Eluvathingal Devassy Jemmis (born 31 October 1951) is a professor of theoretical chemistry at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

, Bangalore, India. He was the founding director of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram (IISER-TVM). His primary area of research is applied theoretical chemistry with emphasis on structure, bonding and reactivity, across the periodic table of the elements. Apart from many of his contributions to applied theoretical chemistry, an equivalent of the structural chemistry of carbon, as exemplified by the Huckel 4n+2 Rule, benzenoid aromatics and graphite, and tetrahedral carbon and diamond, is brought in the structural chemistry of boron by the

Jemmis mno rules In chemistry, the Jemmis ''mno'' rules represent a unified rule for predicting and systematizing structures of compounds, usually clusters. The rules involve electron counting. They were formulated by E. D. Jemmis to explain the structures of con ...

which relates polyhedral and macropolyhedral

boranes A borane is a compound with the formula although examples include multi-boron derivatives. A large family of boron hydride clusters is also known. In addition to some applications in organic chemistry, the boranes have attracted much attention ...

allotropes of boron Boron can be prepared in several crystalline and amorphous forms. Well known crystalline forms are α-rhombohedral (α-R), β-rhombohedral (β-R), and β-tetragonal (β-T). In special circumstances, boron can also be synthesized in the form of ...

and boron-rich solids. He has been awarded

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

in Science and Engineering category (year 2014) by the Government of India.

Education

E. D. Jemmis, after obtaining his BSc from University College, Thiruvananthapuram and St. Thomas College, Thrissur and MSc from

IIT Kanpur The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT- Kanpur or IIT-K) is a public institute of technology located in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), it was declared an Institute of National Importance by th ...

, joined

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

(1973) under the supervision of Profs Paul von Rague Schleyer and

John Pople Sir John Anthony Pople (31 October 1925 – 15 March 2004) was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. Ear ...

(1998 Nobel laureate). Moving along with his supervisors Jemmis spent one semester at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

and four semesters at the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg. He was awarded the PhD degree (1978) from Princeton. After a two-year postdoctoral work at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

with Professor

Roald Hoffmann Roald Hoffmann (born Roald Safran; July 18, 1937) is a Polish-American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He has also published plays and poetry. He is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at C ...

(1981 Nobel laureate), he joined the School of Chemistry,

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a prestigious public central research university located in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Established in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students and 400 faculty, from ...

(1980) rising to the rank of professor (1990) and dean (2002). Jemmis was a visiting fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, Canberra (1991) and a visiting professor at the Centre for Computational Quantum Chemistry of the University of Georgia, Athens (2000). Jemmis is an honorary professor at JNCASR and an adjunct professor at ICTS-TIFR. In 2005 he accepted an invitation from the

(IISc), Bangalore, and joined the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. In 2008 Dr. Jemmis moved again, this time on a five-year deputation, accepting the responsibility to start the

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Vithura, Thiruvananthapuram (IISER Thiruvananthapuram or IISER-TVM) is an autonomous public university located in Vithura, Kerala, India. The institute is one of the seven Indian Institutes of S ...

and served there till 2013.

Research

Jemmis is engaged in the study of structure and reactivity of molecules, clusters and solids using theoretical methods. A constant attempt is made by his group to find common threads between problems of different areas, viz. between organic and organometallic chemistry; amongst the chemistry of various main group elements; between polymorphs of elements and their compounds; etc. His research group not only gets numbers as an answer to a problem, but also tries to find out why the numbers turn out the way they do, based on overlap of orbitals, perturbation theory and symmetry, and devise transferable models. Significant results have been obtained in understanding the reactions of transition metal

organometallic Organometallic chemistry is the study of organometallic compounds, chemical compounds containing at least one chemical bond between a carbon atom of an organic molecule and a metal, including alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals, and so ...

s, week

H-bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (H-bond) is a specific type of molecular interaction that exhibits partial covalent character and cannot be described as a purely electrostatic force. It occurs when a hydrogen (H) atom, covalently bonded to a more ...

, electronic structure of three-dimensional

aromatic In organic chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property describing the way in which a conjugated system, conjugated ring of unsaturated bonds, lone pairs, or empty orbitals exhibits a stabilization stronger than would be expected from conjugati ...

compounds, polyhedral

carboranes Carboranes (or carbaboranes) are electron-delocalized (non-classically bonded) clusters composed of boron, carbon and hydrogen atoms.Grimes, R. N., ''Carboranes 3rd Ed.'', Elsevier, Amsterdam and New York (2016), . Like many of the related boron ...

, silaboranes, electron counting rules for polycondensation, and structure of

boron Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...

allotropes. The latter involved an extension of the Wade's Rules for polyhedral boranes to macropolyhedral boranes and the Huckel 4n+2 Rule to three dimensions. The

for polyhedral boranes have found a place in textbooks and are being taught in Inorganic Chemistry Courses in leading educational institutions around the world. Just as the basic tenets of the structural chemistry of carbon has stood the test of time, and led to major developments in carbon, the edifice of the structural chemistry expounded by Jemmis has already begun to do so for boron. Several of his predictions have been proved experimentally. He has mentored 20 PhD students and several postdoctoral and students and research associates, and published about 200 research articles.

Memberships and honors

*Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1992) *

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, New Delhi (1994) *Robert S. Mulliken Lecture,

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

, Athens, USA (2004) *Fellow of the

Academy of Sciences for the Developing World The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 100 countries. Its principal aim is t ...

, Trieste, Italy (2004). *J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi (2006) *"Prof. T. Navaneeth Rao National Best Teacher Award" in Chemistry (2006). *

Award (2014) by the Government of India. *

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) since 1985. Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics ...

(2003)

References

External links

E. D. Jemmis home page at Indian Institute of ScienceIISER-TVMINSA INDIAElectron counting continues to add upBoron flat out
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jemmis, Eluvathingal Devassy 1951 births 20th-century Indian chemists Living people People from Thrissur district Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering St. Thomas College, Thrissur alumni Scientists from Kerala Indian computational chemists Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science TWAS laureates