Dr. Abhishek Kar is an engineer, innovator, and a technology developer focusing on sustainable solutions addressing climate change. His experience spans strategic, business, and academic sectors - most recently as Regional Associate Product Manager in the Industrial sector for Shell Lubricants. Formerly, he was a Project Leader for Shell Lubricants Technology developing customer-centric solutions in the automotive and industrial space, while also playing the role of a subject matter expert in surface science and colloids. Abhishek's purpose is to be a leader driving competitive advantage in the energy sector through the development of affordable and sustainable energy solutions via technology integration and digitalization that helps address climate change and democratizes access to clean energy across societies. Abhishek has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University and an undergraduate degree from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, India.
Abhishek's work at Penn State focused on colloidal systems, electrokinetic flows, colloidal motors, and chemically-driven transport. As a former Project Leader within Global Commercial Technology at Shell, he has leveraged his training and experience in chemical engineering, especially on interfacial science and lubricants, to influence technology development supporting fuel economy benefits in the automotive sector, improving energy efficiencies in the wind turbine sector, and developing innovations in lubricant product designs. He developed and managed the Lubricants Innovation platform derisking them through a fail-fast methodology.
He has published several breakthrough articles in high-impact factor journals, secured several patents, and presented his research at a number of international conferences including keynote lectures.
He has also won several awards within Shell and received external recognition from the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). He has served as chair/co-chairs at several annual and local conferences.