On Alumnus Rajat S. Basu

Dr. Rajat S. Basu received his PhD from UM Physics is 1977. He is now a Senior Principal Scientist for Buffalo, NY-based Honeywell International, where he works with the development of alternate fluids to replace the environmentally detrimental Cholorofluorocarbon (CFC) compounds used as refrigerants and cleaningsolvents.
		Dr. Rajat Basu and Professor J.V.Sengers at "Thermo-2002," a symposium held at the University of Maryland in honor of Sengers 70th birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I received my PhD in Physics from the University of Maryland in 1977 under Professor J.R.Dorfman and then worked as a Post Doctoral Fellow until 1980 under Professor J.V.Sengers jointly at Physics and the Institute of Physical Science and Technology (IPST). My research at Maryland was on transport properties of fluids near the critical point. As a Post-doc, I worked on developing equation for transport properties of steam with Prof. Sengers, which became the standard for the steam table. I participated in International Conferences and Committees on Steam and gained recognition.

Then I joined Allied Chemical (later after a few mergers was renamed Honeywell International, a Fortune 500 diversified company with revenues of over $20 billion) located in Buffalo, NY. Here, with a team of scientists and engineers, I got involved in the development of alternate fluids to replace Cholorofluorocarbon (CFC) compounds. CFCs, used primarily as refrigerants and also in foam blowing agents and as solvents for precision cleaning applications, caused one of the world's largest environmental problems as they were found to deplete the earth's protective ozone layer. UN Environmental Program (UNEP) and US EPA (Clean Air Act) imposed a global ban on CFCs in early 90s and led to intense worldwide research for replacements. I pioneered the development of the equation of state for 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (R-134a), a major replacement for auto and home air-conditioning application. This fluid is currently used in almost all automotive air-conditioning systems in the world and the equation remained as the industry standard for a number of years. Later I successfully led the development of 1-fluoro-1,1-chloroethane (R-141b) as a solvent to replace CFC solvents in cleaning of precision electronic systems. In the process, I have authored or co-authored 56 US and numerous international patents and over 50 publications in various journals and trade magazines. In 1997, I along with several other scientists and engineers from all over the world, were honored by the American Chemical Society (ACS) at their annual meeting in San Francisco, California as "Heroes of Chemistry" for our contribution to the solution of global ozone depletion. I got numerous awards from Honeywell also. I am presently involved in the development of thermodynamic models and pioneering simulation of chemical processes to make these chemicals.

The journey from the Physics Department was a very exciting one, I worked on various research projects for Honeywell R&D Lab, encompassing a wide area of science and technology successfully providing solutions to the major challenge faced of finding alternates to CFCs. I contribute a lot of my success to the UMD graduate school with an excellent breed of graduate students and faculty, where I had a chance to work with Professors Dorfman and Sengers both of whom taught me about independent research in new areas science and to accept new challenges. I am especially indebted to Professor Sengers, with whom I have kept a close contact even now, for bringing me the opportunity to work with engineers and scientists in a multi-disciplinary research environment, which I sincerely pursued for the rest of my career.