Prof. Prashant Shripad Kulkarni has a highly interdisciplinary educational background. He completed his post-graduation in Organic Chemistry with Distinctions and obtained his PhD from the Chemical Engineering Division, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, in 2001. Subsequently, he moved to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (DAE), Mumbai, as a KS Krishnan Fellow and worked on the separation of Uranium from leach liquor and wastewater using liquid membranes. After two years of his stint with BARC, he joined Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy & Sustainable Development (ENEA), Rome, Italy as a post-doctoral fellow. In Rome, he was actively involved in the Recovery of Titanium from Municipal Solid Waste project. Thereafter, he has been selected as a Scientist by the Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT), Ministry of Science, Portugal (EU). He got an opportunity to work at the Institute of Superior Technology and Centre for Green Chemical Technology, Lisbon. In Portugal, from 2004 to 2010, he extensively investigated in the domains of green solvents, dioxins – persistent organic pollutants, pervaporation and gas separation membranes and desulphurization of petroleum fuels.

Since June 2010, he is working as a faculty at the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (Deemed University), Ministry of Defence, Pune. He has experience in handling various research projects in the crucial areas of Energy and Environmental Science. In particular, his research is focused on Safe hydrogen development, Bipropellant rocket fuel, Phase change and photocatalytic materials and Heavy metal separations. He has developed several chemical processes and published very high-impact research papers including a single-author one. He has been granted 5 patents in applied research. Further, he was invited for contributing chapters in the Handbook of Combustion and Encyclopaedia of Environmental Health by Wiley and Elsevier, respectively. Since 2020, he has been continuously listed in the top 2% Scientist (Chemical Engineering domain) of the world by Stanford University, USA. He received DRDO-National Science Award for developing an ionic liquid-based bipropellant rocket fuel. Recently, he got an individual grant of 7.5 Crores (INR) from the DRDO for investigating the exciting areas of Safe hydrogen development and its applications. In 2022, he has been appointed as a Director at the School of Energy and Environment, DIAT, Pune.