Late Dr. Rajendra Rathore (MSc2/CHM/1986) was Pfletschinger-Habermann Professor of Organic Chemistry at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. He was a scientist of the highest calibre. A pioneer in the field of organic and synthetic chemistry, he made key contributions to the areas of organic supramolecular and materials chemistry. Dr. Rajendra Rathore Colloquium of Chemistry seminar series was established at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Kanpur, through an endowment fund created through generous contributions from Mrs. Rajni Nigam, wife of late Dr. Rajendra Rathore, and their family members and well-wishers.
Prof. G U Kulkarni, President, JNCASR delivered a lecture on 'Stabilizing Gold in non-cubic Crystal Structures' on 13rd Oct. 2023. Prof. Kulkarni obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 19992 and carried out postdoctoral research at IISc (92-93) and later at Cardiff University in a Unilever project. He joined JNCASR in 1995 as Faculty Fellow and has been a Professor since 2008. Having been the Chair of Materials Unit till 2011, he has held Dean of Academic Affairs as well as Dean-Faculty Affairs positions before he moved to Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS) as the Director. Prof. Kulkarni returned to JNCASR on Jan 29, this year, to take over as the President while continuing to hold Additional charge at CeNS.
