Natti S. Rao did his B.Tech (Hons) in Mechanical and M.Tech in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in India. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, and then joined BASF AG. He has developed software for designing polymer machinery which is being used by well-known companies in various countries. As proprietor of Plastics Solutions International, a consultancy company, Dr. Rao is presently involved in consultancy work in plastics and chemical engineering, and also holds seminars teaching the application of his software of designing polymer machinery. Dr. Rao has authored four books on designing plastics machinery. He has approximately 60 publications in the fields of extrusion and injection molding and has worked as a visiting professor of Plastics Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai (Madras). Dr. Rao is a fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineering (SPE).