Buzzingg Celebrate your successes – Big or Small
A great teacher can make you enjoy a topic you don’t particularly like and can change and expand your perspective on what you already know. Faculty members who do the best they can and make sure students are always on their feet, and confront them if they aren’t doing their best, are the ones who make great students. Meet Dr. Ravindra Gaikwad, award winning Professor and Head of Dept. of Chemistry, Pravara Rural Engineering College (PREC), who is transforming his department and the lives of his students through his outstanding academic and research work.
Dr. Gaikwad did his B.Tech. in chemical engineering from Amravati University in 1989. After working for a year in the industry, he realized that his calling is in teaching profession. He joined PREC, Loni as Lecturer in 1990 and is associated with the institution ever since. During this journey, he completed Ph.D. from SGB Amravati University in 2013. His research focus was on treatment of acid mine drainage waste water for removal of heavy metals. Currently he works as Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, PREC, Loni.
Dr Gaikwad has been heading PREC activities as Head of Department for more than 10 years now. Under his leadership, the department has grown in leaps and bounds. It was under his supervision that the department received A-grade from DTE, Maharashtra in 2005. He led the college committee for collaboration with foreign institutes which resulted in signing of MoUs with the prestigious institutions like Adelaide University, Australia and Skovde University, Sweden. He was the Chairman (2005-2010) and Faculty Member (2011-2015) of Board of Studies in Chemical Engineering at University of Pune. He also spearheaded the commencement of interdisciplinary ME Environmental Engineering course at PREC. He regularly organizes various short term courses, workshops, seminars from industry experts at PREC.
Dr Ravindra Gaikwad’s Research areas
It is widely known that untreated industrial effluent badly affects the aquatic life. Heavy metals are frequently found in streams affected by Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) i.e; the outflow of acidic water from mining sites. Current treatment technologies are either inadequate or too expensive to be employed at numerous abandoned mine land sites which are sources of untreated AMD. For example, limestone used for pH adjustment becomes coated with iron oxyhydroxide, reducing its solubility and thereby its capacity to treat the industrial wastewater.
Dr Gaikwad’s research focuses on both the fundamental understanding and modeling of heavy metal removal and on the development of improved technologies for the treatment and management of liquid and solid wastes. His research interests in the field of Tertiary Wastewater treatment include Ion exchange and adsorption kinetics, heavy metal removal using natural resources such as saw dust, mushroom, fly ash, natural zeolite minerals, clay minerals etc. His research interests in the field of Solid Waste Treatment and Management include techniques such as life-cycle analysis and G.I.S. coupled with optimization methods for developing schemes for the optimal integrated management of Municipal solid wastes.
He has offered his consultancy to multiple industrial units in Maharashtra on Wastewater Treatment, Simulation of Wine Industry and Simulation of Azeotropic Distillation Units.
Dr. Gaikwad holds a patent in his name – System For The Treatment Of Acid Mine Drainage Waste By Ion Exchange Technique (Publication Date:06/12/2013, Journal No. – 49/2013, No.1098/MUM/2012)
He has published over 150+ research papers in various national and international journals.
He is an Editorial board member of 16 International Journals and Reviewer in 32 international Journals.
I learned from my research projects that failures are key to success. It taught me that there are really two key traits to pursue research, passion and a positive attitude, and without these I would have never made as much progress as I did.
Dr. Ravindra Gaikwad
Dr. Gaikwad is a member of multiple professional bodies and industrial organizations like AIChE, IIChE and IEI. He is a Life Member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Institution of Public Health Engineers, India; Association of Separation Scientists and Technologists, Indian Desalination Association and Indian Society of Environmental Science and Technology. A firm believer in knowledge sharing and giving maximum industry exposure to his students, he launched the first Students Chapter of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) at PREC in 2007. He also organized the first international level conference PICETE-2008 at PREC which was attended by international experts and students. He has so far managed organization of more than 30 national and state level conferences / seminars at PREC.
One of the reasons I enjoyed my teaching experience so much was because of the great students I had.
Dr. Ravindra Gaikwad
Dr Gaikwad continues to work on developing his students to face modern methods of Personality Tests and Interviews. He wants to put more focus on organizing International level Conferences, Paper Presentations & project competition at PREC as it helps in faculty and student development. He aspires to make his department vibrant and a hub for Entrepreneurship and Placement.
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