Laxmangudi Krishnamurthy Doraiswamy (1927–2012) was an Indian-American chemical engineer, author and academic, known for his contributions in developing Organic synthesis engineering as a modern science discipline. Chemical Engineering journal of McGraw Hill listed him among the 10 most distinguished chemical engineers in the world in 1988. He was the author of nine texts in chemical engineering, including Organic Synthesis Engineering, a 2001 publication which is known to have introduced the topic as a definitive scientific stream and Heterogeneous reactions: Analysis, Examples, and Reactor Design, reportedly the first comprehensive text in chemical engineering. He was a recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from University of Salford, and University of Wisconsin, besides several other awards and honors which included Om Prakash Bhasin Award, Richard H. Wilhelm Award, William H. Walker Award and Homi Bhabha Medal. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1990, for his contributions to science.
Early life Laxmangudi Doraiswamy, born in Karnataka, did his schooling at Methodist Boys High School, Hyderabad before graduating in chemistry (BSc) from Nizam College, then under the University of Madras. Doraiswamy's English skills had prompted his school principal to advise him to take up literature as a career. He also wrote poetry but none of his poems were published. Choosing chemical engineering for his further education, he secured the degree of BS, in 1946, from Alagappa College of Technology, one of the only two Indian institutions offering chemical engineering for advanced studies at that time. His performance in the engineering examinations earned him a scholarship from the Government of Andhra Pradesh which helped him to pursue further studies at the University of Wisconsin and the twenty one-year old reached Wisconsin when the winter of 1948 was its peak in December. It was during his stay at the University of Wisconsin, he had the opportunity to meet Olaf Andreas Hougen, a known academic in chemistry and a later-day professor emeritus of Wisconsin University, After completing his master's degree in 1950, he continued at the university to secure his doctoral degree in chemical engineering in 1952 for which Hougen reportedly assisted him in getting permission from the Nizam government of Hyderabad, who wanted Doraiswamy to return to India to start serving the government. His doctoral thesis was on semichemical pulping, prepared under the supervision of Hougen and John McGovern of the Forest Products Laboratory, US Department of Agriculture.
Academic and professional career
Doraiswamy's career started at R. L. Carlisle Chemical and Manufacturing Company of Brooklyn for a short stint of two years and he left US for India in 1954 to take up the position of a scientist at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune where he continued his researches in chemical engineering. His tenure at NCL lasted a quarter of a century, rising in ranks as a senior scientist, assistant director (1961), deputy director (1966) and superannuating in 1989, as the first non-chemist to head the organization, after holding the post of the director since 1978. In between, he was reportedly offered the post of the director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the largest research and development (R&D) organisation in India, controlling 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units, but he declined the offer to stay with NCL. It was at this time, NCL entered into a bilateral co-operation agreement with the department of chemical and biological engineering of the Iowa State University and this led to his visit to Iowa, where he met Peter Reilly, the then Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of the university. It is reported that Reilly persuaded Doraiswamy to join the university as the Glenn Murphy Visiting Professor of Engineering which he agreed to and, later, joined the institution as a permanent faculty in 1992 as the Herbert Stiles Professor. During his stay in Iowa, he was involved in various visiting lectures and symposia and became the Anson Marston Distinguished Professor, the highest academic honour for engineering academics at the university. He continued his association with the university even after his retirement in 2001 till his death 2012.
Legacy
Academic contributions In 2001, Doraiswamy published a seminal work, Organic Synthesis Engineering, which defined the subject and introduced it as an independent science discipline. The book emphasized on catalysis and the role of process intensification in enhancing overall productivity and explained the applications of catalysis in organic synthesis. This is reported to be a pioneering attempt in chemical reactions engineering and assisted in conjoining the disciplines of chemical and chemical engineering processes. Another of his work, Heterogeneous Reactions: Analysis, Examples, and Reactor Design, co-authored by M. M. Sharma, is considered as the first comprehensive text on chemical engineering. At NCL as well as at Iowa State University, he mentored 45 research scholars in their post graduate and doctoral studies. He was a visiting professor at six universities and sat at the editorial boards of many refereed journals like Indian Chemical Engineer, the official journal of the Journal of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE). It was during his tenure as the head of NCL, a Centre of Excellence in Catalysis was established which eventually returned several scientific contributions. He headed the working group on Catalysis of the Indo-Russian Science and Technology Cooperation and was instrumental in NCL starting collaborative ventures with Salford University, UK and with the University of Erlangen, Germany.
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