Adusumilli Srikrishna

Adusumilli Srikrishna (1955–2013) was an Indian organic chemist and a professor at the department of organic chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science.[1] He was known for his researches on radical cyclisation and natural products synthesis[2] and was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy[3] National Academy of Sciences, India[4] and the Indian Academy of Sciences[5] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 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.[6]

Adusumilli Srikrishna
Born	(1955-01-01)1 January 1955 Gudivada, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh, India
Died	20 January 2013(2013-01-20) (aged 58)
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	Nagarjuna University Andhra University University of Hyderabad University of Chicago Columbia University
Known for	Studies on radical cyclisation and natural products synthesis
Awards	1987 INSA Young Scientist Medal 1993 Dr. S. Husain Zaheer Young Scientist Award 1994 B. M. Birla Science Award 1996 ICS Professor R. D. Desai 80th Birthday Commemoration Award 1997 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
Scientific career
Fields	Organic chemistry
Institutions	Indian Institute of Science
Doctoral advisor	Goverdhan Mehta Philip Eaton Gilbert Stork

Biography

Andhra University

A. Srikrishna, born on the New Year's Day of 1955, in Gudivada, a small town in Krishna district of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, did his graduate studies at ANR College of Nagarjuna University in 1973 and completed a master's degree from Andhra University in 1975.[1] Enrolling at University of Hyderabad under the guidance of Goverdhan Mehta, a Padma Shri 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 and later with Gilbert Stork at Columbia University. He returned to India in 1985 to join the Indian Institute of Science 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 58, while serving as a professor.[3] During his tenure at 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).[1]

Legacy

Srikrishna focused his researches on organic synthesis and his studies have widened the understanding of the synthesis of natural products especially radical cyclisation and annulation based strategies.[7] His contributions are reported in the racemic and enantiomeric synthesis of natural products and development of new reagents used in selective organic transformations.[3] His researches have been published by way of several peer-reviewed articles;[8] ResearchGate, an online article repository has listed 379 of them.[9] He sat in 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.[3]

Awards and honors

Srikrisha received the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1987[10] and Dr. S. Husain Zaheer Young Scientist Award of Zaheer Science Foundation in 1993.[1] The B. M. Birla Science Award for Chemistry reached him in 1994[11] 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, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1997.[12] He was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies, viz. the National Academy of Sciences, India,[4] Indian Academy of Sciences[5] and the Indian National Science Academy (2002). A. B. Kulkarni Endowment Lecture of Bombay University (1998), Professor S. Swaminathan Endowment Award of the University of Madras (2002–03), Acharya J. C. Ghosh Memorial Lecture of Indian Chemical Society (2008) are some of the notable award orations delivered by Srikrishna.[3]

See also

• Goverdhan Mehta
• Philip Eaton
• Gilbert Stork

References

1. "A. Srikrishna (1955–2013)" (PDF). Current Science. April 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
2. "Brief Profile of the Awardee". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
3. "Deceased fellow". Indian National Science Academy. 2016.
4. "NASI fellows". National Academy of Sciences, India. 2016.
5. "Fellow profile". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
6. "View Bhatnagar Awardees". Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
7. "Handbook of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Winners" (PDF). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 1999. p. 34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
8. "Browse by Fellow". Indian Academy of Sciences. 2016.
9. "Srikrishna on ResearchGate". ResearchGate. 2016.
10. "Young Scientist Medal". Indian National Science Academy. 2016.
11. "B. M. Birla Science Award". B. M. Birla Science Centre. 2016. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
12. "Chemical Sciences". Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. 2016. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2016.