Inorganic Chemistry in India

Debabrata Chatterjee received his Ph.D from Burdwan University, West Bengal in 1988. He joined CSIRCentral Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute at Bhavnagar, Gujarat in 1991 as scientist, and then shifted to CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute at Durgapur, West Bengal in 1997, and retired as the Head of the Chemistry and Biomimetics Group 2016. He is now engaged in Burdwan University as Research Advisor. His research interests have mainly centered on the kinetic and mechanistic studies of catalytic and bio-inorganic reactions, in particular small molecules activation. He is the author of 185 research papers and reviews. He is elected fellow of National Academy of Science, India (FNASc), West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology (FWAST), and fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (FRSC). Childhood polio has left him physically challenged with a considerable mobility problem. Rudi van Eldik was born in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 1945 and grew up in Johannesburg (South Africa). He received his chemistry education and DSc degree at the former Potchefstroom University (SA), followed by post-doctoral work at the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA) and the University of Frankfurt (Germany). After completing his Habilitation in Physical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt in 1982, he was appointed as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Private University of Witten/Herdecke in 1987. In 1994 he became Professor of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, from where he retired in 2010. At present he is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and Visiting Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the N. Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. His research interests cover the elucidation of inorganic and bioinorganic reaction mechanisms, with special emphasis on the application of high pressure thermodynamic and kinetic techniques. In recent years his research team also focused on the application of low-temperature rapid-scan techniques to identify and study reactive intermediates in catalytic cycles, and on mechanistic studies in ionic liquids. He is Editor of the series Advances in Inorganic Chemistry since 2003. He serves on the Editorial Boards of several chemistry journals. He is the author of over 880 research papers and review articles in international journals and supervised 80 PhD students. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from the former Potchefstroom University, SA (1997), Kragujevac University, Serbia (2006), Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (2010), University of Pretoria, SA (2010), and Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology, Russia (2012). He has developed a promotion activity for chemistry and related experimental sciences in the form of chemistry edutainment presentations during the period 1995-2010. In 2009 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (‘Bundesverdienstkreuz’) by the Federal President of Germany, and the Inorganic Mechanisms Award by the Royal Society of Chemistry (London). His hobbies include music, hiking, jogging, cycling and motor-biking. He is the father of two and grandfather of four children.

1. G. Mugesh 2. Water Oxidation and Oxygen Reduction Reactions: A Mechanistic Perspective Abhishek Dey 3. Sundargopal Ghosh 4. S. P. Rath 5. Debabrata Maiti 6. Redox Activity as a Tool for Bond Activations and Functionalizations Goutam Lahiri 7. Heme/Cu-oxygen Intermediates of Amyloid beta Peptides associated with Alzheimer’s Disease Somdatta Ghosh Dey 8. N-Heterocyclic Silylene Coordinated Coinage Metal Complexes: An Itinerary of Their Utilities Shabana Khan 9. Implications of strongly coupled catecholate-based anchoring functionality of a sensitizer dye molecule towards photoinduced electron transfer dynamics Amitava Das and Hirendra Nath Ghosh 10. P. S. Mukherjee 11. Application of Ru(edta) complexes in biomimetic activation of small molecules. Kinetic and Mechanistic Impact Debabrata Chatterjee and Rudi van Eldik