Ramani Narayan was named MSU University Distinguished Professor -- the highest honor that can be bestowed on a faculty member by the university; Governor’s (State of Michigan) University Award for commercialization excellence; Michigan Green Chemistry Governor’s Award for developing biofoams technology; University Distinguished Faculty Award, Withrow Distinguished Scholar award; Withrow Global leadership award; Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship Chair in Science & Technology Management & Commercialization (University of Lisbon, Portugal); DuPont’s Packaging Award for excellence in Innovation & Sustainability, as part of the Coca Cola Plant bottle team.
He is elected Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors; Fellow of ASTM & ASTM award of merit -- the highest award given by the society to an individual member. First recipient of the William N. Findley Award for “significant contributions to the application of new technologies within the scope of ASTM Committee D20 on Plastic; Award of Excellence from ASTM committee D20 on Plastics for exemplary technical contributions, and valued leadership. Received the James Hammer Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award, for outstanding leadership, and research accomplishments in the field of Degradable Polymers from the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society (BEPS). First recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the BEPS; Research and Commercialization Award sponsored by ICI Americas, Inc. & the National Corn Growers Association.
Science Advisor to the U.S. Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI); Technical Advisor to the WWF BioPlastic Feedstock Alliance, and advisor to EU certification organizations & USDA Biopreferred program, European certification organizations, and other NGOs. U.S. National Academy of Science, Engineering, & Medicine (NASEM) invited committee member reporting on U.S. contributions to global ocean plastic wastes. He is an expert on LCA studies and serves on “Critical Review Panels”.
Founding Chair of ASTM subcommittee D20.96 that developed biodegradable-compostable plastics Specification Standards D6400, and D6868, and D6866 radiocarbon analysis for biobased carbon content. These are used world-wide by regulators, industry, and academic researchers.
USA technical expert to ISO (International Standards Organization) TC 61 on Plastics, and specifically on SC 14 subcommittee on "Environmental Aspects", including convener of WG 3 on Biobased Plastics. Serves on “Critical Review Panels” required by ISO standards that govern LCA, based on ISO 14044, §7.3.3
Narayan has 300+ refereed publications, 32 issued patents, and graduated 24 Ph.D. and 25 Master’s students. Successful entrepreneur, having commercialized several biobased and biodegradable product technologies. Polylactide (Ingeotm) technology development and engineering scale-up studies for Cargill/NatureWorks (www.natureworksllc.com ). This is a 150 k-ton production facility for PLA, the world’s foremost 100% biobased, industrially compostable, and recyclable polymer. He engineered advanced PLA-biopolyester hybrid resin materials that is used commercially for many product applications (www.natur-tec.com ). He developed biobased & biodegradable starch foams to replace persistent, non-biodegradable PE, & PS foams for cushion protection and insulation packaging. Professor Narayan is actively researching biodegradability and compostability of polymer plastics. He is engineering a new flow composter system for treatment of food waste and associated compostable plastics.