Rate My Professor Rakesh Agrawal

Rakesh Agrawal is the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, where he joined the faculty in 2004. He earned a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, an M.ChE. from the University of Delaware, and a Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His research centers on energy production from renewable sources, particularly solar photovoltaics through solution-based fabrication of thin-film inorganic solar cells, as well as the electrification of chemical manufacturing processes, agrivoltaic farming systems, and energy-efficient separation technologies including distillation and membrane processes. Agrawal has received numerous honors, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, membership in the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the AIChE Founders Award, the AIChE Institute Lecturer designation, and the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on topics such as chalcogenide perovskites, process optimization, and decarbonization strategies, and he holds over one hundred U.S. patents. His work has significantly advanced sustainable energy technologies and process engineering methodologies.