Sanjay Rastogi

Sanjay Rastogi is a Professor of Polymer Technology at Loughborough University, UK, and Professor in the Biomaterials program at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He is currently seconded from Loughborough University to Teijin Aramid in Arnhem, Netherlands, where he chairs innovation programs. His academic career spans multiple prestigious institutions including Eindhoven University of Technology, Max Planck Institute for Polymers, and the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India where he was appointed as an Outstanding Scientist by the Council for Science and Industrial Research.

Professor Rastogi's research focuses on the fundamental understanding of structure-property relationships in polymers, with particular emphasis on bio-based high performance polymers, chain dynamics in thermodynamically metastable polymer melts, and hydrogen bonding in synthetic and bio-polymers. His work combines chemistry, physics and rheological aspects of polymer science to develop optimal processing techniques for high-demand applications. His research has led to significant commercial applications, most notably the development of disentangled ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene technology that enabled the creation of Endumax®, a brand for body armor protection materials now employing over 80 staff with projected sales exceeding €15M.

Professor Rastogi has received numerous scientific awards including the Teijin Group Senior Technical Expert award, the Outstanding Scientist designation from CSIR India, and multiple DPI Innovation awards. He has been recognized with best poster awards from Polymer Technology Netherlands and the European Polymer Federation.

With over 21 million dollars in research grants secured, Professor Rastogi has supervised 23 PhD students and 17 Master's students. His research group at Maastricht University includes 2 PhDs, 3 post-docs, and a team of six newly appointed assistant professors. He has been a program coordinator for the Dutch Polymer Institute, representing over 20 chemical industries worldwide, and actively involved in nucleating the Bio-Inspired cluster within DPI.

Professor Rastogi is a frequent user of advanced synchrotron radiation facilities at ESRF (Grenoble), DESY (Hamburg), and Daresbury (UK), where he has developed unique experimental tools including diamond window piston cylinder pressure cells and specialized stretching cells for deformation studies.