Rajesh Shende is a Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. He received Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, India and gained post-doctoral research experience at the National Chemistry Institute, Slovenia and University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2008, he joined as a chemical engineering faculty at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Prof. Shende is currently serving on the editorial board of four technical journals, and as a reviewer to more than 35 scientific journals and proposal panels for several federal funding agencies. He has received research grant awards for more than $10 million as PI and CO-PI from the federal and state funding agencies as well as industries, which include NSF CBET, DOE-EERE/BETO, US AFCEC, US ARMY ARDEC, NASA EPSCoR, SD GOED, Honeywell, NineSigma, Proctor & Gamble, and Wurth Electronics-Midcom. He has published more than 140 technical papers and delivered more than 135 technical presentations and invited talks. Prof. Shende has advised/co-advised 22 graduate (MS and PhD) students and many post-doc researchers. During his last sabbatical, he worked as a visiting professor with Professor William Green in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT.