Pradeep Rohatgi

Pradeep K. Rohatgi (born 1943 in Kanpur, India) is a professor of materials engineering, and Director of the Center for Composites at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is a pioneer in the field of composite materials, particularly metal matrix composites.

Rohatgi received his bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering in 1961 from Banaras Hindu University and received the degree of Doctor of Science in Metallurgy from MIT in 1964. The initial discovery of the synthesis of cast aluminum matrix composites including Al-graphite, Al-SiC, and Al-Al₂O₃ particulate cast MMCs was made by Rohatgi in 1965 at the Merica Laboratory of the International Nickel Company in Suffern, New York. This first creation of a cast metal matrix composite material is considered a landmark in the 11,000-year history of metal casting

Rohatgi served as founding director of the Regional Research Laboratories (CSIR) at Trivandrum and Bhopal, and as a professor at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where he pioneered incorporating renewable materials such as coir (fiber from the coconut shell), and banana and sisal plant fibers into polymer composites. He was running the research laboratory in Bhopal at the time of the gas leak disaster, but escaped unharmed and his lab was involved in studying the gas leak. He joined the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee as a Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering in 1986, and is currently Wisconsin Distinguished Professor and Director, UWM Center for Composites.

Rohatgi has been elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Metals, Institute of Metals, Institute of Ceramics, Institution of Engineers, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Third World Academy of Sciences. He has been a consultant to several industries as well as to the government of India, the state governments of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, the World Bank and the United Nations on science, technology and development. Rohatgi has coauthored and edited eleven books, including the first monograph on biomimetic self-healing materials, and over four hundred scientific papers and holds 20 U.S. patents. In March 2006, he was honored by the holding of a "Rohatgi Honorary Symposium" on Solidification Processing of Metal Matrix Composites by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) in San Antonio, Texas. Rohatgi was inducted into the Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Sciences & Letters in 2014.

Rohatgi is a native of Kanpur, India, He is a founding member of the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin.