Dr Seshadri Ramkumar, an assistant professor at Texas Tech University, was honoured with the Top Twenty Under-40 award for his achievements in inventing a non-woven military wipe, which has received international recognition.
The Young Professionals of Greater Lubbock honoured Dr Ramkumar as one of 20 young people who have excelled themselves in their profession and have contributed to society at large.
The non-woven military wipe can be used to protect and clean soldiers and military aircraft that have been contaminated with lethal chemicals. The wipe technology developed at Texas Tech has been evaluated for its protection against toxic chemicals and is proved to be one of the best dry-wipe technology available. 
This wipe will be of enormous use to military, first responders and civilian population.
Dr Ramkumar also serves as co-chairman of the Association of the Non-woven Fabrics Industry's India Committee.
Since 2004 he has been making efforts to use US technology to stimulate the non-woven and technical textile industry base in India. He conducts annual conferences in India to enhance India's profile in the field of technical textiles.
Most recently, he played a pivotal role in organizing an international business conference in Mumbai to create awareness on the new emerging field of technical textiles in India. A native of Chennai, he is in charge of the non-woven and advanced materials laboratory at the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech.
Dr Ramkumar noted that the textile industry in India is second only to agriculture in economic importance as it employs 35 million people.
Non-woven technology involves no weaving or spinning, he notes.
'One just needs to put the raw material on one end of the machine and the fabric comes out of the other.' Non-woven fabric is manufactured by putting small fibres together in the form of a sheet or web and then binding them either mechanically with an adhesive or thermally.
Non-weaving machines are 2,000 times faster than weaving machines and these fibres are used for disposable products like filters, and medical garments among others.
The non-woven technology has merits environmentally also.
'We experimented with biodegradable produce as well as coir, cotton and jute and this technology is flexible to natural fibres too,' he said.
The textiles sector in India will be more important in the future and innovations in this field are vital, he said. Currently the sector is worth $55 billion and by 2020, the figure is expected to rise to $115 billion.
"My immediate mission is to promote the growth of the technical textile industry in India. I plan to do this by bringing many international players to India and establishing collaborations with institutes and organizations," he said.
Dr Ramkumar is the founding chairman of the editorial board and editor of technical section of Asia's first comprehensive non-woven and technical textiles magazine, Non-woven & Technical Textiles.
He plans to start collaborative ventures with IITs and US universities so that more Indians get training in non-woven technology. He has a PhD from Leeds University in Britain. He joined Texas Tech in 1998.
