Dhanonjay Nasipuri did his DSc (1964) at the University of Calcutta, specializing in synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry and organic Stereochemistry. He served as the Chairman, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nasipuri was the Visiting Professor, Faculty of Forestry, Toronto University, Leverhulme Visiting Fellow, University of New South Wales, Senior Royal Society Fellow, University of Oxford, and Visiting Scientist, University of North Carolina.

Academic and Research Achievements:Nasipuri developed new reagents for diastereoselective reduction of cyclic ketones almost exclusively to the less stable epimeric alcohols and also new chiral reagents for enantioselective reduction of parochial ketones and aldehydes with moderate to high enantiomeric excess. Determined the energy barrier to rotation around aryl-carbon and aryl-nitrogen bonds by dynamic nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. He developed a new biomimetic method for the synthesis of naturally occurring diterpense and sesquiterpenes such as sugiyl methyl ether, nimbiyl ether, xanthoperol, and pallescensin A.

Other Contributions:Nasipuri established a school of organic stereochemistry for the first time in India. He authored an advanced textbook Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds: Principles and Applications and was Honorary Editor of Indian Chemical Society.

Awards and Honours:Nasipuri received the Basudev Memorial Lecture Award (1962), Principal Khudiram Bose Memorial Lecture (University of Calcutta), Adhar Chandra Mukherjee Memorial Lecture (University of Calcutta); UGC National Lecturer (1984). He is a Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (England), Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and the Indian Chemical Society.