International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 94 (2016) 498–499

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

In Celebration

Professor Arcot R. Balakrishnan on his 65th birthday

Our colleague and friend, Dr. A.R. Balakrishnan, Professor,
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India, celebrates his 65th birthday thisyear. It is our great pleasure to express our sincere acknowledgement for all his outstanding contributions and achievements inthe field of heat and mass transfer.
Professor Balakrishnan was born in Madras (now Chennai),southern part of India, on October 3, 1950. During his pre-collegeyears, he excelled in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry andsimultaneously, developed a special interest in the appliedsciences. Subsequently, he enrolled in the Bachelors program in
Chemical Engineering at the University of Madras in 1967. He
graduated with distinction in 1972 and subsequently, pursued
graduate studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He
obtained his Masters and PhD degrees in 1974 and 1977, respectively. During his graduate studies, he was fascinated by various
heat transfer applications and carried out fundamental studies onheat transfer in packed and fluidized beds under the supervisionof Professor David C.T. Pei. Much of his research outcome on heattransfer at that time involved the analysis on heat transfer in fixedbeds, fluid particle heat transfer in gas-fluidized beds, convective
heat transfer in gas–solid suspension flow through packed beds
and heat transfer characteristics on gas–solid packed-bed systems.
His contributions on gas–solid packed bed systems from his
doctoral work have been highlighted in his review article inIndustrial & Engineering Chemistry Process Design and Development. His doctoral training was also enriched by his association
with eminent Professors including Professors C.L. Tien, K. Reitma,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.11.059

K.G.T. Hollands, M.M. Yovanovich, M.M. Young and Darsh
T. Wasan.
Professor Balakrishnan started his professional career as aResearch Engineer with the Waterloo Research Institute where
he worked on contract research with a consortium of industries
on a project to develop solar domestic space heating systems. Hiscontribution was primarily on developing thermal energy storage
sub-systems. He returned to India in 1978 and subsequently
applied his expertise in heat and mass transfer with particularemphasis on Energy and Environment. His major industrial
contribution was during his association with BHEL (Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited) at their R&D Center in Hyderabad, where hedeveloped prototypes of energy storage devices for medium tohigh temperature applications suitable for small electric utilities.
Subsequently, he was associated with a consulting engineering
company in Chennai, whose German principals, Fichtner at Stuttgart prepared the feasibility report for a 30 MW Solar Thermal
Power Plant. Professor Balakrishnan joined as Assistant Professor
at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai in1988, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1993 and then to fullProfessor in 1995. He served as the Chairman of the Department ofChemical Engineering at IIT Madras during 2003–2006.
Since 1988, his passion for energy and environmental applications of Chemical Engineering continued in both fundamental
and applied research areas. His research work during this period
includes work on heat pump assisted distillation, energy storage
using phase change material, liquid desiccant dehumidification of
air and gases suitable for use with low grade energy sources suchas waste heat or solar energy, augmentation of boiling heat transfer using enhanced surfaces, pool and flow boiling of multicomponent liquid mixtures, two-phase flows with phase change underoscillating conditions and at or near critical conditions, simplified
design procedures for heat and mass transfer processes that
account for the thermal effects thereby avoiding over design, arelook at reactive distillation, etc. He was involved in an Indo-German project on alternatives to CFC’s, an issue of great urgency inview of the global concern over the depletion of the ozone layer.
He is also involved with a technology development mission on hightemperature heat pump applications. His current research work
continues to address the problems of two phase flow and boilingheat transfer at or near critical conditions and under low frequency
oscillations in addition to the study of the phenomena in narrowtubes. Separation of azeotropic mixtures using inorganic salts
and ionic liquids as entrainers to shift the vapor–liquid equilibrium
are also under investigation.
Professor Balakrishnan has been involved in a number of
research and development projects for various industries.

In Celebration / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 94 (2016) 498–499

Significant among these include the regeneration of Carbon Molecular Sieves for Tube Products of India Ltd.; Modeling of Gas Pipeline
Networks in Steel Plants for Electronics Research and Development
Centre, Thiruvanathapuram, southern part of India (an organization which functions from the premises of the former KeltronLtd.); and has been a consultant to Fichtner Consulting Engineers
Pvt. Ltd. In addition, he has been the principal coordinator for anumber of sponsored research projects for organizations such as
Department of Atomic Energy (BARC); Department of Space (ISRO);
Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)-Governmentof India through IIT Madras and KFA, Julich, Germany; Planning
Commission through MHRD; Department of Science and Technology-Government of India etc.
Professor Balakrishnan has guided sixteen doctoral and thirty
four masters students. Two doctoral and two masters students
are currently under his guidance. He has taught courses on FluidMechanics and Heat Transfer in Chemical Engineering at IITMadras in addition to new and innovative courses such as HeatExchanger Technology and Network Synthesis when this was anew area of research. He was a University Grants Commission
Visiting Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering at theIndian Institute of Science, Bangalore in September 2006.
Professor Balakrishnan is a member of many prestigious professional bodies such as the American Institute of Chemical Engineers(since 1974), the Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer (since1989), the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (since 1990),
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (since 1992) andthe Indian Society for Technical Education (since 1996). In addition, he was elected a Fellow of the Tamil Nadu Academy ofSciences in 1996, Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2003 and Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India)
in 2013.
Professor Balakrishnan is the Scientific Secretary of the Asia
Pacific Centre for Energy and Environment. He has edited threeconference proceedings and is the author or coauthor of over hundred and thirty papers published in refereed journals and conference proceedings. He is Editor of the prestigious International
Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer and its companion publication
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, published by Elsevier Science (Oxford) UK. He is the Editor-in-Chiefof The Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India) Series E:
Chemical Engineering and Textile Engineering published bySpringer-Verlag He also serves as the Editor of the Journal ofEnergy, Heat and Mass Transfer. He was a member of the International Scientific Committee of the 12th International Heat Transfer
Conference held in Grenoble, France in August, 2002 and memberof the International Scientific Committee of the 2nd Minsk International Forum in Heat and Mass Transfer held at Minsk, Belarus inMarch 2004.
Over the last three decades, Professor Balakrishnan has trained
many young scholars to meet the needs of industry, research institutes and academia. He is still active and full of ideas about science,499

engineering applications, learning, and how they may evolve. We
congratulate him warmly on his 65th birthday and wish him andhis wife, Anita good health and happiness for many more years
to come. We are grateful for his exemplary contributions in thefield of heat transfer. We look forward to his continued service inacademia marked by achievements and interactions at the highest
scientific and educational level. May he have many more years ofhappiness and success ahead.
W.J. Minkowycz
University of Illinois, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MC 251,
842 West Taylor St, Room 2049 ERF, Chicago, IL 60607, USA⇑

Tanmay Basak
R. Ravi
S. Jayanti
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, Chennai 600036, India⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 44 2257 4173;
fax: +91 44 2257 0509.
E-mail address: tanmay@iitm.ac.in (T. Basak).
S.K. Das
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, Chennai 600036, India
Satyajit Roy
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai 600036, India
R.P. Chhabra
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur 208016, Uttar Pradesh, India
Gautam Biswas
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur 208016, Uttar Pradesh, India
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati 781039, Assam, India
Pradip Dutta
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560012, Karnataka, India
John W. Rose
University of London, Queen Mary College, Department of Engineering,London E1 4NS, England
Adrian Bejan
Duke University, Department of Mechanical Engineering & MaterialsScience, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Jean Taine
Laboratoire EM2C, École Centrale Paris – UPR 288 CNRS, BâtimentPéclet, 92295 Châtenay-Malabry Cedex, France
Available online 12 December 2015