Dr. Swaminathan Sivaram is presently an INSA Senior Scientist and Honorary Professor at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India.Prior to this, he served as the eighth Director of National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune (2002-10) and as CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow( 2006-15) at NCL.
Dr. Sivaram did his BSc. from Madras Christian College in 1965 and subsequently did his MSc. in Chemistry from IIT Kanpur in 1967. He then went on to earn his doctorate also in Chemistry from Purdue University, USA in 1971. After a brief stay as a Research Associate at the Institute of Polymer Science, University of Akron, USA, he joined the Research Centre of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. at Vadodara in 1973. He later joined NCL as Head of the Polymer Chemistry Division in 1988.
Dr. Sivaram's research interests include polymer synthesis (cationic, anionic, GTP, Ziegler Natta, free radical and step growth polymerizations), high performance polymers; surface chemistry of polymers; porous polymers for energy related applications, biodegradable polymers, polymers from renewable resources, organic-inorganic hybrids and structure-property relationship in polymers.
Dr. Sivaram is known for his pioneering work on alkylation of tertiary alkyl halides with trialkylaluminum and olefin polymerization and holds the highest number of US patents by an Indian working outside the US. He was awarded the Doctor of Science ( honoris causa) by Purdue University, USA in 2010. He is an elected Fellow of many prestigious academies of science and engineering in India, namely, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad and Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi.
Dr. Swaminathan Sivaram was conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1998 from IIT Kanpur.
