Vuppalapaty Baliah completed his PhD (1948) from Stanford University. His area of specialization was physical organic chemistry. He held the position of Professor and Head, Department of Chemistry, Nagarjuna University, Andhra Pradesh where he was also the Vice-Chancellor.

Academic and Research Achievements: Baliah developed elegant syntheses for piperidin-4-ones and some heterobicyclic compounds; isomerized aryl arenesulphonates to hydroxydiaryl sulphones. He elucidated the conformations of many cyclic and heterocyclic compounds by spectral and dipole moment measurements; synthesized many long- chain molecules. He provided extensive experimental evidence for a — orbital resonance involving sulphur, chlorine, bromine and iodine; and discovered steric enhancement of resonance.

Other Contributions: Vuppalapaty Baliah served as a member of the editorial board of Indian Journal of Chemistry.

Awards and Honours: Professor Baliah was a Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, the Andhra Pradesh Academy of Sciences and was the UGC National Lecturer in 1971.