Kalyani Martinelango is an Associate R&D Director in Dow’s Core R&D Engineering & Process Science organization where she leads a group of Engineers and Chemists engaged in translating discoveries to commercially viable and fully optimized chemical processes.
Martinelango joined the Analytical Sciences group within Dow in 2008 as a Subject Matter Expert in separation and inorganic techniques, where she applied her expertise in support of many Dow businesses. In 2012, she joined the EH&S Analytical Group as the Midland Group Leader where she was responsible for helping key local clients meet their environmental analytical needs. In 2014, Martinelango was named to the Reactive Chemicals Capability Leader role where she was responsible for leading the global Reactive Chemicals group and managing Dow’s Corporate Reactive Chemicals program. She led the development and execution of strategic long-term plans to sustain and enhance the ability of the group to meet the Reactive Chemicals needs of the corporation. In 2017, Martinelango joined the Packaging & Specialty Plastics Characterization R&D where she led a Global team responsible for setting the long-term business analytical strategy and ensuring appropriate lab and process analytical technologies are implemented in the manufacturing plants. Prior to joining Dow, Martinelango was a NSERC Research Fellow in the Analysis & Air Quality Division of Environment Canada in Ottawa, ON.
Martinelango holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas Tech University. She is active in many professional organizations internal and external to Dow. She served on the Texas A&M University Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center’s Technical Advisory Committee from 2015 - 2017. She currently serves as an associate member of the ACS national Committee on Chemical Safety.
In addition to her professional responsibilities, Martinelango served as the Global Chair for Dow’s Asian Diversity Network from 2016 - 2021, where she provided leadership and developed strategy for the network. She serves as the Dow focal point for Ascend, a large pan-Asian professional organization. She was awarded the ERG leadership award from Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers in 2018 and has been named to the Yahoo Finance Top 100 EMpower Ethnic minority future leader list in 2020 and 2021.