V.D. Mehta was an Indian chemical engineer. He was educated at Rajpura, Ambala, and UDCT Mumbai. He was part of Man Mohan Sharma resaerch team at UDCT till 1970. The first paper in an international journal published by Man Mohan Sharma's research team at UDCT was based on V. D. Mehta’s Master’s thesis of 1966[2]. Upon completion of his PhD in 1970, he made significant contribuitions in Indian chemical industry.
Education
V.D. Mehta obtained Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (1964)from UDCT and subsequently MSc (Tech) in 1966. Soon after his MSc Tech he joined Nirlon Synthetic Fibres & Chemicals Ltd, Bombay as Assistant Chemical Engineer but soon returned back to research to obtain PhD (Chemical Engineering) (1970) at University of Bombay Department of Chemical Technology UDCT with Man Mohan Sharma.
Career
In his short research career between 1966 and 1970, Mehta authored four seminal papers[3] in chemical engineering. Following his doctoral research career, he chose to serve chemical industry where he held senior positions. For his expertise, he was known as fibre man.
V.D. Mehta chose not to remain concerned only with the pursuit of research, education, and scholarship and spend his working life in academia but left academia to be a researcher at the helm of affairs in the chemical industry thus bridging research-industry divide. Translational research, innovation and entrepreneurship is at the core of economic growth and national development of any country. Indian Economy needs many more Ph.D. Tech like V.D. Mehta to address academic-industry divide to make India a developed nation. He comes out as a role model. Perhaps, he is the earliest Indian example of a PhD Tech with publications in reputed international journals who took up a full-time career in industry and became an entrepreneur.