Balasubramanian Viswanathan also known as BV, is a highly accomplished Indian material scientist, an emeritus professor at

IIT Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ...

and husband of late Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan, the first woman financial commissioner of

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

. He is well known in the field of catalysis and material science and has been instrumental in setting up and running the first National Centre for Catalysis Research at

. He has authored more than 30 books with top publishers including

Springer Publishing Springer Publishing Company is an American publishing company of academic journals and books, focusing on the fields of nursing, gerontology, psychology, social work, counseling, public health, and rehabilitation (neuropsychology). It was estab ...

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

, covering various aspects of material science, catalysis, nanotechnology, Energy, Fuel cells, CO₂ reduction and has published more than 600 scientific journals. He is considered to be an authority on catalysis and material science in the scientific world and has an H-index of 61 resulting from more than 14,000 citations.

Early life and education

Viswanthan was born in a small village located at the South of India called Kuthanoor in

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore,#Pletcher, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian c ...

district in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

State, India. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, India (1958–1964). He earned his PhD degree at

, India, in 1969. He was married to the late Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan and has a son who is a faculty member in the department of mechanical engineering at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

, United States.

Research career

Prof. B.V joined

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a Public university, public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institutes of ...

as an associate lecturer in the chemistry department and moved up the ladder to a full professor in 1990. In addition to full teaching and research activities, he held various key administrative positions like the head of Materials Research Centre for two terms, head of the department of chemistry, 2001–2003, secretary to

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an Entrance examination (education), entrance examination conducted in India for admission to technical Postgraduate education, postgraduate programs that tests the undergraduate subjects of e ...

(GATE), dean of students (1998–2001), chairman of the

Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

(IIT-JEE) organizing committee. He has been member of many scientific committees appointed by the government of India in the

Department of Science and Technology (India) The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is a department within the Ministry of Science and Technology (India), Ministry of Science and Technology in India. It was established in May 1971 to promote new areas of science and technology an ...

and

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the Government of India, headed by current cabinet (government), Union Cabinet Minister Pralhad Joshi, that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual prope ...

(MNRE).

Popular books authored

* Energy Sources: Fundamentals of Chemical Conversion Processes and Applications Balasubramanian Viswanathan, Elsevier, 2017 * Materials and Processes for Solar Fuel Production (Nanostructure Science and Technology), Vaidyanathan Subramanian, Balasubramanian Viswanathan and Jae Sung Lee, Springer; Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2014 edition (23 August 2016). * Photoelectrochemistry: Principles and Practices, B. Viswanathan and M. Aulice Scibioh, Alpha Science Intl Ltd, 1st Edition (28 February 2014) * Chemical Engineering: A Comprehensive Approach, Kripal S. Lakhi, B. Viswanathan, Alpha Science Intl Ltd; 1 edition (2 December 2013) *Catalysts And Surfaces: Characterization Techniques, B. Viswanathan and R. C. Deka, Alpha Science Intl Ltd (30 May 2010) *Heterogeneous Catalysis, Dipak Kumar Chakrabarty, B. Viswanathan, New Age Science (1 January 2009) * Fuel Cells: Principles and Applications, B. Viswanathan, M. Aulice Scibioh, CRC Press; 1 edition (24 January 2008) * Catalysis: Principles and Applications, B. Viswanathan, S. Sivasanker, A. V. Ramaswamy, Narosa Publishing House, 2002 * Chemical and Electrochemcial Energy Systems, R.Narayan and B.Viswanathan, Orient Longmans Ltd. (1997).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viswanathan, Balasubramanian 1941 births Living people Indian materials scientists People from Thanjavur district Scientists from Chennai 20th-century Indian engineers Engineers from Tamil Nadu