Former head of Malaysia's rubber research body dies at 76

Chennai, India -- Tan Sri Dr B.C. Sekhar, former director of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM), died of a heart attack on 6 Sep in Chennai aged 76.

Born on a rubber plantation in Ulu Buloh, Malaysia - just a few kilometers from the RRIM experimental station - Sekhar joined the institute in 1949 after graduating from the University of Delhi.

Becoming director in 1966, he turned RRIM into the largest single-crop agricultural research organisation in the world.

Among other accomplishments at RRIM, Sekhar developed latex anticoagulants that increased rubber yield from Hevea trees by delaying the clotting mechanism of Hevea sap.

Sekhar retired in 1993 and two years later founded STI Corp. Sdn. Bhd., a company devoted to marketing the patented rubber devulcanisation process Sekhar developed with the Russian scientist Vitaly Kormer.

STI's De-Link process reportedly restored vulcanised rubber to 75 percent of its virgin properties.

However, tyre and rubber product manufacturers were indifferent to the product at a time of cheap natural rubber and the firm folded in 1998.

Sekhar is survived by his wife, Puan Sri Sukumari, four children and eight grandchildren.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain Publication)