Rate My Professor Tamarapu Sridhar

Professor Tamarapu Sridhar is the Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering within Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering. One of the university’s longest-serving academics, his association with Monash began in 1974 as a PhD fellow in Chemical Engineering. He completed a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Madras in South India and a Master’s degree at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore before commencing his PhD at Monash. After obtaining his doctorate, he held a Senior Teaching Fellow position at Monash for two years, followed by an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He returned to Monash as Senior Lecturer from 1982 to 1986, was promoted to Reader from 1987 to 1992, became Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 1992 to 2003, and served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 2003 to 2013. Currently, he is Vice President of the University’s Indian and Chinese Initiative.

Professor Sridhar’s research interests include polymer rheology, with a focus on measuring the extensional viscosity of polymer solutions and analyzing the behavior of macromolecules in flow fields, as well as gas-liquid reactions, studying the effects of mass transfer on chemical reactions especially at high pressures and temperatures in organic oxidations. He has produced over 140 publications, obtained around 44 competitive research grants individually or as co-investigator, and supervised more than 22 PhD candidates. His achievements are honored by fellowships in Engineers Australia, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK), and the Australian Academy of Science. He received the Australian Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and science, the ESSO Energy Award for outstanding contributions in chemical engineering, the GP Kane Award, and Honorary Fellowship from the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. Professor Sridhar chaired the Institution of Chemical Engineers (Australia) in 2004, served as a member of the ARC Panel on Engineering, and is the founding co-editor of the Korea-Australia Rheology Journal. He is recognized internationally as a consultant on chemical engineering matters.