Department of Chemistry IITM

Biography

Dr Ashok Kumar Mishra hails from Titilagarh, a town in Western Odisha. His earlier education was at various places in and around Titilagarh, after which he went to Delhi University for his Masters studies in Chemistry, specialising in Physical Chemistry. He did his PhD under the guidance of Professor S K Dogra at IIT Kanpur, studying the excited singlet state prototropism of heteroaromatic molecules. His post-doctoral research under a Monbusho scholarship program in Gunma University, Japan, was with Professor Haruo Shizuka, in the area of excited state structure and decay dynamics prototropic ion pairs. He started his professional career in 1984 at Sambalpur University as a lecturer, and subsequently moved to IIT Madras as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry in 1992. He was Dean Academic Research, IIT Madras, during 2015-21. He retired in 2024 as an Institute Chair Professor and is continuing currently as Emeritus Professor in the Department of Chemistry.

Education

1987 – 1989, Post Doc: Monbusho Fellow from Gunma University, Japan
1985 – Ph. D from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
1980 – M. Sc from Delhi University
1978 – B. Sc from Sambalpur Univesrity, Odisha

Research Interests

Studying the basic photophysics of organic molecules in solution phase, with particular emphasis on photophysics of extended aromatic systems as well as excited state phototropism.
Extending the frontiers of analytical fluorimetry involving integration of novel instrument designs, fluorescence data collection strategies and analytical methodologies.
Exploring novel probe applications of known fluorescent molecules as well as introducing novel fluorescent molecular probes in understanding soft matter systems like lipid bilayer membranes, niosomal membranes, hydrogels etc.

Representative Recent Publications

Dash, B. R., Gardas, R. L., & Mishra, A. K. (2026). “Water-Mediated Liquid Crystalline Ionogel Formation in a Long-Chain Protic Ionic Liquid: An Anion-Centered Design Strategy”. Langmuir. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5c06106

Sahu, S., Pattnaik, S., Bera, A. K., Parthasarathy, V., & Mishra, A. K. (2026). “Triphenylamine-Ethynylanthracene Dyads: Photophysics and Potential Applications in Biological Systems and Bioimaging”. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 130, 1197−1214.

Pradhan, A. K., Sahu, A. K., Venkatakrishnan, P., & Mishra, A. K. (2025). “Comparative sensitivity of unexplored benzothiadiazole scaffolded fluorescent molecular probes in sensing the microenvironment of aqueous Pluronic media: a photophysical study”. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 27(39), 21315-21328.

Anjana, E., Chavda, J., Gupta, I., & Mishra, A. K. (2025). “Study on the photophysics of red- emitting meso-substituted α, α′-Dithiophene BODIPYs and exploration of their application potential”. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 129(28), 7156-7171.

Prakash, S., & Mishra, A. K. (2025). “Facile Fluorometric Detection of Faecal Pigments: Challenges and Solutions Concerning Water Quality Testing”. Chemistry–An Asian Journal, 20(13), e202401750.

Anjana, E., Gupta, I., & Mishra, A. K. (2025). “Photophysical behavior of meso-N- butylcarbazole-substituted BODIPY in different nano-scale organized media”. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, 24(1), 131-147.

Sahu, A. K., Reddy, U. C., Kannoth Manheri, M., & Mishra, A. K. (2024). “Exploring the physical properties of lipid membranes with polyhydroxy oxanorbornane head group using NBD-conjugated and DPH fluorescent probes”. Langmuir, 40(10), 5106-5120.

Dash, B. R., Gardas, R. L., & Mishra, A. K. (2024). “Probing the heterogeneity of molecular level organization of ionic liquids: a comparative study using neutral Nile red and cationic Nile blue sulfate as fluorescent probes for butyrolactam-based protic ionic liquids”. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 26(17), 13350-13363

Pradhan, A. K., Ray, M., Parthasarathy, V., & Mishra, A. K. (2023). “Effects of donor and acceptor substituents on the photophysics of 4-ethynyl-2, 1, 3-benzothiadiazole derivatives”. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 25(42), 29327-29340.

Sahu, S., Parthasarathy, V., & Mishra, A. K. (2023). “Phenylethynylanthracene based push–pull molecular systems: tuning the photophysics through para-substituents on the phenyl ring”. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 25(3), 1957-1969.