Tavarekere Kalliah Chandrashekar

Tavarekere Kalliah Chandrashekar (born 1956) is an Indian bioinorganic chemist and a former director of the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, a CSIR subsidiary. He was appointed the director of the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar where he continues as a senior professor at the department of chemical sciences. He is known for the discovery of novel macrocyclic systems and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian Academy of Sciences. 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, in 2001, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Biography

T. K. Chandrashekar, born on the New Year's Day of 1956 in the Indian state of Karnataka, did his college studies at the University of Mysore from where he completed his graduate and master's courses. His doctoral studies were at the Indian Institute of Science under the guidance of V. Krishnan on bioinorganic chemistry and after securing a PhD in 1982, he moved to the US where he did his post-doctoral studies at the laboratories of Hans Van Willigen of the University of Massachusetts, Boston (1982–84) and G. T. Babcock at Michigan State University (1984–86). Using physico-chemical techniques, he elucidated the electronic structure of those macro cycles. He also worked on photodynamic therapy, photosynthetic intermediates and supramolecular systems for molecular devices. He has served as the project investigator for 12 projects by scientific agencies such as Department of Science and Technology, Department of Atomic Energy and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and has guided 26 master's and 17 doctoral scholars in their studies. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2001. He received the Professor Priyadaranjan Ray Memorial Award of the Indian Chemical Society in 2002, followed by the Chemito Award the next year. Holder of the J. C. Bose National Fellowship in 2006, he was elected by the National Academy of Sciences, India as their fellow in 1996