Dr.Narayanan Chandrakumar is an Indian chemical physicist and a professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is the founder of the first Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) laboratory in India and is known for developing a new technique for NMR imaging and diffusion measurements.
Dr. Chandrakumar did his B.Tech. in Chemistry from Loyola College, Chennai in 1970 and subsequently earned his master's degree from IIT Madras in 1972. After completing his PhD. in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur in 1979, he joined Central Leather Research Institute ( CLRI) as a Research Associate in 1980, where he served the institute till 2001, holding positions such as that of a scientist, head of the Physical Sciences Division and a director-grade scientist and moved to IIT Madras where he is a professor at the department of chemistry.
Dr.Chandrakumar's research areas are in the fields development and implementation as well as molecular, materials and in vivo applications of magnetic resonance, especially NMR spectroscopy and imaging. Among his significant research contributions in the above areas, the X-band dynamic nuclear polarization on home-built spectrometer, formulation of density matrix theory of coherence transfer involving spin-1 nuclei (now used internationally), investigations of rotating frame coherence transfer, novel protocol for heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy (patented), indirect C-13 imaging with novel pulse sequences and high resolution spin-1 NMR in solution and solid state, are few to name.
Dr. Chandrakumar was instrumental in setting up advanced facilities for Magnetic Resonance at CLRI. He also pioneered the first industrial applications of NMR Microimaging (MRM) in India. He later set up state-of-the-art research facilities for MRM and MRI at IIT Madras. He has contributed significantly to the popularization of Science in Indian Media, both in English and in Tamil. He has been a Member of the INSA Council (2004-06).
Dr. Chandrakumar is the recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for his contributions to chemical sciences in 1996.
