About the Director
Krishna N Ganesh (born 1953) obtained his B.Sc (1970) and M.Sc (1972) degrees in Chemistry from Bangalore University and later did his Ph.D (1976) in Chemistry at Delhi University (Guide: Prof GBV Subramanian). He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship to pursue higher studies University of Cambridge, UK which resulted in a second Ph.D degree to him in 1980 (Guide: Prof JKM Sanders).
CCMB, (Hyderabad): Dr Ganesh He joined Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad in 1981 where he established a microsynthesis facility for oligonucleotide synthesis and started a research programme to investigate new motifs of DNA-protein interactions.
NCL, (Pune): In 1987, he moved to National Chemical Laboratory, Pune to establish a Bioorganic Chemistry research group. He became the Head of Organic Chemistry (Synthesis) Division in 1994. During his tenure at NCL till 2006, he was involved in policy development, resource generation and design, execution and evaluation of institutional research programmes in Organic Chemistry. He also served as a Member of several important internal institutional committees of the laboratory such as Medical Committee (Chairman, 1991-1994), Ph.D Guide Recognition Committee, Employee Task Assignment policy committee, Member Secretary - NCL Research Council, Students affairs committee etc. He led a team of NCL scientists for preparation of “A Road Map” for Organic Chemistry at NCL in 2005.
Research: During his stay at NCL for 19 years, he established an internationally reputed school of research in therapeutic and diagnostic applications of oligonucleotide analogues, especially Peptide Nucleic acids (PNA). He also has worked on the structural biology of collagen peptides and emerging area of DNA nanotechnology. His work has been well recognized internationally through invitations to lecture at prestigious scientific meetings such as Gordon Conferences, IUPAC symposia, IRT in nucleosides and Nucleotides, Pacifichem meetings etc. He has published around 150 research papers in internationally reputed journals and guided 23 students for their Ph.D degrees.
Memberships: Dr Ganesh has served on membership of several important national committees such as Programme Advisory Committee (Organic Chemistry), Committee for Funds for Infrastructure Development in Science and Technology, New Delhi; Thrust Area Programme in Basic Biology and Scientific Advisory Committee on Resource-specific network programme Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi (2005-); Member, Indian Advisory Committee, Lady Tata Memorial Fellowship, Mumbai. Editorial Committee of Proceedings -Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian Journal of Chemistry, CSIR, New Delhi; Member, Expert committee, DST initiative on Nanoscience and Technology (2005-)
Awards and Honours: Dr Ganesh has received a number of scientific recognitions including prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (highest scientific recognition in India for scientists below 45 yrs) in Chemical Sciences (1998), Millennium Medal of Indian Science Congress (2000) and Silver medal of Chemical Research Society of India (2004), TWAS Prize in Chemical Sciences (2006). He is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi and National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad and Fellow of Academy of Sciences for Developing World (TWAS) and JC Bose National Fellowhip, Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi