Ramesh Mashelkar is the former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the former President of the Indian National Science Academy. Mashelkar, a National Research Professor, is also the former Chairman of the National Innovation Foundation and the former President of the Global Research Alliance and the Institute of Chemical Engineers in the United Kingdom. In recognition of his pioneering research contributions in polymer science and engineering, he has been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Associate of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors. There are 44 universities from around the world that have honored him with honorary doctorates.The more than 60 awards won by him include the prestigious TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize, the highest science prize by The World Academy of Science, Business Week (USA) award of Stars of Asia from George H.W. Bush, and the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award, the only scientist to win it so far in three decades. Mashelkar, who was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister for more than 30 years, has been honored with Padmashri, Padmabhushan, and Padma Vibhushan, three of the highest civilian honors.