Pinakin Chaubal

“I have the responsibility to understand the principles and potential impact of the technology megatrends such as digitalization, nano particles and additive manufacturing on our business and production processes.”

Pinakin C. Chaubal works for ArcelorMittal as General Manager, Process Portfolio, Global Research & Development. ArcelorMittal is currently the biggest steel company in the world, with 12 research centers located in Europe and North and South America.  His responsibilities are to manage research programs under the portfolio of Process.  As it is a vertically integrated company, the scope of its production process starts from mining operations and through the entire production flow to the final product that it sends to customers.  The process portfolio is responsible for R &D projects associated with all the production steps and focusses on improving costs through improvements in quality, reliability, productivity, optimizing raw material and energy use, optimizing logistics and ensuring that it meets or exceeds all environmental regulations. An important responsibility is also to develop new processes to allow the team to make newer products required by the market and to provide breakthrough performance that goes to improving bottom line.

He was fortunate that studying in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, he had the opportunity to work on many different topics, other than those related to his thesis. Being housed in the College of Mines and Earth Sciences allowed a broadening of his knowledge across the entire cycle of metals production and use.  Today, in addition to his responsibilities mentioned earlier, he has the responsibility to understand the principles and potential impact of the technology megatrends such as Digitalization, nano particles and additive manufacturing on business and production processes. He finds it really exciting to have this opportunity and truly believes that the broad exposure and opportunities to explore different topics during his time at the department has helped him grow from a process research engineer focusing initially on Blast furnaces for iron production to today’s responsibilities