DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS

Professor

DR. SEKAR, G.

Biography

Prof. Sekar obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur in 1999 under the guidance of Padma Shri, Prof. Vinod K. Singh. He was a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at TUT, Japan, and an AvH postdoctoral fellow at Goettingen University, Germany. He also carried out postdoctoral research at Caltech, USA. Prof. Sekar’s research on organic synthesis focuses on developing new synthetic methodologies that employ environmentally benign homogeneous catalysts, metal nanocatalysts, and halogen bonding catalysis. Prof. Sekar has more than 130 publications, graduated 25 Ph.D. students and presently guiding 12 Ph.D. students. He is the recipient of the Institute Research and Development Award (Mid-Career)-2017, JSPS, AvH postdoctoral fellowships, and CRSI bronze medal (2015). He is the Fellow National Academy of Sciences (FNASc, 2019), Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and Fellow of the Academy of Sciences, Chennai (FASCh). He is also a present council member of the National Organic Symposium Trust (NOST), Chemical Research Society of India (Joint Secretary, CRSI), and Academy of Sciences, Chennai.

Education

  • 1999 - Ph. D from IIT Kanpur
  • 1995 - M. Sc from University of Madras
  • 1993 - B. Sc from University of Madras

Research Interests

  • Asymmetric synthesis
  • Organic synthesis
  • Catalysis

Representative Publications

Copper-catalyzed domino synthesis of multisubstituted benzo[b]thiophene through radical cyclization using xanthate as a sulfur surrogate (N. Sundaravelu, Tushar Singha, Anuradha Nandy, and Sekar, Chem. Commun., 2021, 57, 4512).

Selective oxidation of alkylarenes to aromatic acids/ketone in water by using reusable binaphthyl stabilized Pt nanoparticles (Pt-BNP) as a catalyst, Saha, R.; Sekar, G., Applied Catalysis B:  Environmental2019, 250, 325. (highlighted in “The Hindu” national English newspaper (31st March 2019)

Stable Pd-nanoparticles catalyzed domino C-H activation/C-N bond formation strategy: An access to phenanthridinones, Saha, R.; Sekar, G.,  Catalysis,2018, 366, 176.

Metal-free halogen(I) catalysts for the oxidation of aryl(heteroaryl)methanes to ketones or esters: Selectivity control by halogen bonding, Somraj Guha, Sekar, G.,  Eur. J.201824, 14171.

An efficient synthesis of polysubstituted olefins using stable palladium nanocatalyst: Applications in the synthesis of tamoxifen and iso-combretastatin A4, Ganapathy, D.,  Sekar, G.,  Lett.201416, 3856.

  Galactose oxidase model: biomimetic, enantiomer-differentiating oxidation of alcohols by chiral copper complex, Alamsetti, S. K., Mannam, S., Muthupandi, P., Sekar, G.,  Eur. J.200915, 1086.

DR. SEKAR, G.

Professor
  • gsekar@iitm.ac.in
  • +91-44-2257-4229 (Office)
  • +91-44-2257-6229 (Residence)
  • +91-44-2257-4202
  • CYB 209D, Department of Chemistry
  • Indian Institute of Technology Madras
  • Chennai - 600036
  • INDIA

Honors and Recognitions

  • Senior Scientist Award for the year 2021 (Dr. M. Santappa Award in Chemical Sciences) by the Academy of Sciences Chennai.
  • Selection Committee Member, DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellowships, DST-INSPIRE program (Jan. 2022 – Jan. 2025)
  • Co-opted Member, PAC of Organic Chemistry, DST-SERB (Jun. 2021 – Jun. 2024)
  • Member of the Screening Committee of “SERB-SUPRA” (2020 & 2021)
  • Joint Secretary, CRSI (2020–2023)
  • Executive council member, Academy of Sciences, Chennai (2020 – till date)
  • Golden Jubilee Alumni endowment lecture, Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Madras (2020)
  • Fellow National Academy of Sciences (FNASc., 2019)
  • NOST council member (2019 –2022)
  • KVPY Regional Coordinator,Chennai (2019 – till date)
  • Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, 2018)
  • Fellow of the Academy of Sciences, Chennai (FASCh., 2018)
  • IIT Madras’ IRDA-2017 Mid-careerAward
  • CRSI council member (2017 - 2020)
  • CRSI Bronze medal (2015)
  • Member, Tamil Nadu's "State Crisis Group" for "management of chemical accidents" (from August 2013 - till date)
  • AvHt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Gottingen University, Germany (2001–2002)
  • JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship, TUT Toyohashi, Japan (2000 –2001)

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