Dr Ashish Lele assumed the charge as the director of CSIR - National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) on Thursday. He specialises in chemical and reactor engineering. Lele began his professional career as a scientist with NCL in 1993 and later served in various capacities, including the chief scientist till 2018. He quit NCL in 2018 to take up the role as a Senior Vice President (R&D) at Reliance Industries Ltd. In 2017, as the head of the Polymer Science and Engineering group at NCL, Lele led a team of scientists in setting up a PET recycling plant at NCL. In the same year, he became the fellow of Indian National Science Academy (INSA). Earlier, he was a fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc). Lele is the recipient of the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar award (2006) and Infosys Prize in Engineering and Computing Science (2012).
