Adusumilli Srikrishna (1955–2013) was an Indian organic chemist and a professor at the department of organic 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 ...

. He was known for his researches on radical

cyclisation A cyclic compound (or ring compound) is a term for a chemical compound, compound in the field of chemistry in which one or more series of atoms in the compound is connected to form a ring (chemistry), ring. Rings may vary in size from three to man ...

and natural products synthesis. He was an elected fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

, National Academy of Sciences, India and the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1997, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Biography

A. Srikrishna was born on the New Year's Day of 1955, in Gudivada, a small town in

Krishna district Krishna district is a district in the Coastal Andhra region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is surrounded on the East by Bay of Bengal, West by Guntur district, Guntur, Bapatla distric ...

of the south Indian state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. He did his graduate studies at the ANR College of Nagarjuna University in 1973 and completed a master's degree from

Andhra University Andhra University is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. It is graded as an A++ institution by NAAC receiving a score of 3.74 on a scale of 4. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Mah ...

in 1975. Enrolling at the University of Hyderabad under the guidance of Goverdhan Mehta, a

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 ...

recipient and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate, he secured an MPhil in synthetic organic chemistry in 1976 and a PhD in 1981 for his thesis, ''Triquinanes – synthesis and transformations'', thus becoming the first PhD awardee of the university. Moving to the US in 1982, he stayed there to complete his post-doctoral studies at the laboratory of Philip Eaton at

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and later with Gilbert Stork at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He returned to India in 1985 to join the

as a teaching faculty at the department of organic chemistry where he spent the rest of his career. He died on 20 January 2013, at the age of 58, while serving as a professor. During his tenure at the IISc, he held various positions such as that of an assistant professor (from 1989), associate professor (from 1994), professor (from 1999) and as the chair of the department (2003–05).

Legacy

Srikrishna focused his research on organic synthesis and his studies have widened the understanding of the synthesis of natural products especially radical cyclisation and annulation based strategies. His contributions are reported in the

racemic In chemistry, a racemic mixture or racemate () is a mixture that has equal amounts (50:50) of left- and right-handed enantiomers of a chiral molecule or salt. Racemic mixtures are rare in nature, but many compounds are produced industrially as r ...

and enantiomeric synthesis of natural products and development of new reagents used in selective organic transformations. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed articles;

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

, an online article repository has listed 379 of them. He sat on the editorial boards of the ''Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy'' during 2002–05 and the ''Indian Journal of Chemistry'', Section B in 2002 and guided 23 doctoral scholars in their studies.

Awards and honors

Srikrishna received the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1987 and the Dr. S. Husain Zaheer Young Scientist Award of Zaheer Science Foundation in 1993. The B. M. Birla Science Award for Chemistry was awarded to him in 1994 and the Indian Chemical Society awarded him the Professor R. D. Desai 80th Birthday Commemoration Award in 1996. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the

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 ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1997. He was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies, viz. the National Academy of Sciences, India,

and the

(2002). A. B. Kulkarni Endowment Lecture of

Bombay University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

(1998), Professor S. Swaminathan Endowment Award of the

University of Madras The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

(2002–03), Acharya J. C. Ghosh Memorial Lecture of the Indian Chemical Society (2008) are some of the notable award orations delivered by Srikrishna.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Srikrishna, Adusumilli Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Chemical Science 1955 births Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Indian organic chemists Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India People from Krishna district Andhra University alumni University of Chicago alumni Columbia University alumni Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science 2013 deaths Scientists from Andhra Pradesh University of Hyderabad alumni

Biography

Legacy

Awards and honors

See also

References