Nitash P. Balsara is a chemical engineer with a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, a master's degree from Clarkson University, and a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.    This was followed by two post-doctoral appointments at the University of Minnesota and the Exxon Research and Engineering Company.  In 1992, he joined the faculty of Department of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York.  In 2000 he moved to Berkeley to join the faculty at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California and to join Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a faculty scientist.  He cofounded two battery start-ups with his students, Seeo and Blue Current.  He had the privilege of learning about electrochemical systems from John Newman.