Prof. Siva Umapathy served as the Director of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal from 05.09.2018 to 22.08.2023. He is laser spectroscopist and was the Chair of the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry and a Professor of Instrumentation and Applied Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. He is known for his studies of molecular dynamics using Raman Spectroscopy.
Professor Umapathy graduated in Chemistry from Kongunadu Arts and Science College of the University of Madras and joined PSG College of Technology from where he passed MSc in applied science in 1981. Subsequently, he moved to New Zealand for his doctoral studies and secured a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Otago, obtaining a research fellowship from Science and Engineering Research Board, he did his post-doctoral studies at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and University of York. On his return to India, he joined the Indian Institute of Science where he is a Professor and chair of the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. He heads Laser Spectroscopy Group at IISc where he hosts a number of doctoral and post-doctoral scholars.
He has also served as a visiting faculty or fellow at various institutions such as Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology, University of Groningen, Institute of Molecular Science, University of Tokyo, Imperial College of Science and Technology and University of Nottingham.
His researches were centered on Laser spectroscopy and he has carried out extensive work on molecular dynamics using Raman spectroscopy. His group also utilizes other spectroscopic techniques like infra red and is involved in the examination of the molecular structure of cells and tissues. Using Raman spectroscopic techniques, he has developed a method to identify biomarkers in cells which is estimated to assist in early cancer detection. He has published several peer-reviewed articles; ResearchGate, an online repository of science articles, has listed 164 of them.
Prof. Umapathy, holder of Swarna Jayanthi Fellowship (2000) and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology from 2010 to 2020, received the Young Investigator Award for the ICORS Conference at the University of South Carolina in 1989 and Sir C. V. Raman Young Scientist Award of the Government of Karnataka in 2003. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 2004. The same year, he received the Bronze Medal Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India. He is also a recipient of the Raman-Mishishuma Award of the India-Japan Science Promotion Council which he received in 2012. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an elected fellow by the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences India. He has delivered several award orations including the Subbarao Memorial Lecture of Osmania University (1993) and many invited and plenary lectures.
As a Founding Director of IISER Bhopal for more than 10 years (2008-2018), Professor Singh set up the whole campus in 200 acres land from scratch. He served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of SPA Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Directorship of MANIT Bhopal and the Mentor Director of IIIT Bhopal. He had been a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC to PM) during 2009-2014.
Born on 9th September, 1959 in Anantpur, a village near Nizamabad in the district of Azamgarh (U.P.), Vinod Singh had his early education from his native place. He passed high school and intermediate from the Wesley Inter College and B.Sc. (1978) from D.A.V. College, all from Azamgarh. He did M.Sc. in Chemistry from BHU (1980) and Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr Sukh Dev from Malti-Chem Research Centre, Nandesari, Baroda (Degree awarded in 1986 by M.S. University).
Professor Singh spent 2 years for his postdoctoral work in Canada (1985-1987) at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. He subsequently moved to the U.S.A. to do another postdoctoral work (1987-1990) at Harvard University with Professor E. J. Corey, Nobel Laureate. After a brief stint as a Senior Scientist at Neurogen Corporation, CT, USA, Vinod Singh joined IIT Kanpur in 1990 as an Assistant Professor and rose to the rank of Professor, a position he currently holds.
Professor Singh's research falls in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has developed several new chiral ligands/catalysts for enantioselective reactions. One of the chiral catalysts developed in his laboratory, called "Singh's Catalyst", is an efficient chiral organocatalyst for enantioselective aldol reaction in aqueous medium. He has accomplished total synthesis of several bioactive natural products. His work is documented in more than 150 research publications. Furthermore, Professor Singh has guided 33 Ph.D. students and currently has more than 12 students and postdoctoral fellows working with him.
Professor Singh has been recognised with several awards and honours such as Swarnajayanti Fellowship Award (1998), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2004), and Padma Shri (2014), among others. In addition, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS).
Professor Singh is an Editor of an Elsevier journal - Tetrahedron Lett. He is a Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett. and J. Org. Chem. He was conferred upon D.Sc. (honoris causa) by Jabalpur University in 2012.
