Shri Thanedar is an American businessman and politician, born on February 22, 1955. He grew up in a low-income Marathi family in Belgaum, Karnataka, India, earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Karnatak University and attending a master's program at the University of Mumbai. In 1979, he moved to the U.
S. to pursue a Ph.D.
at the University of Akron, completing it in 1982, and later conducted post-doctoral work at the University of Michigan. He became a U.S.
citizen in 1988.