Dr Tridibesh Mukherjee, Deputy Managing Director (Steel), Tata Steel, has taken over as the Chairman of the Committee on Technology of the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) at its 36th annual meeting held in Toronto on 2nd and 3rd June, 2004. The first Indian to be accorded this honour, Dr Mukherjee takes over from Dr Norman Lockington of Dofasco,Canada. Dr Mukherjee's appointment is recognition of the increasing importance of India and the Indian Steel industry in the global scenario.
Amongst the best-known initiatives of the Brussels-based IISI is its initiative on Ultra Light Steel Auto Body (ULSAB) that seeks to develop lighter, safer and economical cars to eliminate threat from competing materials. The Institute is equally committed to encouraging study and research in steels in order to develop and position steels internationally as a material of choice for high end applications, through ILSAP (Internet Learning of Steel Applications and Processes) and steel university. org.
IISI was founded in 1967 in Belgium by frontline steel companies across the world to spearhead the consistent presence of steel as a cutting edge industry in the world of fleet-footed technology development. It provides leadership to global steel by providing a dynamic forum for informed exchange of ideas and technology discussions. Dr Mukherjee, who has been closely associated with major investment decisions of steel and translating the company's vision of cost competitiveness into reality is expected to bring his vast experience to bear on the IISI's current key business areas:

1)    Steel business through short-term outlook and medium-term forecast.

2)    Benchmarking all areas of the business, including technology, energy use, environmental management, human resources, capital utility and safety and occupational health.

3)    Market development by undertaking common projects to develop new applications and defend existing applications against competing materials such as the ULSAB initiative.

4)    Sustainability by addressing environmental and sustainability issues.

5)    Communications by promoting a positive image of steel to society at large.

Dr Mukherjee (61), a Metallurgical Engineer, is a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield, U.K. He joined Tata Steel in 1971, rising up the ranks to key positions such as Chief Metallurgist and Director Scientific Services; on to operations, taking over as Vice-President in 1994, Executive Director on the Tata Steel board on August 1, 2000, and as Deputy Managing Director (Steel) from May 1, 2001. Alongside, he serves on the board of several group companies and is chairman of Tata Metaliks, Sila Eastern Company Ltd and Metaljunction.Com Private Limited besides being associated with several institutions of academic and technological excellence that include adjunct professorship at the IIT Kharagpur and the position of a visiting lecturer at the University of Sheffield.

The Chairmanship of the IISI's Committee on Technology (Techco) comes to Dr Mukherjee as recognition of his outstanding contributions to the standards of excellence attained by Tata Steel. Techco, one of the specialized IISI's committees, organizes large-scale benchmark study of such state-of-the-art technologies as production of steel used for manufacture of exterior panel of automobiles and tin cans. Its latest Technical Exchange Session, 'Managing Technology in Steel Companies', was organised at its 35th Annual Meeting held at IISI in Brussels on 28th/29th May'03. Techco launched a new project, 'Improving the Yield' in October 2003, a large-scale global study to benchmark world-class yields for the main processes of steel production.

This has been one of the focus areas of Tata Steel as well as the Indian Steel Industry and this study will lead the country's technology choice for maximizing yield at every step of the steel-making value chain.

Dr Mukherjee's achievements have been nationally recognized since 1975 when he was conferred with the Metallurgist of the Year Award, followed by the Vasvik Award (1982), the Bhoruka Gold Medal (1985), the Visvesvarayya Gold Medal (1987), the Tata Gold Medal (1996) and the IIM Platinum Medal (1999). He was on the Tata Steel team that won the Franz Edelman Award for Operational Research in April 1994 from the Institute of Operations Research & Management Sciences, at Boston, USA. In 2000, he received the Government of India's (Ministry of Steel) National Metallurgist Award for his contributions in the field of production, research, design, development and environment.