Narayan Ramesh is Lead R&D Director, Engineering and Process Sciences, Core R&D. Prior to taking this role, Narayan was the Characterization and Testing group globally in the Packaging and Specialty Plastics business, the largest businesses within Dow. In this role, Narayan is responsible for supporting the Manufacturing Process Characterization efforts for P&SP and Hydrocarbons and developing a Knowledge and Testing Strategy globally to create novel Knowledge and Lab Automation tools. Narayan has had several leadership roles within Dow, and has led teams that have developed several award winning products including AGILITY™ LDPE and the Dow Powerhouse Shingle. AGILITY ™ LDPE won the R&D 100 award in the market disruptor category and the Powerhouse Shingle has received wide acclaim from thought leaders in the solar industry and has been recognized for its innovation through numerous awards including the 2009 Time Magazine Best 50 Inventions, The 2010 Globe Award, The 2010 Environmental Excellence In Emerging Technology, The 2012 Edison Award for Global Best New Product, and The 2012 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award.
Prior to joining Dow Solar Solutions R&D, Narayan worked at Sabic Innovative Plastics (formerly GE Plastics) where he led a development team to the successful commercialization of the Extem family of polymers. Additionally, Narayan led process development, piloting, and transfer of Extem technology to external tollers and pioneered the scale-up and commercialization of a novel devolatilization extrusion technology.
Narayan received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Osmania University in India, a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rhode Island, and a PhD in chemical engineering from Penn State University. His Ph.D. work focused on “Diffusion in Polymers”. Overall, Narayan is the author or co-author of 34 patents and patent applications, 61 presentations, 9 conference proceedings and 11 refereed journal publications.
Narayan is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Industrial Progress Award, Penn State Alumni Early Career Recognition Award, Diamond Award for the Dow Powerhouse Shingle Development at Dow, the Gold team Award for the launch of the EXTEM portfolio of polymers and the Materials Research Institute Student Research Award for Research Accomplishment at Penn State.