977, most recently as Dean, Alumni Affairs & International Programmes. Previously, he was the Head of the Centre for Polymer Science & Engineering from 1991 to 1994, and a Professor since 1986. He has also been a Visiting Scientist at the Monsanto Chemical Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, for many years. He previously worked at Monsanto as a Senior Research Polymer Scientist from 1974 to 1977.

During his tenure as director, IIT-B was made into a leading R&D institute while maintaining its leadership in quality engineering education in India. A distinguished and well-reputed research scientist, Prof Misra has 70 research papers published in international journals, and has been awarded six patents.

His research interests include engineering polymers, polymer blends/alloys, fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites, liquid crystal polymers & their blends, structure-property correlations, polymer rheology & processing and incremental drawing of synthetic fibres and polymer product design.

Prof Misra is professionally affiliated to a number of reputed organisations in the field of science. He is a Senior Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers; Member and International Representative of the Polymer Processing Society; Member, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society of North America; and a Fellow and Life Member of the Society of Polymer Science, India.

Prof Misra has also co-authored a book titled “Relationship of Material Properties to Structure and Estimation of Polymer Properties” with Don J. David in 1999. A second book, titled “Polymer Processing Analysis” is under preparation.