B. D. Kulkarni, born on 5 May 1949 into a Deshastha Brahmin family in Nagpur in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, did his schooling at New English High School and after passing the matriculation with distinction in 1964, he did his pre-university course at Hislop College before joining Laxminarayan Institute of Technology of Nagpur University from where he graduated in chemical engineering in 1970. He continued there to complete his master's degree in chemical engineering in 1972 and enrolled at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (NCL) in 1973 for his doctoral degree under the guidance of L. K. Doraiswamy, a noted chemical engineer and Padma Bhushan recipient. He worked under Doraiswamy, who is credited with developing Organic Synthesis Engineering as a definitive scientific stream, and secured a PhD in 1978 during which time he was invited by Man Mohan Sharma, a Padma Vibhushan laureate, to join the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai but, on advice from Doraiswamy, he remained at NCL where he would spend the rest of his career. He served the institution in various capacities as Scientist C (1979–84), Scientist EI (1984–88), Scientist EII (1988), Scientist F (1988–93) and superannuated as Scientist G in 2010. On the administration front, he served as the Deputy Director and Head of the Chemical Engineering Division. Post-retirement, he served NCL as a Distinguished Scientist and continues his researches.