Prof. Rakesh Agarwal, after graduating from IIT Kanpur in Chemical Engineering in 1975, did his M.S. from the University of Delaware (1977) and Sc.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (1980). Prof. Agarwal is Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University since 2004.

In 2011, Prof. Agarwal was named by President Obama to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor bestowed by the US government on scientists, engineers and inventors. He was awarded the medal with citation of an extraordinary record of innovations in improving the energy efficiency and reducing the cost of gas liquefaction and separation.

Prof. Rakesh Agarwal has worked at Air Products and Chemicals Inc. where he rose to its highest technical position of Air Products Fellow. He is inventor on one hundred eighteen U.S. patents and his ideas have been applied in over one hundred plants with total expenditures in multibillion dollars. He invented several novel gas separation and liquefaction processes that have been used to produce the world's largest natural gas liquefaction plant, ultra high purity gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, argon, ammonia, nitrogen trifluoride (NF etc. for the electronic industry and several highly energy efficient gas liquefaction plants.

At Purdue University, Prof. Agrawal is creating solutions for a future based on solar energy as well as for transition from the current fossil resource based economy. His group is developing new energy system models, novel biomass to liquid fuel processes with high yields of liquid fuel, nanocrystal ink based printable thin film solar cells, and highly energy efficient separation processes.

He has published over one hundred technical papers and has given over 125 invited lectures explaining the concepts underlying his inventions/research and some of these fundamental concepts in separations are included in Chemical Engineering textbooks and taught in classrooms. Prof. Agarwal has received several awards including, J&EHall Gold Medal from the Institute of Refrigeration (UK), Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement from the University of Delaware, Industrial Research Institute (IRI) Achievement Award, C. K. Murthy Memorial Lecture (IIChE), and from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE): Gerhold, Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology, Institute Lecture, Chemical Engineering Practice, Fuels and Petrochemicals Division and Founders awards. He was a Regents Lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles. He has served as a Director on the AIChE's Board and is currently on the Technical Advisory boards of the Dow Chemical Co. Genomatica, Weyerhaeuser, and ATMI. He is also a member of theUSNational Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academyof Engineering.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is conferred on Prof. Rakesh Agarwal for his outstanding contributions to research and development in Chemical Engineering.