Srinivasan Chandrasekaran (born 1945) is an Indian organic and organometallic chemist, academic and a former chair of the Department of Organic Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Sciences. He was also a former Dean of the Faculty of Science at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

. He was known for his research on

organic reaction mechanisms In chemistry, a reaction mechanism is the step by step sequence of elementary reactions by which overall chemical change occurs. A chemical mechanism is a theoretical conjecture that tries to describe in detail what takes place at each stage o ...

and organic synthesis. and was an elected fellow of 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 Acade ...

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 deve ...

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 ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology 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, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Biography

S. Chandrasekaran was born on 15 November 1945 in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.He did his college studies at the

Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, named after Swami Vivekananda, was formally inaugurated on 21 June 1946 by professor, philosopher, and politician, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. It is in Mylapore, the centre of Chennai, India, on 20 acres (81 ...

Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

from where he completed his graduate and master's degrees and secured a PhD from the same university in 1972, studying under the guidance of S. Swaminathan. His thesis was based on ''

Oxy-Cope rearrangement In organic chemistry, the oxy-Cope rearrangement is a chemical reaction. It involves reorganization of the skeleton of certain unsaturated alcohols. It is a variation of the Cope rearrangement in which 1,5-dien-3-ols are converted to unsaturated ca ...

and on the synthesis of novel

norbornane Norbornane (also known as bicyclo .2.1eptane) is an organic compound and a saturated hydrocarbon with chemical formula C7H12. It is a crystalline compound with a melting point of 88 °C. The carbon skeleton is derived from cyclohexane ring with a ...

derivatives''. Moving to the US, he did his post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of E.J. Corey at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1973–75) and on completion of the studies, worked as a scientist at Syntex Research Laboratories during 1975–76. He stayed in the US for one more year, resuming his research at Corey's laboratory before returning to India in 1977 to join

IIT, Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) Hindi: भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान कानपुर) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was ...

as a lecturer in chemistry. After 12 years of service there, he shifted his base to Bengaluru to continue his service at the

. He held several positions at IISc including those of the chair of Department of Organic Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Sciences as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Science. Chandrasekaran lives in Bengaluru and serves as an honorary professor at the Indian Institute of Science.

Legacy

During his post-doctoral studies with Corey, Chandrasekaran was able to accomplish the synthesis of

gibberellic acid Gibberellic acid (also called gibberellin A3, GA, and GA3) is a hormone found in plants and fungi. Its chemical formula is C19H22O6. When purified, it is a white to pale-yellow solid. Plants in their normal state produce large amounts of GA3. It ...

, a plant growth hormone, successfully for the first time. Later at Syntex, he worked on the synthesis of

beta-lactam A beta-lactam (β-lactam) ring is a four-membered lactam. A ''lactam'' is a cyclic amide, and ''beta''-lactams are named so because the nitrogen atom is attached to the β-carbon atom relative to the carbonyl. The simplest β-lactam possible i ...

antibiotics. Subsequently, working on organic reaction mechanisms, he developed a set of new organic synthesis reagents and using them, accomplished the creation of the carbon constellations. His research has been documented by way of several articles published in peer-reviewed journals and ResearchGate, an online article repository has listed 318 of them. Besides, he has contributed chapters to two books; 3 chapters to the

Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis The ''Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis'' is published in print and online by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The online version is also known as e-EROS. The encyclopedia contains a description of the use of reagents used in organic chemistry. ...

and one chapter to ''Particle Swarm Optimization''. He has also mentored several scholars in their studies and has delivered keynote addresses and plenary speeches. He was involved with the functioning of many science societies; executive committee membership and chair of

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry 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 ...

, chair of the national committee of the Indian National Science Academy, secretaryship of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the presidency of the

Chemical Research Society of India Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) is an India based scientific society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, professio ...

were some of those responsibilities.

Awards and honors

Chandrasekharan received the Basudeb Banerjee Memorial Medal of the

Indian Chemical Society The Indian Chemical Society is a scientific society dedicated in the field of chemistry from India. It was established in 1924 with Prafulla Chandra Ray as its founding president. The same year the society started to publish its "Quarterly Journa ...

in 1988 and the

awarded him 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 or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989. The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as their fellow the same year and the Indian National Science Academy and The World Academy of Sciences followed suit in 1992 and 1999 respectively. The other awards he has received include Silver Medal of the

, Golden Jubilee Commemoration Medal (2007) of Indian National Science Academy and the Alumni Award of Excellence of Indian Institute of Science. He has also held the

J. C. Bose Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contributions ...

National Fellowship of Department of Science and Technology and the Distinguished Fellowship of the

Science and Engineering Research Board Science and Engineering Research Board is a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, established by an Act of the Parliament of India in 2009 ( SERB ACT,2008). The Board is chaired by the Secretary to t ...

Selected bibliography

Chapters in books

* * *

Articles

* * * * *

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrasekaran, Srinivasan Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Science 1945 births Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy TWAS fellows Scientists from Tamil Nadu Tamil chemists University of Madras alumni Genome editing Harvard University alumni History of biotechnology Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science Indian organic chemists Living people Academic staff of IIT Kanpur Indian Tamil people