Dr. Srivari Chandrasekhar, the Director of the Hyderabad-based Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)–Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), has been appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Born in 1964, Chandrasekhar completed all his primary and higher education in Hyderabad and Joined CSIR, IICT for a Ph. D Programme. After completing his Ph. D with the then director Dr. A. V. Rama Rao, he moved to USA for a post-doctoral position with Prof. J. R. Falck (1991-94).

He joined CSIR-IICT as Scientist C in 1994 and grew up to the level of director in 2015. He is a fellow of all the three Indian Science academies, i.e., 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-tumor and abortive drug, misoprostol; anti-platelet molecule, beraprost; antidepressive compound, sertraline and drug for treatment of schizophrenia, asenapine.

He has more than 285 publications with 7,600 citations, 80 students have already been awarded Ph. D. degree under his able guidance and 20 postdoctoral 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.