Pravin L. Shah is President of Rheo-Plast Associates Inc., a consulting firm based in Reading, PA. Rheo-plast provides technical expertise and consultation on polymer rheology and its applications in extrusion, injection molding, and compounding of new blends and alloys with complete laboratory facility for plastics testing and compounding. Pravin has done postgraduate research in rheology and polymer processing. Rheo-Plast provides hands-on consulting service for the extrusion of PVC, polyolefins, and engineering plastics in strip, tubing and profile extrusion. Rheo-Plast offers several training seminars on rheology and extrusion, which are also available on CD-ROM.

Pravin has over 25 years of industrial and consulting experience in polymer rheology, materials science, and extrusion and molding screw and die design. He holds many patents to his credit covering a wide range of new composites from PVC to PEEK materials. Pravin has pioneered many new melt rheology concepts and has developed many proprietary PVC formulations for wire and cable, profile, and sheet applications. Further information can be found on his company's website: http://rheoplastusa.com.

Pravin has published over 50 technical papers, and has authored two major chapters on rheology in a PVC encyclopedia (Edited by L. Nass, Marcel Decker, 1977) and a "Handbook of Engineering Plastics" (Edited by I. Rubin, John Wiley, 1990). He is currently writing a two volume series on (1) Guide to Resin Characterization for Processing and (2) A Handbook of Practical Rheology. He is a senior member of SPE. Pravin has taught polymer rheology and advanced extrusion seminars at many industrial organizations and leading universities around the world. More than 5,000 students have graduated from his Practical Rheology seminar. In 1997 Pravin received the "International Who's Who of Entrepreneurs Award", followed by SPE's "Who's Who in Polymers and Plastics Award" in 2000. In 2001 Pravin received Cambridge, England's prestigious award "Who's Who in 21st Century" for his original and pioneering work in polymer rheology research. He has been a frequent speaker, moderator and seminar instructor at various SPE conferences for more than 20 years.