Rahul Banerjee (Bengali:রাহুল ব্যানার্জি, born 1978) is a Bengali Indian organic chemist and a professor at the department of chemical sciences of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. Banerjee, a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, is known for his studies in the field of

Metal–organic framework Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of compounds consisting of metal ions or cluster compound, clusters coordinated to organic compound, organic ligands to form one-, two-, or three-dimensional structures. The organic ligands included ar ...

designing. 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 chemical sciences in 2018. Currently he is one of the associate editor of international peer-review journal Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Biography

Rahul Banerjee, born on 22 March 1978 in the Indian state of West Bengal, graduated in chemistry with honors from the University of Calcutta in 1998 and continued at the institution to earn a master's degree from the prestigious Rajabazar Science College campus in 2000. His doctoral studies were at the University of Hyderabad under the guidance of TWAS laureate,

Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju is an Indian structural chemist, educationist and a professor of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science. He has contributed substantially to the themes of crystal engineering and weak hydrogen bonding. He h ...

, and he received his PhD in crystal engineering and supramolecular chemistry in the year 2006. Subsequently, he moved to the US to do his post-doctoral work at the laboratory of

Omar M. Yaghi Omar M. Yaghi ( ar, عمر مونّس ياغي; born February 9, 1965) is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and a ...

at the University of California, Los Angeles and on his return to India in 2008, he joined the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (NCL) as a scientist at grade C. At the time his next move to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata (IISER) in 2017, he was an E-1 grade scientist at NCL. At IISER, he holds the position of an associate professor and heads the ''Porous Materials Laboratory'' (PMATLAB) where he hosts a number of researchers.

Research and contributions

Banerjee focuses his research on designing

s for improved gas uptake property and is known to have contributed to the field of

structural chemistry Structural chemistry is a part of chemistry and deals with spatial structures of molecules (in the gaseous, liquid or solid state) and solids (with extended structures that cannot be subdivided into molecules). The main tasks are: * The formulat ...

with regard to applications in hydrogen storage and

carbon capture Carbon capture may refer to: * Carbon capture and utilization, where the captured carbon dioxide is used * Carbon sequestration, where the captured carbon dioxide is stored ** Carbon capture and storage, referring to carbon sequestration from point ...

. He has also worked extensively on the design and applications of covalent-organic frameworks in recent years. He has published a number of articles.

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 165 of them. He has participated in several scientific events including the '' Royal Society of Chemistry Roadshow 2017'' held at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune where he was one of the keynote speakers. He is also an associate editor of

CrystEngComm ''CrystEngComm'' is a peer-reviewed online-only scientific journal publishing original research and review articles on all aspects of crystal engineering including properties, polymorphism, target materials, and crystalline nanomaterials. It i ...

, the biweekly journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Awards and honors

During his days at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2008, Banerjee received two honors, viz. the Post Doctoral Recognition Award and the Amgen Post Doctoral Award, both awarded by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the university. The Indian Academy of Sciences selected him as a Young Associate in 2009 and he received two Young Scientist awards in 2011, the

NASI Nasi may refer to: Food Dishes Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian and Malay word for ''cooked rice'', featured in many Southeast Asian dishes *Nasi goreng, a popular rice dish often simply called ''nasi'' *Other Southeast Asian ''nasi'' dishes: **Nasi ...

-Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award and the CSIR Young Scientist Award. Banerjee, who has received the fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, was honored again by the National Academy of Sciences, India and Elsevier in 2014 with the NASI-SCOPUS Young Scientist Award and a year later, he received the Thomson Reuters Research Excellence-India Citation Award. The same year, he received the 2015 B. M. Birla Science Prize in Chemistry and he was selected for the Swarnajayanti Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology in 2016. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards in 2018.

Selected bibliography

* * * * *

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Rahul Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Science Indian scientific authors Living people Scientists from West Bengal Academic staff of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research 1978 births University of Calcutta alumni University of Hyderabad alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry