Dr Srivari Chandrashekar is presently Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India & Chairperson, Technology Development Board. TDB is a statutory body of the Government of India functioning under the Department of Science of Technology which provides financial assistance to companies for the commercialisation of indigenous technologies and adaptation of imported technologies for wider domestic applications.
Dr Chandrashekhar, the former Director of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) is a renowned synthetic organic chemist and has made significant contributions in diverse areas of organic chemistry with special emphasis on chiral chemistry, total synthesis of biologically active natural products and pharmaceutical products. He introduced polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a novel, environmentally benign solvent medium. He has developed technologies for the synthesis of latest anti-tuberculosis drug, bedaquiline; anti-tumor and abortive drug, misoprostol; anti-platelet molecule, beraprost; antidepressive compound, sertraline and drug for the treatment of schizophrenia, asenapine.
His passion and commitment to topical health-related problems is evident in his provisioning for better and affordable access to important drugs. His research efforts, with an impressive degree of innovation and enterprise, have led to the synthesis of complex and scarcely available natural products and new molecular entities for affordable healthcare. His endeavors have provided cost-effective technologies to the chemical industry through the identification of new reagents / solvents for specific transformations.
He completed all his primary and higher education in Hyderabad and has done his PhD from CSIR, IICT. After completing his PhD (1991), he moved to the USA for a post-doctoral position with Prof. J. R. Falck (1991-94). After this, he joined CSIR-IICT as Scientist C in 1994, where he grew up to the level of director in 2015. He is a fellow of all the three Indian Science academies, i.e., the National Academy of Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Science academy. He is also an Alexander von Humboldt fellow.
He has made significant contributions in diverse areas of organic chemistry with a special emphasis on chiral chemistry, total synthesis of biologically active natural products and pharmaceutical products. He introduced polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a novel, environmentally benign solvent medium. He has developed technologies for the synthesis of latest anti-tuberculosis drug, bedaquiline; anti-tumour and abortive drug, misoprostol; anti-platelet molecule, beraprost; antidepressive compound, sertraline and drug for the treatment of schizophrenia, asenapine. He has more than 285 publications with 7600 citations. 80 students have already been awarded PhD degrees under his able guidance, and 20 post-doctoral associates have worked in his group.
He has received several accolades including Eminent Scientist Award for contributions in the field of Chemistry from Telangana State Government in 2017, CNR Rao National Prize for Chemical Research 2012, CSIR Technology award 2014 and Infosys prize in Chemical sciences 2014 for his contributions in synthetic organic chemistry with special focus on the synthesis of complex molecules from natural sources and innovative, practical approaches to pharmaceuticals of current interest to industry.