People

Chandrakumar Appayee

Associate Professor

a.chandra@iitgn.ac.in

● Asymmetric amine catalysis

Associate Professor (Feb 2020 to Present))
Ph.D: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. (2008)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (Dec 2013 to Feb 2020)
  • Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University, New York, USA. (June 2012 – Dec 2013)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Brooklyn College and the City University of New York, USA. (July 2009 – June 2012)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Miami, Florida, USA. (July 2008 – June 2009)

Research Interest:

  •  Development of novel double-hydrogen bond donor catalysts
  •  Asymmetric amine catalysis
  •  Asymmetric synthesis of bio-active molecules
  •  Study of small molecules for targeted diseases

Sriram Kanvah Gundimeda

Associate Professor (Nov 2015 to present)
Ph.D: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India (2001)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (Dec 2009 – Nov 2015)
  • Research Scientist, School of Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. (Oct 2008 – Dec 2009 )
  • Intellectual Property Analyst (Research), John F Welch India Technology Center (General Electric), Bangalore, India. (May 2006 – Sep 2008)
  • Research Scientist, School of Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. (Sep 2002 – Apr 2006)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. (June 2001 – Aug 2002)

Research Interest:

  • Synthesis of photoactive π-conjugated materials for understanding their optical properties
  •  Synthesis of ionic liquids and examining their suitability as photophysical / photochemical media for various photo-processes.

Bhaskar Datta

Associate Professor (Jan 2018 to present)
Ph.D: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA (2004)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (Dec 2011 to Jan 2018)
  • Assistant Professor: Missouri State University, USA. (Jun 2008 – Dec. 2011)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow: Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, USA. (Jun 2004 – May 2008)

Research Interest:

  • Investigation of groove-modified nucleobases on Y-family DNA polymerase activity
  • Construction of metal nanowires based on biomolecular templates
  • Structure-function correlations of unorthodox DNA structures.

Saumyakanti Khatua

Associate Professor (Feb 2020 to Present)
Ph.D: Rice University, Houston, USA (2011)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (Apr 2015 – Feb 2020)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Leiden Institute of Physics, Netherlands (Nov-2011 – March 2015)

Research Interest:

  • Plasmonics
  •  Nano-optics.

Iti Gupta

Associate Professor (Nov 2015 to present)
Ph.D: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India (2005)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, (July 2009 – Nov 2015)
  • Lecturer, Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani, Goa Campus, India. (Jan. 2007 – June 2009)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan (May 2005 – Dec. 2006)

Research Interest:

  • Boron based NIR dyes and their conjugates
  • Derivatives of corroles and N-confused porphyrins with novel properties
  • Metal complexes of Dipyrrins.

Sivapriya Kirubakaran

Associate Professor (Feb 2020 to Present)
Ph.D: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. (2007)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (Jan 2013 to Feb 2020)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, USA. (Jan 2010 – Dec 2012)
  • Visiting Scientist, Whitehead Institute, MIT, USA. (Jan 2010 – June 2011)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Brandeis University, USA. (Oct 2007 – Dec 2009)

Research Interest:

  • Medicinal chemistry and drug discovery,
  • Drug discovery: infectious diseases (H.pylori) and cancer (stomach and lung)
  •  Chemical biology of cancer: Screening of small molecules to identify novel oncogenes.

Sairam Swaroop Mallajosyula

Associate Professor (Nov 2021 to present)
Ph.D: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India (2009)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (Dec 2013 – Nov 2021)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Computer-Aided Drug Design Center, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. (May 2009 – Dec 2013)

Research Interest:

  • Carbohydrate-protein interactions
  • Novel DNA constructs
  • Molecular mechanics force field development

Sudhanshu Sharma

Associate Professor (Nov 2021 to present)
Ph.D: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. (2009)

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (July 2012 – Nov 2021)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Arizona State University, USA (Feb 2011 – June 2012)
  • Postdocoral Fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. (May 2009 – Jan 2011)

Research Interest:

  •  Materials
  •  Electrochemistry
  •  Catalysis

Sudipta Basu

Associate Professor (2018 to present)
Ph.D: Ph.D. (Chemical Biology) at Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany  (2002 – 2006)

Work Experience:

  • DBT-Ramalingaswami Fellow at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune (2012 – 2018)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (2006 – 2012)

Research Interest:

  • Using the tools of synthetic organic chemistry
  • Chemical biology and nanotechnology  to understand mitochondria and related organelle biology in cancer towards next-generation therapeutic

Anirban Mondal

Assistant Professor (August 2021 to present)
Ph.D: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, 2016

Work Experience:

  • Postdoctoral Associate: University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Jan 2021 – Aug 2021)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate: Princeton University, Princeton, USA (Jan 2019 – Dec 2020)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany (Oct 2016 – Dec 2018)

Research Interest

  •  Charge transport in organic semiconductors, excited states, and optoelectronics
  •  Machine learning techniques to explore the chemical space of organic semiconductors
  •  Design of efficient host/guest systems for blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)
  • Donor-acceptor materials for organic solar cells
  • Machine learning potentials for atomistic modeling of materials
  • Proton/ion transport in solid electrolytes

Biswajit Mondal

Assistant Professor (Sep 2021 to Present)
Ph.D: Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (Jadavpur University), 2017

Work Experience:

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel (Feb 2020 – Dec 2020)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA (Dec 2017 – Nov 2019)

Research Interest

  •  Photo-electrochemistry
  •  Electrochemical conversion of value added chemicals
  •  Renewable energy
  •  Spectroscopy (UV-Vis kinetics, FTIR, resonance Raman, cryogenic intermediate trapping and elucidation of reaction mechanism)

Priyabrata Ghana

Assistant Professor (September 2023 to Present) Ph.D: University of Bonn, Germany. (2017)

Work Experience:
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, California Institute of Technology  (Caltech), USA  (Sept 2021 – Sept 2023)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, RWTH Aachen University, Germany (April 2018 – June 2021)
Research Interest:
  • The chemistry of low-valent main group compounds
  • Application of main group compounds in catalysis
  • Complexes with transition metal-main group element multiple bonds
  • Small molecule activation with 3d transition metal complexes
  • Dinitrogen fixation with heterobimetallic complexes