Avinash Kumar Agarwal is an Indian mechanical engineer, tribologist and a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
Avinash Kumar Agarwal is an Indian mechanical engineer, tribologist and a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is known for his studies on internal combustion engines, Emissions, alternate fuels and CNG engines and is an elected fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (2013), Society of Automotive Engineers, US (2012), National Academy of Science, Allahabad (2018), Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (2018), International Society for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (2016), and Indian National Academy of Engineering (2015)] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2016. Agarwal has been bestowed upon the Prestigious J C Bose Fellowship of Science and Engineering Research Board. Government of India (August 2019).
Avinash Kumar Agarwal, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, earned his graduate degree in mechanical engineering (BE) from Malaviya Regional Engineering College (MREC) Jaipur (present-day Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur) of the University of Rajasthan in 1994 and did his master’s degree at the Centre for Energy Studies of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi from where he obtained an MTech in energy studies in 1996 Then, he pursued his PhD at IIT Delhi, in Center for energy studies in 1999 for his thesis, Performance evaluation and tribological studies on a biodiesel-fuelled compression ignition engine. Thereafter he moved to the US for his postdoctoral work which he completed at the Engine Research Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison between 1999 and 2001. On his return to India in March 2001, he joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur as an assistant professor. He had seven short stints abroad as visiting professor during this period,at a number of universities.

He published a number of papers and was a member of various research bodies.