Dr. Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh

  • Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Chair Professor and CSIR-Bhatnagar Fellow
  • Fluorescent materials, Photoresponsive materials, Organogels, Molecular probes, Covalent Organic Frameworks
  • ajayagha@srmist.edu.in

Dr. Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh

Prof. Ajayaghosh, currently S. S. Bhatnagar Chair Professor, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai, is the former Director of CSIR-NIIST and a J. C. Bose National Fellow at CSIR-NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram, India. He obtained masters and Ph. D. in chemistry from Calicut University. His research interests are in the areas of organic materials such as fluorescent materials, photoresponsive materials, organogels, molecular probes, covalent organic frameworks etc. He introduced a new class of soft materials namely pi-gels and studied the fundamental science behind the creation of such materials, which was widely accepted by the scientific community. His research findings and publications are well cited with around 20000 citations with an h-index of 70 (Google citations).

His research contributions are recognized with several prestigious awards including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Chemical Sciences (2007), the Infosys Science Prize (2012), Khwarizmi International Award 2012, the Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India (2013), the TWAS Prize for Chemistry 2013 and the Goyal Prize (2019). He was a Swarnajayanti Fellow and Ramanna Fellow of the DST, Govt. India and a DAE Outstanding Researcher. He is a recepient of The Thomson Reuters India Research Front citation award and the Clarivate Analytics (Web of Scince) citation award. He is a Fellow of the three major Science Academies of India, an honorary fellow of the Kerala Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences. Currently, he is a J. C. Bose National fellow of the DST-SERB, Govt. India.

Prof. Ajayaghosh is in the editorial board of several international and national journals. During 2013-2019 he served as an Associate Editor of PCCP (RSC Journal). Currently, he is a senior editor of the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan and in the Editorial/Advisory Boards of Accounts of Chemical Research, Chemical Science, Chemistry –An Asian Journal, RSC Advances, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Langmuir, ChemPhotoChem, and ACS Omega.

He has published 201 peer reviewed research papers, contributed to six book chapters and granted/filed 28 patents. Some of his patents have been sold to inductries. He has mentored 37 researchers for Ph.D. and more than 100 students for their master thesis. He has been a plenary or invited speaker to many national and international conferences and has delivered more than 300 scientific lectures. Ajayaghosh has published the highest number of research papers in the journal Angewandte Chemie by an Indian scientist and his author profile has been featured in the same journal. He is the first chemist to receive the Infosys prize for physical sciences.

He has been helping academic instititions and Government agencies in the country by being in the selection committee, research council, board of studies and governing bodies. He has been keenly interested in mentoring and motivating young scientists and students, several of them are faculties in academic and research institutions in India and abroad.

Prof. Ajayaghosh has proved his leadership quality at various levels in CSIR. He has a rich experience of research and administration for over three decades in CSIR-NIIST at various levels as a scientist, project leader, Head of the Section, Head of the Division, as Dean of AcSIR and as the Director.

As the Director, Ajayaghosh lead CSIR-NIIST as one of the top performing publically funded R&D institutes in the country. Several industrially and socially relevant research projects have been completed and commercialized under his leadership. He mentored a large number of young colleagues who are currently active researchers and leaders in their respective research areas in India and abroad.

In addition to the research and administrative contributions, Ajayaghosh has been actively involved in science education, science popularization, science awareness programmes, organising conferences, workshops etc. He is passionate to give motivational science lectures to students of rural villages, government schools and colleges.

Infosys Science Prize 2012: Jury Citation

Dr. Ajayaghosh has done landmark work that has advanced supramolecular chemistry, most especially in investigations that have led to the design and synthesis of molecular assemblies called organogels (pi-gels), a new class of materials with great potential for photonic and electronic applications. He has demonstrated that these self-assembled nanomaterials can be used to control the electronic energy transfer processes, paving the way for the development of superior light harvesting devices. He has synthesized and characterized nanomaterials that can be employed in organic electronic devices and in optical sensors to detect tiny amounts of TNT and many other biologically relevant substances.

CAMPUS: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Kattankulathur - Chennai
COURSES :

General Chemistry

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