Jnanendra Das Gupta
Jnanendra Chandra Das Gupta was an Indian-born chemist who developed a thermosetting plastic called Indolack while working in the Swedish company Perstorp. This led to the development of the first plastic called "isolit" used in Sweden as a substitute for shellac.
Gupta was born in India. He studied pharmaceutical chemistry under Fritz Ullmann at the Technische Universität Berlin and received a doctorate for his thesis titled "Studien über 2-Chloranthrachinon-3-carbonsäure". His study in Germany was sponsored by the National Council of Education Bengal and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. He began to work in Sweden at Skånska Ättikfabriken AB founded by Wilhelm Wendt in Skåne. In 1918 he developed Indolac based on the formula for bakelite, which he knew about, using formalin and cresol which led to the development of the first thermosetting plastic "isolit" which was a substitute for shellac in Sweden.
