B. D. Kulkarni

[8][note 1] B. D. Kulkarni, born on 5 May 1949 into a Deshastha Brahmin family in Nagpur in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, did his schooling at New English High School and after passing the matriculation with distinction in 1964, he did his pre-university course at Hislop College before joining Laxminarayan Institute of Technology of Nagpur University from where he graduated in chemical engineering in 1970.

He worked under Doraiswamy, who is credited with developing Organic Synthesis Engineering as a definitive scientific stream,[10] and secured a PhD in 1978[11] during which time he was invited by Man Mohan Sharma, a Padma Vibhushan laureate, to join the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai but, on advice from Doraiswamy, he remained at NCL where he would spend the rest of his career.

[14] He is credited with introducing an integer-solution approach and novel ideas on noise-induced transitions and his work on Artificial Intelligence-based evolutionary formalisms is reported to have assisted in a better understanding of reacting and reactor systems.

[9] He also serves as one of the directors of Hitech Bio Sciences India Limited, a probiotics and nutraceuticals manufacturer based in Pune[29] and is a member of the advisory committee of the International Conference on Sustainable Development for Energy and Environment (ICSDEE 2017).

[30] The Indian National Science Academy awarded Kulkarni the Young Scientist Medal in 1981,[31] making him the first chemical engineer to receive the honor.