1980 - B.Tech - Chemical Engineering President & CEO @ Thar Technologies, Pittsburgh & Chennai
Dr. Lalit Chordia received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1980. In 1985, he earned a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from CarnegieMellon University (Pittsburgh, PA).
For the last 25 years, Dr. Chordia has pioneered R & D in, and commercial applications of, supercritical fluid technology, a green materials-processing technology. In 1982, Dr. Chordia co-founded his first company, Suprex Corp. and then served as Vice President of Engineering and R & D. The vision of Suprex was to commercialize the nascent technology of supercritical fluids, and it focused on small scale analytical supercritical fluid systems. With eight years of process and equipment R & D experience, coupled with greater maturity in the market for supercritical fluid technology, Dr. Chordia left Suprex in 1990 to form Thar Technologies. Dr. Chordia’s move enabled him to exploit a growing market for larger-scale supercritical fluid systems and process development services.
Through his technological and commercial leadership, Dr. Chordia has taken Thar from one-employee to a global leader in its field with four technology groups in Pittsburgh and two international subsidiaries (including one in Chennai). Today, Thar offers a complete line of laboratory-through-process scale systems, research and development services, toll processing and technology licensing. Examples of Thar’s involvement in process and equipment development include: drug design and purification, spice and nutraceutical extraction, solvent removal, environmental recovery, electronics cooling and cleaning, smart components, self-sealing systems, high efficiency processing and automated handling. Dr. Chordia is the holder of 12 patents and has over 20 pending patents.
Recognizing his accomplishments, the United States Small Business Administration Office named Dr. Chordia the 2002 U.S Small Business Exporter of the year, an award he won in a competition against companies with up to 500 employees. In the same year, Thar, with Dr. Chordia as the primary investigator, also won a prestigious National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program Award to develop novel electronics cooling technology.
Dr. Chordia is a co-founder of the US-India forum, which promotes business and political cooperation between the USA and India, and an Adjunct Research Scientist at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University. He has been featured in several international publications, including Fortune. He is deeply involved in numerous civic and educational organizations in Pittsburgh.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the development of large-scale supercritical fluid technology, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer this award on him.
