The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an

Indian government 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, ...

laboratory based in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, in western

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was established in 1950. Dr Ashish Lele is the Director of NCL and took charge on April 1, 2021. There are approximately 200 scientific staff working here. The interdisciplinary research center has a wide research scope and specializes in polymer science, organic chemistry, catalysis, materials chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemical sciences and process development. It houses good infrastructure for measurement science and chemical information. National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms (NCIM) is located here and is a microbial culture repository maintaining a variety of industrially important microbial culture stock. There are about 400 graduate students pursuing research towards doctoral degree; about 50 students are awarded Ph.D. degree every year; and the young talent pool adds in every few years. NCL publishes over 400 research papers annually in the field of chemical sciences and over 60 patents worldwide. It is a unique source of research education producing the largest number of PhDs in chemical sciences within India.

Research Groups in NCL

*Physical & Materials Chemistry *Catalysis & Inorganic Chemistry *Chemical biology & Biometic Chemistry *Chemical Engineering Science *Complex Fluidics & Polymer Engineering *Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Catalysis *Industrial Flow Modelling *Materials Chemistry *Nanomaterials Science & Technology *

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J ...

*Plant Tissue Culture *

Polymer Chemistry Polymer chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that focuses on the structures of chemicals, chemical synthesis, and chemical and physical properties of polymers and macromolecules. The principles and methods used within polymer chemistry ar ...

& Materials *Process Design & Development *Theory & Computational Sciences *

Enzymology Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. ...

and

Microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, ...

*Catalytic Reactors and Separation *Polymer Science & Engineering *Biology Division *Digital Information & Resource Centre (DIRC)

Facilities

PES Modern English School

NCL has a primary and secondary school within its premises. Established in 1985 as the NCL School, it has since been renamed the 'Progressive Education Society's Modern English School'. Since 2006 it has been extended to include a

junior college A junior college (sometimes referred to colloquially as a juco, JuCo or JC) is a post-secondary educational institution offering vocational training designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations and workers in ...

Dispensary

NCL also has a

Dispensary A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispens ...

inside its premises which provides free of charge medical assistance to NCL employees and dependants under the CGHS.

Past directors

The organization was headed by many notable scientists since inception. *

James William McBain James William McBain FRS (March 22, 1882 – March 12, 1953) was a Canadian chemist. He gained a Master of Arts at Toronto University and a Doctor of Science at Heidelberg University. He carried out pioneering work in the area of micelles at t ...

(1950-1952) * G. I. Finch (1952-1957) * K. Venkataraman (1957-1966) * B. D. Tilak (1966-1978) * L. K. Doraiswamy (1978-1989) *

Raghunath Anant Mashelkar Raghunath Anant Mashelkar FRS FREng FRSC, also known as Ramesh Mashelkar, (born 1 January 1943) is an Indian Chemical Engineer, born in a village Mashel in Goa and brought up in Maharashtra. He is a former Director General of the Council of ...

(1989-1995) *

Paul Ratnasamy Paul Ratnasamy is an Indian catalyst scientist, INSA Srinivasa Ramanujan Research Professor and a former director of National Chemical Laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He was honored by the Government of Ind ...

(1995-2002) *

Swaminathan Sivaram Swaminathan Sivaram (born 4 November 1946) is an Indian polymer chemist, inventor, institution builder and a former director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He is known for his pioneering work on ''alkylation of tertiary alkyl halide ...

(2002-2010) *

Sourav Pal Sourav Pal is an Indian theoretical chemist, a professor of chemistry at IIT Bombay, and the director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. He was a director of CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, and an adj ...

(2010-2015) * K. Vijayamohanan Pillai (2015-2016) * Ashwini Nangia (2016-2020) * S.Chandrasekhar (2020-2021)

Notable alumni

* Dr Kallam Anji Reddy founder of Dr Reddy Labs. * B D Kulkarni: Known for work on fluidized bed reactor.

References

External links

*
National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms

Dr. Ashish Lele takes charge of NCL
Organisations based in Pune Research institutes in Pune Chemical research institutes Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Chemical industry of India 1950 establishments in Bombay State Government agencies established in 1950 {{sci-org-stub