Ravindra Datta

Biography

Education: BTech Indian Institute of Technology 1972 PhD University of California, Santa Barbara 1981. I happened upon teaching and research by accident. I had gone to the University of California, Santa Barbara, for a MS in chemical engineering, with the intention of returning to my engineering job at Larsen Toubro, Bombay. Research hooked me, however, and I stayed on for a PhD, and, in fact, never left academia after that. Indeed, my world has remained virtually unchanged over the last three decades, continuing to work on applying the principles of kinetics, catalysis, and reaction engineering to energy challenges, surrounded by bright young people eager to do the same. Sustainable and clean energy constitute some of the biggest challenges facing humanity. While the long-term solution is renewable energy, much can be accomplished in the coming decades simply by improving energy efficiency. Fuel cells and hydrogen represent some of the most promising clean energy technology in this regard, which we have been pursuing since the early nineties. In addition, we have pursued renewable fuels, including ethanol and ethanol-derived ethers, for blending with gasoline. Further, we have developed novel catalysts and approaches to investigate kinetics of reaction networks.

Research Interest

Fuel Cells and Hydrogen; Renewable Fuels; Kinetics of Reaction Networks; Novel Catalysts and Reactors; Multicomponent Diffusion in Catalysts and in Membranes