The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territor ...

laboratory based in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

, in western

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was established in 1950. Dr Ashish Lele is the Director of NCL and took charge on 1 April 2021. There are approximately 200 scientific staff working here. The interdisciplinary research center has a wide research scope and specializes in polymer science, organic chemistry, catalysis, materials chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemical sciences and process development. It houses good infrastructure for measurement science and chemical information. National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms (NCIM) is located here and is a microbial culture repository maintaining a variety of industrially important microbial culture stock. There are about 400 graduate students pursuing research towards doctoral degree; about 50 students are awarded Ph.D. degree every year; and the young talent pool adds in every few years. NCL publishes over 400 research papers annually in the field of chemical sciences and over 60 patents worldwide. It is a unique source of research education producing the largest number of PhDs in chemical sciences within India.

Research Groups in NCL

* Physical & Materials Chemistry * Catalysis & Inorganic Chemistry * Chemical Biology & Biometric Chemistry * Chemical Engineering Science * Complex Fluidics & Polymer Engineering * Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Catalysis * Industrial Flow Modelling *

Materials Chemistry Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials scien ...

* Nanomaterials Science & Technology *

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

Plant Tissue Culture Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues, or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. It is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method know ...

Polymer Chemistry Polymer chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that focuses on the structures, chemical synthesis, and chemical and physical properties of polymers and macromolecules. The principles and methods used within polymer chemistry are also applic ...

& Materials * Process Design & Development * Theory & Computational Sciences *

Enzymology An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...

and

Microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

* Catalytic Reactors and Separation * Polymer Science & Engineering *

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

Division * Digital Information & Resource Centre (DIRC)

Facilities

PES Modern English School

NCL has a primary and secondary school within its premises. Established in 1985 as the NCL School, it has since been renamed the 'Progressive Education Society's Modern English School'. Since 2006 it has been extended to include a

junior college A junior college is a type of post-secondary institution that offers vocational and academic training that is designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations or support roles in professions such as engineering, a ...

Dispensary

NCL also has a

Dispensary A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispense ...

inside its premises which provides free of charge medical assistance to NCL employees and dependants under the CGHS.

Past directors

The organization was headed by many notable scientists since inception. * James William McBain (1950-1952) * G. I. Finch (1952-1957) * K. Venkataraman (1957-1966) * B. D. Tilak (1966-1978) * L. K. Doraiswamy (1978-1989) * Raghunath Anant Mashelkar (1989-1995) * Paul Ratnasamy (1995-2002) * Swaminathan Sivaram (2002-2010) * Sourav Pal (2010-2015) * K. Vijayamohanan Pillai (2015-2016) * Ashwini Nangia (2016-2020) * S.Chandrasekhar (2020-2021) *Ashish Lele( 2021-Present)

Notable alumni

* Dr Kallam Anji Reddy founder of Dr Reddy Labs. * B D Kulkarni: Known for work on fluidized bed reactor.

References

External links

*
National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms

Dr. Ashish Lele takes charge of NCL
Organisations based in Pune Research institutes in Pune Chemical research institutes Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Chemical industry of India 1950 establishments in Bombay State Government agencies established in 1950 {{Chem-org-stub