Vinod K. Singh (Hindi: विनोद कुमार सिंह; born 9 September 1959) is a Rahula and Namita Gautam Chair Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur. He is also the Director's Chair Professor at IISER Bhopal & adjunct professor at NIPER Hyderabad. He is currently the President, Chemical Research Society of India and the Chairman, Governing Council of IACS Kolkata.[2]

Vinod K. Singh
Born (1959-09-09) 9 September 1959 (age 65)
NationalityIndian
AwardsPadma Shri (2014)
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2004)[1]
Swarna Jayanti Fellowship (1998)
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry
InstitutionsIIT Kanpur and IISER Bhopal

Singh's major research contribution[3] is in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has been recognized with several awards and honors such as the Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1998),[4] Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2004) and the 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), The National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS).

Professor Singh is an Editor of an Elsevier journal - Tetrahedron Letters. He is a Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett., J. Org. Chem., Asian J. Org. Chem.,[5] and Org. Chem. Frontiers.[6]

He has made significant contributions in the management of higher educational institutes, science education, science policy, and planning. In 2020, he was awarded a TWAS-CASAREP[7] award for building scientific institutions.

As a Founder 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 has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal.[8] He also held the additional charge of Directorship of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal and the Mentor Director of the Indian Institute of Information Technology Bhopal.[9]

He had been a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (SAC-PM) during 2009–2014.

Education

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Singh had his early education from a primary school in his village area. He passed high school and intermediate from the Wesley Inter College and BSc from D. A. V College, both in Azamgarh. He did his MSc (Chemistry) from Banaras Hindu University in 1980, and joined the Malt-Chem Research Center Nandesari, Baroda, where he earned a PhD degree in 1986 under the supervision of Dr. Sukh Dev. He spent two years (1985–1986) in Canada where he worked with Professor M.H. Benn (University of Calgary) and Professor J.P. Kutney (University of British Columbia). He moved to Professor Elias James Corey's group at Harvard University in early 1987 and worked there for 3 years as a post-doctoral fellow.

Profession

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Singh started his career as a senior scientist in Neurogen Corporation, Connecticut, US, in March 1990. In the meantime, he accepted an offer for a faculty position from IIT Kanpur and joined the Institute in December 1990 as an assistant professor in Chemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and professor in 2001. He came from IIT Kanpur to start IISER Bhopal in the year 2008 as a Founder Director and was there for 10 years. He served as a Director/Mentor Director in Institutes such as School of Planning and Architecture,[10] IISER Berhampur, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal, and IIIT Bhopal.[9] He also served as a chairperson of the BoG in NITTR[8] (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research). Currently, he is serving as the chairman of the Governing Council at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.[11]

Awards and honours

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References

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  1. ^ "Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize For Science And Technology 2004" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  2. ^ "Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science | Basic Science Research Institute". Iacs.res.in. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  3. ^ "Complete List of Publications of Vinod Kumar Singh" (PDF). IITK Kanpur. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Swarnajayanti Fellowships Scheme | Department Of Science & Technology". Dst.gov.in. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  5. ^ "Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry". doi:10.1002/(ISSN)2193-5815. S2CID 250534585.
  6. ^ "Organic Chemistry Frontiers".
  7. ^ "Home". TWAS. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  8. ^ a b "NITTTR | National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Bhopal".
  9. ^ a b "The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bhopal".
  10. ^ "योजना तथा वास्तुकला विद्यालय, भोपाल |School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal". Archived from the original on 2 February 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  11. ^ "Vinod K Singh". home.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  12. ^ Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology