Chemistry, Chemical Biology & Material Science

Chemistry has become increasingly interdisciplinary as the fundamental queries of sciences focus on the chemical nature of matter.

IISER Pune’s Chemistry division offers research opportunities for the degree of Doctor Philosophy in a wide range of interest from traditional physical, inorganic, organic, organometallic chemistry to new frontiers of chemical biology, material research and nano science.

Some of the current areas of interest:

• Laser spectroscopy of isolated and solvated biomolecules in the gas phase
• Photoelectron spectroscopy of complex polyatomics using synchrotron radiation
• Design, synthesis and characterization of porphyrinoids, photo dynamic therapy
• Synthesis of luminescent materials for organic light emitting diodes
• Biomolecular chemistry of nucleic acids, peptides carbohydrates, and lipids, Nucleic acid
  therapeutics and diagnostic
• Synthesis and conformational analysis of hybrid peptides containing non-natural amino acids
• Design and synthesis of peptides of medical relevance: small molecule inhibitors for HIV-1 and host cell interactions
• Synthetic methodology, total synthesis of natural products, small molecule inhibitors for Proteases and Glycosidases
• Biomimetics, Bio-inspired Chemistry and Nanoscience
• Computational chemistry of condensed phase systems

By cultivating both strong academic relations between our students and faculty, and successful connection between course and research programmes, students at IISER-Pune can succeed at the frontiers of research in chemistry and chemical biology.

Enquiries about chemistry at IISER may be addressed to:  Dr. Aloke Das ( a.das  at  iiserpune.ac.in )

Faculty Positions                      Centres of Excellence

Faculty Members Name Designation Research V. G. Anand Professor Porphyrinoids, Molecular recognition, Luminescent materials Nirmalya Ballav Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Research and Development) Interfacial Materials Chemistry: Fundamentals and Applications Ramakrishna G. Bhat Professor Organic Synthesis and Catalysis: Organocatalysis, Photoredox catalysis, C-H bond functionalization and Transition metal catalysis R. Boomi Shankar Professor Synthetic Inorganic and Materials Chemistry S Sandanaraj Britto Assistant Professor Chemical Biology/Physiology & Optical Molecular Imaging of Whole Organisms Harinath Chakrapani Professor and Dean (International Relations and Outreach) Organic Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Nitric Oxide Prodrugs Srabanti Chaudhury Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Academics, Doctoral Studies) Chemical physics, theoretical biophysics Jeetender Chugh Assistant Professor NMR spectroscopy of biomolecules Aloke Das Professor Gas phase laser spectroscopy, Non-covalent interactions in biomolecules Sujit K. Ghosh Professor Inorganic Chemistry, Materials Chemistry. Boopathy Gnanaprakasam Associate Professor Natural products synthesis, Asymmetric synthesis, Homogeneous catalysis, Flow chemistry, Fluorination methods Hosahudya N. Gopi Professor and Chair, Chemistry Peptides, Peptidomimetics, Foldamers, Peptide Antibiotics and Inhibitors for Protein-Protein Interactions Amrita Hazra Assistant Professor Enzyme mechanisms, Chemical biology of microbes Anirban Hazra Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Academics, Graduate Studies) Theoretical Chemistry Partha Hazra Professor Photophysics and biophysics Srinivas Hotha Professor and Dean (Planning and Communications) Glycochemical Biology M. Jayakannan Professor Polymer chemistry and nano-materials Shabana Khan Associate Professor and Deputy Chair, Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry Raghavendra Kikkeri Associate Professor Carbohydrates, Nanoparticles, Porous Silicon, Sialic acid and Glycomics Moumita Majumdar Associate Professor Main Group Chemistry-Catalysis and Materials Applications Pankaj Mandal Associate Professor Terahertz spectroscop - applications to nanoscience and biomolecule dynamics Arnab Mukherjee Professor Theoretical and computational chemistry, biophysics Muhammed Musthafa Associate Professor Interfacial Electrochemistry, Functionalized Surfaces, Energy Conversion and Storage Devices, Water Splitting, Sensors Angshuman Nag Associate Professor Colloidal nanocrystals, Photophysics, Opto-electronics Pramod Pillai Associate Professor Functional nanomaterials: Hybrid nanostructures for self-assembly, light harvesting and bio-targeting studies. S. G. Srivatsan Professor Chemical biology, nucleic acid chemistry, assay development, functionalised nucleic acids Pinaki Talukdar Professor and Dean (Faculty); and Rahul Bajaj Chair Professor Supramolecular chemistry in lipid membranes, synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. Ramanathan Vaidhyanathan Associate Professor Metal organic frameworks for selective carbon dioxide sequestration Arun Venkatnathan Professor Molecular modelling, fuel cells and computational quantum chemistry Visiting Faculty A. A. Natu Visiting Faculty Organic chemistry, combinatorial chemistry, bio-organic chemistry, biology in drug discovery S. Sivaram INSA Senior Scientist Polymer Chemistry: Synthesis and characterisation of various types of polymers Adjunct Faculty Krishna N. Ganesh Director, IISER Tirupati Biomolecular chemistry of nucleic acids, peptides, lipids; drug development, DNA diagnostics and nanotechnology Independent Scientist Preeti Bhoge WOS-A DST Scientist Glycobiology, nanotechnology Sunita Gadhakh WOS-A DST Scientist Madhuri Vangala WOS-A DST Scientist Carbohydrates, Glycopeptides, New methodologies