Dr. Krishnarajanagar Nagappa Ganesh is an Indian Bio-Organic chemist and served as the (founding) director of

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati commonly referred as IISER Tirupati, is an autonomous public university in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. It has been established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in ord ...

(IISER Tirupati) since 2017 till 2023. He is also the founding Director of

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune) is an autonomous public university established in 2006. It is one of the seven Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, and was one of the first IISERs to ...

, that was established in 2006 and served the office till 2017. He is a recipient of the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, Applied science, applied or Fundamenta ...

in chemical sciences (1998) for "his outstanding contribution towards the understanding of the chemical principles of DNA molecular recognition and for his work on various facets of DNA structure and its interaction with drugs and proteins". He is also a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy since 2000. K N Ganesh obtained his BSc (1970) and MSc (1972) degrees in Chemistry from

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univers ...

and did his Ph.D in 1976 from

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

under the guidance of Dr. G.B.V Subramanian. Utilizing a

Commonwealth Fellowship The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries. History The plan was originally proposed b ...

, he pursued higher studies at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he secured a second PhD degree in 1980. Upon returning to India, he joined the

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology ( hi, कोशिकीय एवं आण्विक जीवविज्ञान केंद्र, IAST: ''Kośikīya evam āṇavik jīvavijñāna kendra'') or CCMB is an Indian fundamen ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

in 1981 where he established India’s first DNA synthesis facility and started research to study new motifs of DNA-protein interactions. In 1987, he moved to

National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the CSIR India, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was estab ...

where he rose to become the Head of Organic Chemistry Division in 1994. In 2006, he was chosen as the First Director of the newly founded Indian Institute of Science Education and Research at Pune and in 2017 he was appointed as the first Director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research at Tirupati. The research work of Ganesh is related to the chemistry and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main cl ...

s with special focus on the applications of DNA analogues,

structural biology Structural biology is a field that is many centuries old which, and as defined by the Journal of Structural Biology, deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every le ...

of collagen peptides and

DNA nanotechnology DNA nanotechnology is the design and manufacture of artificial nucleic acid structures for technological uses. In this field, nucleic acids are used as non-biological engineering materials for nanotechnology rather than as the carriers of geneti ...

. He is recognised for his contributions to the design of

Peptide Nucleic Acid Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an artificially synthesized polymer similar to DNA or RNA. Synthetic peptide nucleic acid oligomers have been used in recent years in molecular biology procedures, diagnostic assays, and antisense therapies. Due to ...

(PNA) analogues for effective cell

permeation In physics and engineering, permeation (also called imbuing) is the penetration of a permeate (a fluid such as a liquid, gas, or vapor) through a solid. It is directly related to the concentration gradient of the permeate, a material's intrinsic ...

Awards and recognition

The various awards and recognitions conferred on K N Ganesh include: *

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in 2023 by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

*Fellow of all the three Science Academies in India, namely, the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

, the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

and the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

*Fellow of

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...

(TWAS) *President of Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry of

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

(2012-2013) *

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, ...

of Chemical sciences ( CSIR) *

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...

for Chemical Sciences *

SASTRA-CNR Rao Award SASTRA-CNR Rao Award is an award instituted by SASTRA University, a private and deemed university in the town of Thirumalaisamudram, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, to honor excellence in chemistry and material science, the two areas in which C ...

SASTRA University The Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy, also known as SASTRA, is a private and deemed university in the town of Thirumalaisamudram, Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. SASTRA is ranked by global ranking agencies such as ...

(2015) * H K Firodia Vijnan Bhushan Award (2015) *National Researcher Award in Nanoscience and Technology (2016). The positions that K N Ganesh holds or held include: *Member of various policy making and Project Advisory Committees of Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India *Chairman of Indian Committee of

Lady Tata Memorial Trust Lady Tata Memorial Trust is a philanthropic body established by Sir Dorabji Tata in April 1932 in memory of his wife, Lady Meherbai, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1930 at the age of 50, and succumbed to the disease on 18 June 1931. The Trust ...

*Member of Nanoscience Advisory Group of DST Nanoscience mission *Chairman, DBT Taskforce on Nanobiotechnology *Chairman, Finance Committee of India Alliance -

Welcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

DBT *Chairman of Research Advisory Council of

Institute of Nano Science and Technology The Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) is an autonomous research institution of Department of Science and Technology (India), under the Society Registration Act, 1960, under the umbrella of national mission on Nano Science and Tech ...

Mohali Mohali, officially known as Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, is a planned city in the Mohali district in Punjab (India), Punjab, India, which is an administrative and a commercial hub lying south-west of Chandigarh. It is the headquarters of the Moh ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

*Founding Editor for

ACS Omega ''ACS Omega'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 2016 by the American Chemical Society. The editors-in-chief are Krishna Ganesh and Deqing Zhang. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2021 impa ...

, the first open Access Journal from American Chemical Society

External links

Personal Home Page of K N Ganesh

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ganesh, K N Living people Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Science Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering 1953 births