Rajagopalan Vasudevan

Indian scientist

Not to be confused with R. Vasudevan.

Rajagopalan Vasudevan

Born|

Tamil Nadu

Nationality| Indian
Alma mater| Madras University
Known for| Waste Management
Plastic roads
Awards| Padma Shri
Scientific career
Fields| Chemistry
Institutions| Thiagarajar College of Engineering

Rajagopalan Vasudevan, is an Indian scientist who has worked mainly in waste management. He is currently a professor in Thiagarajar College of Engineering.[1] He developed an innovative method to reuse plastic waste to construct better, more durable and very cost-effective roads. He thought up the idea of shredding plastic waste, mixing it with bitumen and using the polymerized mix in road construction. This method will help in making roads much faster and also will save environment from dangerous plastic waste. He also visited Mahatma schools on 15 April 2008. The roads also show greater resistance to damages caused by heavy rains.[2][3][4][5] His road construction method is now widely used to construct roads in rural India.[6]

## Career

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He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree and M.Sc degree from the Madras University in 1965 and 1967 respectively. He also earned his Ph.D from the same university in 1974. Later in 1975, he joined Thiagarajar College of Engineering as Lecturer and became Professor in 1998.[7]

## Research

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His research mainly deals with waste management specifically use of waste plastics for road and building constructions.[8][9][10]

## Awards

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He was awarded India's fourth highest civilian honour Padma Shri in 2018.[11] The following year, he became a laureate of the Asian Scientist 100 by the Asian Scientist.[12]

## References

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1. ^ Akash Kapur. "India's 'Plastic Man' Chemist Turns Litter Into Paved Roads – Businessweek". Businessweek.com.
2. ^ "Solution to plastic pollution". The Hindu. 10 March 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
3. ^ "India's 'Plastic Man' and His Incredible Innovation". Logical Indian. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
4. ^ "Why India forgot its 'plastic man' and his incredible innovation?". Planet Custodian. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
5. ^ "Chennai professor R Vasudevan invents plastic monoblock technology?". The Economic Times. 3 January 2012. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
6. ^ "Plastic Waste in Rural Roads Construction". PMGSY. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
7. ^ "R Vasudevan". Thiagarajar College of Engineering. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
8. ^ Subramanian, Sribala (30 June 2016). "Plastic roads: India's radical plan to bury its garbage beneath the streets". the Guardian. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
9. ^ Thiagarajan, Kamala (9 July 2018). "The man who paves India's roads with old plastic". the Guardian. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
10. ^ Annamalai, S. (4 February 2012). "'Plastone' blocks have many advantages". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
11. ^ "6 Padma awardees are pride and joy of Tamil Nadu". The Times of India. 26 January 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
12. ^ "The Asian Scientist 100". Asian Scientist. Retrieved 13 March 2025.

## External links

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* Thiagarajan, Kamala "The man who paves India's roads with old plastic" – The Guardian, 9 July 2018

* v
* t
* e

Recipients of Padma Shri in Science & Engineering

1950s|

* Kshitish Ranjan Chakravorty (1954)
* Habib Rahman (1955)
* Laxman Mahadeo Chitale (1957)
* Ram Prakash Gehlote (1957)
* Krishnaswami Ramiah (1957)
* Bal Raj Nijhawan (1958)
* Benjamin Peary Pal (1958)
* Navalpakkam Parthasarthy (1958)
* Surendranath Kar (1959)
* Om Prakash Mathur (1959)
* Homi Sethna (1959)

1960s|

* Anil Kumar Das (1960)
* A. S. Rao (1960)
* M. G. K. Menon (1961)
* Brahm Prakash (1961)
* Man Mohan Suri (1961)
* Paramananda Acharya (1964)
* Vishnu Madav Ghatage (1965)
* Satish Dhawan (1966)
* Maganbhai Ramchhodbhai Patel (1967)
* Hermenegild Santapau (1967)
* M. S. Swaminathan (1967)
* Guduru Venkatachalam (1967)
* Raja Ramanna (1968)
* Nautam Bhatt (1969)
* Amrik Singh Cheema (1969)
* T. V. Mahalingam (1969)

1970s|

* P. R. Pisharoty (1970)
* Moti Lal Dhar (1971)
* Zafar Futehally (1971)
* Devendra Lal (1971)
* Charles Correa (1972)
* N. Kesava Panikkar (1973)
* Govind Swarup (1973)
* Achyut Kanvinde (1974)
* Suchitra Mitra (1974)
* C. N. R. Rao (1974)
* Sitaram Rao Valluri (1974)
* Rajagopala Chidambaram (1975)
* Shambhu Dayal Sinvhal (1976)
* B. R. Deodhar (1976)
* B. V. Doshi (1976)
* Atmaram Bhairav Joshi (1976)
* Janaki Ammal (1977)
* Jugal Kishore Choudhury (1977)
* Prafulla Kumar Jena (1977)
* Vishwa Gopal Jhingran (1977)
* Sibte Hasan Zaidi (1977)

1980s|

* Hari Krishan Jain (1981)
* Gurcharan Singh Kalkat (1981)
* Dinkar Gangadhar Kelkar (1981)
* Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan (1982)
* Satya Prakash (1982)
* V. Narayana Rao (1982)
* Saroj Raj Choudhury (1983)
* Hassan Nasiem Siddiquie (1983)
* María Renée Cura (1984)
* Vasant Gowarikar (1984)
* Pramod Kale (1984)
* Nilamber Pant (1984)
* Myneni Hariprasada Rao (1984)
* M. R. Srinivasan (1984)
* Predhiman Krishan Kaw (1985)
* P. V. S. Rao (1987)
* Ramadas P. Shenoy (1987)
* Saroj Ghose (1989)
* Palle Rama Rao (1989)

1990s|

* Ram Narain Agarwal (1990)
* Laurie Baker (1990)
* M. R. Kurup (1990)
* Rakesh Bakshi (1991)
* B. L. Deekshatulu (1991)
* Narinder Kumar Gupta (1991)
* Shri Krishna Joshi (1991)
* Raghunath Anant Mashelkar (1991)
* Govindarajan Padmanaban (1991)
* Bangalore Puttaiya Radhakrishna (1991)
* A. V. Rama Rao (1991)
* Ganeshan Venkataraman (1991)
* Madhava Ashish (1992)
* G. S. Venkataraman (1992)
* Kailash Sankhala (1992)
* Vinod Prakash Sharma (1992)
* Joseph Allen Stein (1992)
* Manmohan Attavar (1998)
* Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi (1998)
* Anil Kakodkar (1998)
* Aditya Narayan Purohit (1998)
* V. K. Saraswat (1998)
* Asis Datta (1999)
* Indira Nath (1999)
* M. S. Ramakumar (1999)
* M. V. Rao (1999)
* S. K. Sikka (1999)

2000s|

* Vijay P. Bhatkar (2000)
* D. D. Bhawalkar (2000)
* Gurdev Khush (2000)
* Parasu Ram Mishra (2000)
* Sandip Kumar Basu (2001)
* Bisweswar Bhattacharjee (2001)
* V. K. Chaturvedi (2001)
* Ketayun Ardeshir Dinshaw (2001)
* Prem Shanker Goel (2001)
* Goverdhan Mehta (2001)
* C. G. Krishnadas Nair (2001)
* M. S. Raghunathan (2001)
* Sanjaya Rajaram (2001)
* T. V. Ramakrishnan (2001)
* Thirumalachari Ramasami (2001)
* Dasika Durga Prasada Rao (2001)
* Paul Ratnasamy (2001)
* Ashoke Sen (2001)
* Bikash Sinha (2001)
* Suhas Pandurang Sukhatme (2001)
* A. S. Arya (2002)
* Narayanaswamy Balakrishnan (2002)
* Padmanabhan Balaram (2002)
* Dorairajan Balasubramanian (2002)
* Ramanath Cowsik (2002)
* Chaitanyamoy Ganguly (2002)
* Kota Harinarayana (2002)
* Ashok Jhunjhunwala (2002)
* Amitav Malik (2002)
* Katuru Narayana (2002)
* A. Sivathanu Pillai (2002)
* I. V. Subba Rao (2002)
* B. N. Suresh (2002)
* Asok Kumar Barua (2003)
* Shivram Bhoje (2003)
* Jai Bhagwan Chaudhary (2003)
* Sarvagya Singh Katiyar (2003)
* Gyan Chandra Mishra (2003)
* Jai Pal Mittal (2003)
* Sundaram Ramakrishnan (2003)
* Baburao Govindrao Shirke (2003)
* Mahendra Singh Sodha (2003)
* Nagarajan Vedachalam (2003)
* Satish Kumar Kaura (2004)
* Nalini Ranjan Mohanty (2004)
* T. S. Prahlad (2004)
* Vishweshwaraiah Prakash (2004)
* K. N. Shankara (2004)
* Lalji Singh (2004)
* Rajpal Singh Sirohi (2004)
* M. Vijayan (2004)
* Dipankar Banerjee (2005)
* Srikumar Banerjee (2005)
* Banwari Lal Chouksey (2005)
* Bhagavatula Dattaguru (2005)
* Vasudevan Gnana Gandhi (2005)
* Madhu Sudan Kanungo (2005)
* M. Mahadevappa (2005)
* Ramachandran Balasubramanian (2006)
* Harsh Gupta (2006)
* Seyed E. Hasnain (2006)
* Narendra Kumar (2006)
* B. V. Nimbkar (2006)
* Swaminathan Sivaram (2006)
* Thekkethil Kochandy Alex (2007)
* Rabi Narayan Bastia (2007)
* Dilip K. Biswas (2007)
* Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty (2007)
* Kiran Karnik (2007)
* Thanu Padmanabhan (2007)
* Baldev Raj (2007)
* Sudhir Kumar Sopory (2007)
* Khadg Singh Valdiya (2007)
* Kasturi Lal Chopra (2008)
* Joseph H. Hulse (2008)
* Bhavarlal Jain (2008)
* Kaleem Ullah Khan (2008)
* Sant Singh Virmani (2008)
* Pramod Tandon (2009)
* Goriparthi Narasimha Raju Yadav (2009)

2010s|

* Vijay Prasad Dimri (2010)
* Pucadyil Ittoop John (2010)
* Palpu Pushpangadan (2010)
* M. R. S. Rao (2010)
* Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath (2010)
* Ponisseril Somasundaran (2010)
* M. Annamalai (2011)
* Moni Lal Bhoumik (2011)
* Coimbatore Narayana Rao Raghavendran (2011)
* Suman Sahai (2011)
* G. Shankar (2011)
* E. A. Siddiq (2011)
* Subra Suresh (2011)
* V. Adimurthy (2012)
* Rameshwar Nath Koul Bamezai (2012)
* Krishna Lal Chadha (2012)
* Virander Singh Chauhan (2012)
* Y. S. Rajan (2012)
* Jagadish Shukla (2012)
* Vijaypal Singh (2012)
* Lokesh Kumar Singhal (2012)
* Manindra Agrawal (2013)
* Mustansir Barma (2013)
* Avinash Chander (2013)
* Sanjay Govind Dhande (2013)
* Jayaraman Gowrishankar (2013)
* Sharad P. Kale (2013)
* Sankar Kumar Pal (2013)
* Deepak B. Phatak (2013)
* Mudundi Ramakrishna Raju (2013)
* Ajay K. Sood (2013)
* K. VijayRaghavan (2013)
* Sekhar Basu (2014)
* Madhavan Chandradathan (2014)
* Jayanta Kumar Ghosh (2014)
* Ravi Grover (2014)
* Ramakrishna V. Hosur (2014)
* E. D. Jemmis (2014)
* A. S. Kiran Kumar (2014)
* Ajay Kumar Parida (2014)
* M. Y. S. Prasad (2014)
* Brahma Singh (2014)
* Vinod K. Singh (2014)
* Govindan Sundararajan (2014)
* Subbiah Arunan (2015)
* Jacques Blamont (2015)
* N. Prabhakar (2015)
* Prahlada (2015)
* S. K. Shivakumar (2015)
* Mylswamy Annadurai (2016)
* Dipankar Chatterji (2016)
* Satish Kumar (2016)
* Onkar Nath Srivastava (2016)
* Veena Tandon (2016)
* G. D. Yadav (2016)
* Jitendra Nath Goswami (2017)
* Chintakindi Mallesham (2017)
* Amitava Roy (2018)
* Vikram Chandra Thakur (2018)
* Rajagopalan Vasudevan (2018)
* Manas Bihari Verma (2018)
* Uddhab Bharali (2019)
* Baldev Singh Dhillon (2019)
* Rohini Godbole (2019)
* Subhash Kak (2019)

2020s|

* Raman Gangakhedkar (2020)
* Sujoy K. Guha (2020)
* K. S. Manilal (2020)
* Vashishtha Narayan Singh (2020)
* Thalappil Pradeep (2020)
* H. C. Verma (2020)
* Sudhir K. Jain (2020)
* Rattan Lal (2021)
* Subbanna Ayyappan (2022)
* Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay (2022)
* Aditya Prasad Dash (2022)
* Moti Lal Madan (2022)
* Anil K. Rajvanshi (2022)
* Ajay Kumar Sonkar (2022)
* Jyantkumar Maganlal Vyas (2022)
* Khadar Valli Dudekula (2023)
* Modadugu Vijay Gupta (2023)
* Ganesh Nagappa Krishnarajanagara (2023)
* Arvind Kumar (2023)
* Mahendra Pal (2023)
* Bakshi Ram (2023)
* Sujatha Ramdorai (2023)
* Abbareddy Nageswara Rao (2023)
* Narayan Chakraborty (2024)
* Ram Chet Chaudhary (2024)
* Shailesh Nayak (2024)
* Hari Om (2024)
* Eklabya Sharma (2024)
* Ram Chander Sihag (2024)
* Ravi Prakash Singh (2024)
* Ajay Bhatt (2025)
* Ashutosh Sharma (2025)
* Chetan Chitnis (2025)
* M D Srinivas (2025)
* Sethuraman Panchanathan (2025)
* Surinder Vasal (2025)

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