The name of Professor Arun S Mujumdar is synonymous with Drying R&D on a truly global scale. Author of over 540 peer-reviewed journal articles, over 200 book chapters, author of three books and editor of over 60 -including a handbook and an archival journal, mentor of over 65 PhD students, keynote and plenary speaker at scores of international conferences etc, winner of numerous international awards for his distinguished contributions in multi-disciplinary fields, Prof. Mujumdar has had a passion for engineering research, industrial R&D, creativity and innovation even from his graduate student days. Aside from drying his research achievements extend to transport phenomena , fuel cells , thermal energy storage as well as food processing. Over the last decade he has also been interested in R&D policy, management of research as well as implications of globalization and the increasing need for innovation for economic well-being of institutions and nations. He has observed personally how engineering research is funded, carried out, evaluated and rewarded in over a dozen countries. He has formulated his own ideas about schemes that are likely to succeed and those that are likely to fail. His multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural R&D experience in academia as well as industry from around the world makes his views and opinions worth considering seriously to avoid pitfalls the inexperienced are likely to stumble upon. He is founding program chairman of the acclaimed International Drying Symposium (IDS) as well as a number of sister conference series. Professor Mujumdar is recipient of numerous international awards including National level awards from the Government of China as well as the Governors of Jiangsu Province and Tianjin Municipality in China.