Dr. Udipi received his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Akron, USA and was a NASA postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University . He has worked at Phillips Petroleum, Monsanto and Medtronic. He recently retired from Medtronic as a Research Director and Distinguished Scientist. Dr. Udipi has had a successful career spanning over 30 years working and leading projects in such areas as biomaterials, drug delivery coatings, implantable polymers, polymer syntheses, and polymer blends among others. He has 29 US patents and scores of publications in peer reviewed journals. He has made presentations and chaired sessions at national and international polymer and medical conferences.