Anant Kapdi studied chemistry at the University of Mumbai (MSc 2002) and York (MSc 2005; Dr. Ian J. S. Fairlamb). He completed his PhD in 2008 under the supervision of Dr. Fairlamb at York University, before starting postdoctoral work in the research group of Prof. Lutz Ackermann at the Georg-August-University Gottingen as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow. He returned to India in 2010 and was appointed as DST-SERC Fast Track Fellow (2011) and DST Inspire Faculty (2012) at the Institute of Chemical Technology before taking up UGC-FRP Assistant Professor position (2013). He has been a recipient of Alexander von Humboldt equipment grant as well as research cooperation grant. Recently, he was selected as the Young Associate of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences. The unifying theme of his research program is the development of Sustainable catalytic solutions for challenging synthetic problems. Dr. Basker Sundararaju was born in Mettuppalayam, a small town in Tamilnadu, South India. He obtained his Bachelor degree from Bishop Heber college (affiliated to Bharathidasan University) Tiruchirappalli. Upon completion of his 1st year Master from St. Joseph’s college Tiruchirappalli, he moved to university of Rennes1, Rennes, France to continue his second year master in Molecular chemistry. During the Master program he learnt breath and subtle of organometallic chemistry through Prof. Pierre H Dixneuf. He then continued his PhD in the same group under the guidance of Dr. Mathieu Achard and Dr. Christian Bruneau at the university of Rennes1, France in collaboration with Dr. G. V. M. Sharma from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India between 2008-11. During his doctoral studies, he worked in collaboration with Prof. Jurgen Klakenmeyer and Prof. Walter Leitner, RWTH Aachen (2008) and with Prof. Matthias Beller (2009-10) LIKAT, Rostock from Germany on different aspects of catalysis. In 2011, he then moved to Max-Planck institute for coal research, Muelheim, Germany to work with Prof. Alois Fürstner where he developed novel catalytic system for trans-selective reductive functionalization of internal alkynes. In Oct 2013, he started his independent career as an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. In July 2018, he promoted to associate professor and continue to be part of the same department till date. He has been recipient of few awards such as Alexander Von Humboldt fellow (2012-2014), Thieme Journal award (2014), PK Kelkar young faculty research fellowship (2017), Merck Young Scientist Award (2019). His research program is focused on transition metals as means of achieving efficient catalytic systems for activation of carbon-hydrogen, carbon-carbon and carbon heteroatom bonds through green and sustainable processes. He has been actively pursuing C-H bond functionalizations using earth-abundant, inexpensive and non-toxic first row late transition metals, especially [Fe], [Co], [Mn] and [Ni]. Further, his research group is also interested in addressing some of the challenging problems such as reductive functionalization of CO2, biomass valorization and waste- free and sustainable transformations for production of fine chemicals.
