CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory

Editor-in-Chief, Biochemistry

Richard Armstrong is Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Vanderbilt University. In addition, he is an Investigator at Vanderbilt’s Center in Molecular Toxicology. His research seeks to elucidate the mechanisms of action of enzymes involved in the metabolism of foreign compounds. His research group is evaluating the relationship between the molecular structure and catalytic function of several enzymes, including glutathione transferases and epoxide hydrolases, in an effort to understand how detoxication enzymes cooperate in the metabolism of foreign molecules. Moreover, they are building our understanding of the enzymology of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms. These studies are designed to pave the way for new, more effective antimicrobial agents in order to overcome microbial resistance to current therapeutic strategies for managing a broad range of infectious diseases.

Dr. Armstrong earned a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Marquette University in 1975. After postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago, he began work in the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry at the NIH. In 1980, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Maryland. An international pioneer in the chemical sciences, Dr. Armstrong is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Chair-Elect of the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry.

NCL - Pune, India

Drug Discovery
Advinus Therapeutics

Dr. Debnath Bhuniya is currently employed in Drug Discovery Facility, Advinus Therapeutics, Pune, as Director in Medicinal Chemistry. Prior to that he worked in Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd during 2000-2006, and actively pursued research in metabolic disease area. He did his MSc in chemistry (1991) and PhD in synthetic organic chemistry (1995) from IIT Kanpur, India. After receiving post doctoral experience initially from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan and subsequently from University of Nebraska at Lincoln, USA, he began professional career in the year 2000 as Senior Research Scientist – Medicinal Chemistry, in Dr. Reddy’s. From his research contribution in drug discovery, more than 20 patent applications have been made resulting into 4 new chemical entities for human trial. In addition to new drug discovery, he supervises Advinus employees for PhD degrees, and has corresponded 10 research articles in the area of synthetic organic chemistry.

NCL - Pune, India

Jt. Executive President, Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company Limited  

Dr. Gautam Chatterjee heads the Science and Technology Laboratory of the Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company Limited. His areas of expertise are design and development of new polymers and blends, chemical / polymer synthesis and characterisation and material science.

Dr. Chatterjee joined the Aditya Birla Group in 2011. Prior to that, he worked with General Electric (GE) as a Lab Manager in the GE John F Welch Technology Centre in Bangalore. He was a team leader in the ICI Research and Technology Centre in Mumbai. Dr. Chatterjee started his industrial career at the GE Corporate Research Centre in Schenectady, New York (NY). He completed his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Delhi and Master's degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park, before completing his PhD in Polymer Chemistry from SUNY-ESF, Syracuse, NY.

NCL - Pune, India

Robin D. Rogers serves as Distinguished Research Professor, Robert Ramsay Chair of Chemistry, and Director of the Center for Green Manufacturing at The University of Alabama. In 2010, he was named a Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Senior Scientist for the Institute for Process Engineering in Beijing. His research explores the innovative use of ionic liquids and green chemistry to develop sustainable technologies.  This includes the development of advanced polymeric and composite materials from biorenewable polymers such as cellulose as well as the creation of novel strategies for separation and purification of value-added products from biomass.  Dr. Rogers is also exploring ways to improve the energy efficiency of biomass conversion technologies.  Lastly, his research seeks to improve pharmaceutical performance while at the same time reducing chemical waste from pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Dr. Rogers obtained his PhD in Chemistry from The University of Alabama.  He holds 12 patents and has published over 685 papers on a diverse range of topics.  His work has been cited more than 22,000 times, and he has earned a 71 h-index.  Among his many achievements, Dr. Rogers won the U.S. Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 2005.  Most recently, he was granted the American Chemical Society Separations Science & Technology Award and was elected an ACS Division of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Fellow.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor-in-Chief, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Kirk Schanze is Professor of Chemistry and Chairman of the Organic Chemistry Division at the University of Florida. In addition, he is a Panel Member for the Research Associateship Program of the National Research Council. Dr. Schanze’s laboratory investigates the interaction of light with organic and organometallic materials. Specifically, the laboratory is developing state-of-the-science optical applications such as light emitting devices, fluorescent sensors, solar energy conversion, and non-linear optical phenomena.  In addition, Dr. Schanze has conducted considerable research on the development of thin film-based luminescent oxygen sensor materials to measure air pressure distributions in wind tunnel models.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor, Analytical Chemistry

Jonathan Sweedler is the Eiszner Family Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He is also affiliated with the University’s Institute of Genomic Biology and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Dr. Sweedler has established an international reputation for designing innovative analytical methods to assay complex microenvironments.  He has developed small-volume separation and detection methods and micro and nanofluidic sampling approaches.  Moreover, he has devised applications of these technologies to study novel neurochemical pathways. He has also developed novel metabolomic and peptidomic technologies, using these technologies to discover the role that peptide hormones, neurotransmitters, and neuromodulatory agents play in behavior, learning, and memory.

Dr. Sweedler received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Arizona in 1988.  Since then, he has published more than 300 research papers and been granted 14 patents.  A pioneer in the field of analytical chemistry, Dr. Sweedler has been the recipient of several accolades, including the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, Royal Society of Chemistry’s Theophilus Redwood Lecturer, ACS Analytical Division Award in Chemical Instrumentation, Heinrich-Emanuel Merck Prize, and Gill Prize in Instrumentation and Measurement Science.  He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor-in-Chief, Langmuir

David G. Whitten is Co-Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering and Professor in the Department of Chemical & Nuclear Engineering and Department of Chemistry at the University of New Mexico.  He is internationally recognized as a leading researcher in the field of photochemistry.  His research examines various aspects of spectroscopy, molecular assemblies, diagnostics, interfaces, and conjugated polymers and antimicrobials.  In particular, Dr. Whitten conducted landmark research on the application of metal complexes to photoinduced electron transfer and photochemical conversion of solar energy.

Sandia National Laboratories

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor, The Journal of Organic Chemistry

C. Dale Poulter is the John A. Widtsoe Distinguished Professor of Chemistry as well as Research Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Utah.  He is also Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland.  Dr. Poulter examines the interface between organic chemistry and biology, which has enabled him to pioneer the use of genetics and molecular biology to construct bacterial and yeast strains to produce recombinant enzymes. Among his groundbreaking achievements, he established the mechanisms for biosynthesis of the major metabolic intermediates in the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway.  Moreover, in collaboration with Jim Sacchettini, he discovered the isoprenoid fold found in enzymes that catalyze the major carbon-carbon forming reactions in this pathway.

Dr. Poulter earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.  He has been invited to present over 400 lectures, including the Gassman Lectureship, Willsmore Lectureship, and Hirschman Lectureship. Among his many honors, he has received the Ernest Guenther Award and James Flack Norris Award from the American Chemical Society and the Rosenblatt Prize from the University of Utah.  A Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Poulter has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Chemical Society.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor-in-Chief, Organic Letters

Amos B. Smith, III, is the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry as well as Member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and Associate Director of the Penn Center for Molecular Discovery at the University of Pennsylvania.  In addition, he is both an Honorary Member and Visiting Director of the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo.  Dr. Smith's research is dedicated to natural product synthesis, bioorganic chemistry, and materials science. More than 75 architecturally complex natural products have been prepared in his laboratory. Moreover, Dr. Smith, in collaboration with Ralph Hirschmann, pioneered the design and synthesis of non-peptide peptidomimetics of neuropeptideic hormone/transmitters and protease enzyme inhibitors. In collaboration with Peter Jurs, Dr. Smith developed groundbreaking computerized pattern recognition techniques that make it possible to analyze primate chemical communication.

Dr. Smith received his PhD from Rockefeller University.  To date, he has co-authored over 575 publications and delivered over 600 invited lectures, including plenary lectures at the National Organic Chemistry Symposium and numerous Gordon Research Conferences. His recent honors and awards include Honorary Membership in the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Medal, Yamada Prize, Fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and Inaugural Fellow of the American Chemical Society.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Assistant Director, Editorial Development, Biological Chemistry
ACS Publications

Dr. Anirban Mahapatra joined the American Chemical Society in 2007. His key accomplishments include the successful launch of ACS Chemical Neuroscience, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, and most recently ACS Synthetic Biology. He is currently responsible for the strategic development and management of a portfolio of 14 journals covering biological and medicinal chemistry. He is particularly fascinated by the changing landscape of how scientific information is disseminated. Dr. Mahapatra holds BSc (Honours) and MSc degrees from Midnapore College and Vidyasagar University, respectively. He earned his PhD at The Ohio State University where his scientific contribution on the genetic encoding of the unnatural amino acid, pyrrolysine, resulted in authorships in several research articles. He can be reached at a_mahapatra@acs.org

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Senior Vice President
Journals Publishing Group
ACS Publications

Susan King, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Journals Publishing Group in the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society has over 20 years publishing experience, five at the ACS, where she oversees the ACS portfolio of over 40 journals and specifically manages:

1. Editorial Office Operations, responsible for development and oversight of systems for web-based peer review, and the support of Editors and their  journal editorial offices (300+) located around the world.
2. Journal Production and Manufacturing Operations, responsible for the technical editing, composition and delivery of peer-reviewed journal and book content in print and online formats.
3. Editorial Development, responsible for the ongoing management of the Society’s publications portfolio, to ensure that the editorial scope, mission, and scientific leadership of each journal is responsive to the needs of chemistry professionals and market demands.  This functional area includes responsibility for all content development, including the creation and integration of staff-written content for several journals, and is the nucleus for new product development, undertaken through staff with scientific expertise across the chemistry discipline.

In addition, Susan currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the American Association of Publishers.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Chemical Education

Norbert J. Pienta is Professor and Director of General Chemistry Instruction at the University of Georgia. Dr. Pienta is working to enhance chemical education at all levels of learning. He and his research group have been exploring the use of webbased tools and software to assess students’ ability to master the chemical sciences.  For example, he has examined the role of electronic data collection and visualization models to help students grasp the significance of laboratory data. Based on his research, Dr. Pienta has developed materials for faculty and graduate students to guide them on the application of tested and proven learning theories and best practices in chemistry. Most recently, he has developed tutorials for grade school teachers in the chemical sciences.

Dr. Pienta completed his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying synthetic and mechanistic applications of organic photochemistry. He was then awarded a postdoctoral to study the thermodynamics of carbocation formation in superacid media with Ned Arnett at the University of Pittsburgh and Duke University. Professor Pienta has published numerous research articles and book chapters in organic chemistry as well as chemical education. He is currently writing an innovative textbook for nursing and allied health science students that introduces general, organic, and biological chemistry in a health context by using case studies.

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Editor-in-Chief, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research

Donald R. Paul is Director of the Texas Materials Institute and Professor and Ernest Cockrell, Sr. Chair of the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His research investigates the use of polymers as membranes for the separation of chemicals and as barriers to prevent molecules from diffusing into or out of containers. He also works with polymers to regulate the rate of gas exchange in order to better preserve produce and to control the rate of drug delivery. In addition, he investigates the formulation and characterization of blends and alloys of different polymers that may have useful property profiles. Current research projects include the formation
and characterization of thin glassy polymer membranes, gas separation membranes, reverse osmosis membranes, pervaporation membranes, layered polymer systems, and polymer nanocomposites.

Dr. Paul received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from The University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has been a Member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1988 and was elected to the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 2001. Among his many honors and awards, Dr. Paul has received the Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award, Alan S. Michaels Award for Innovation in Membrane Science and Technology, E.V. Murphree Award, Council for Chemical Research Malcolm E. Pruitt Award, AIChE William H. Walker Award, and Society of Plastics Engineers International Award.

NCL - Pune, India

Deputy Editor, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

Prashant V. Kamat is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. For the past 25 years, he has conducted research on the photochemistry and photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor nanostructures and sensitizing dyes. Professor Kamat seeks to build bridges between physical chemistry and materials science by developing advanced nanomaterials for cleaner, more efficient light energy conversion. His current research efforts focus on harvesting light energy using semiconductor nanocrystals and carbon nanostructures as conducting scaffolds. By tuning the photoelectrochemical response and photoconversion efficiency via size control of CdSe quantum dots and by facilitating the charge transport through 1-D architecture, his research group has provided a new and effective strategy to develop photosensitive electrodes for solar cells.

Professor Kamat earned his doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry from Bombay University and then conducted postdoctoral research at Boston University and The University of Texas at Austin. He has published more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals and edited two books on nanostructured materials. ISI’s ScienceWatch named him among the Top 100 Chemists of the decade 2000–2010.   A Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Chemical Society, Dr. Kamat was honored with the Honda-Fujishima Lectureship Award by the Japanese Photochemical Society and the CRSI Medal by the Chemical Research Society of India.

NCL - Pune, India

Editor-in-Chief, ACS Combinatorial Science

M. G. Finn is Professor in the Department of Chemistry of The Scripps Research Institute, where he also directs the Scripps Predoctoral Training Program in Molecular Evolution. In addition, he holds joint appointments at The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, Center for Integrative Molecular Biosciences, and the Kellogg School of Science and Technology. His laboratory is highly interdisciplinary, focusing its research efforts on the use of viruses as chemical building blocks for catalysts, materials, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostic agents; the development and applications of highly reliable organic transformations for the discovery of biologically active compounds and functional materials; and the use of molecular evolution techniques to develop new enzymes. Dr. Finn’s laboratory engages in many collaborative projects with colleagues within The Scripps Research Institute as well as with research groups around the world.

M. G. Finn received his PhD in 1986 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Professor K. Barry Sharpless on the mechanisms of the asymmetric epoxidation reaction. Next, he was awarded an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University to study metalloporphyrin chemistry. Dr. Finn joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1988, where his group studied the reactivity of Fisher carbene complexes, metal-substituted phosphorus ylides, and a variety of transition metal-catalyzed processes.

University of Californa San Diego

NCL - Pune, India

Kolkata, India

Coordinator for Biology at IISER

Professor LS Shashidhara is a developmental biologist studying the basic mechanism by which various cells/tissues/organs are positioned in their respective places in our body and the processes that determine shape and size of different cells/organs. In addition to carrying out research, Prof Shashidhara has established a strong and interactive biology program in the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune by attracting good faculty and has set up a state-of-the-art biology laboratory. Prof. Shashidhara is deeply interested in education and popularisation of science. He has organised several national and international symposia, workshops and training courses for research scholars as well as for school and college students.

Since 2007, Prof. Shashidhara is the Coordinator for Biology at IISER, Pune.  Prof. Shashidhara is a recipient of several awards including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, CSIR Technology Award and J.C. Bose National Fellowship. He is a Fellow of Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences.

NCL - Pune, India