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 halides with trialkylaluminum and olefin polymerization and holds the highest number of US patents by an Indian working outside the US. He is a fellow of several significant professional organizations. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2006, for his contributions to Indian science.

Biography

Sivaram was born in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu on 4 November 1946. His early college studies were at Madras Christian College from where he passed the graduate degree (BSc) in chemistry in 1965 after which he secured his master's degree (MSc) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1967. He has also worked on polymer-layered clay nanocomposites and has been successful in synthesizing several organic modifiers for clay for the preparation of exfoliated nanocomposite of clay. He is the author of Living Anionic Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate, a book detailing his research on Living anionic polymerization. He has also edited two books, Polymer Science, (2 Volumes) and Macromolecular Symposia, Volume 240. Some of his articles have also been compiled as a book, Chemical vapor deposition: thermal and plasma deposition of electronic materials. He is the holder of approximately 100 patents of which 50 are approved in the US. He is known to be the holder of the highest number of US patents by an Indian-based outside the US

Awards and honours The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presenting Padma Shri to Dr. Swaminathan Sivaram, a polymer chemist, at an Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on March 29, 2006 Sivaram, a Bhatnagar Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, is also an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, The World Academy of Sciences, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. efn-ua|Sivaram, a Bhatnagar Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was elected as the Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India in 1992. The Indian National Science Academy elected him as their Fellow in 1998. He is also a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and a recipient of the degree of the Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) from the Purdue University in 2010. The next year, the Society of Polymer Science selected him for the Professor M. Santappa Silver Jubilee Award The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) awarded him their annual honour for Physical Sciences in 1996 and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science presented him with the Professor S.R. Palit Award in 1997. He received the Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India in 2002, followed by the Chemcon R. A. Mashelkar Medal of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2003, the same year as he received the Vishwakarma Medal of the Indian National Science Academy. The same year, he received the Material Scientist of the Year Award of the Materials Research Society of India. He is also a recipient of the Millennium Medal of the Indian Science Congress Association and the K. G. Naik Gold Medal of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

Selected articles

Orations and conferences Sivaram has delivered several award lectures and orations; AVRA Research Foundation Award Lecture, B. D. Amin Memorial Lecture of Chemical Council, Mumbai, Dr. K.T. Achaya Memorial Lecture of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, Shriram Founder Memorial Lecture of Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, New Delhi, Petrotel Distinguished Lecture of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Kanpur, Dhirubhai Ambani Oration of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Mumbai, Professor K. K. Balasubramanian Endowment Lecture of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, N. R. Kamath Memorial Lecture of Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and Professor Kaushal Kishore Memorial Lecture of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore are some of the notable ones. He has been an invited speaker at the meetings of the American Chemical Society in 1985, 92 and 94, International Conferences on Ionic Polymerization (IUPAC) of 1995, 97, 99, 2001 and 2005, World Polymer Congress in 2000, Europolymer Congress in 2001, and the Polycondensation conferences of 1997, 2002 and 2004. He has also delivered keynote addresses at World Polymer Congress in 2004, 2006 and 2011, International Symposium on Materials for Advanced Technologies at Singapore in 2005 and the Indian-China-Singapore Trilateral Symposium on Advances in Nanosciences at Singapore in 2010.

Sivaram was associated with the International Conferences on Ionic Polymerization (IUPAC) for several of their conferences such as World Polymer Congress in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2012 as a member of the International Organizing Committee. He was the chairman of the International symposium on Ionic Polymerization, India in 2005 and was involved in the organization of the Polymers in the Third Millennium of the Society of Chemical Industry at Montpellier in 2001, the Third International Conference on Materials for Advanced Polymerization at Kracow, Poland in 2009, International Symposium "Polycondensation 2010" at Rolduce Abbey, The Netherlands and the 2nd Polymer Congress of the Federation of Asian Polymers Societies at Beijing in 2011.