Dhananjai Pandey obtained his MSc (Physics) (1972) and PhD (Physics) (1976) degrees from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He worked as Lecturer in Physics (1977-79), Lecturer in Materials Science (1979-84), Reader in Materials Science (1984-97), Professor of Physics (1997-98), Professor of Materials Science (1998- ), and Coordinator, School of Materials Science and Technology (1996-97, 1998-2007), all at BHU. He was Centre Director, Mumbai Centre of IUC-DAEF (now called UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research) (1994-95) while on deputation from BHU. He was responsible for the growth of experimental laboratories, for nucleating an internationally recognized research group in ferroics and multiferroics and for starting a new five year dual degree (BTech+MTech) programme in his School.

Academic and Research Achievements: Pandey has made significant contributions in several areas of materials science and condensed matter physics involving: development of a faulted matrix model for the origin of polytypism, first theoretical treatment of diffraction from non-randomly faulted layered crystals undergoing phase transformations and its application to the determination of the mechanism of phase transitions, application of 1-d kinetic Ising models to phase transitions in layered materials and demonstration of scaling properties of the pair correlation functions, discovery of a unique long-range ordered phase without short-range correlations, a new relaxor ferroelectric with AFE ground state, most precise location of morphotrophic phase boundaries in PZT, PMN-xPT, PFN-xPT and BF-xPT ceramics, discovery of new monoclinic phases (one in PZT, two in PMN-xPT and one in PFN-xPT) and revision of their phase diagrams, evidence for AFE transition and frustration in doped quantum paraelectric systems, and direct atomic level evidence for magnetoelectric coupling of multiferroic origin in BiFeO3 not derived compositions. Twelve students have obtained their PhD under his guidance.

Other Contributions: Pandey served as Member of the Commission on Aperiodic Crystals (1993-2002), Working Group on Phase Transitions Nomenclature (1999), and Commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures (2005-11) of the International Union of Crystallography. He also serves as Member of the Executive Body of the Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association. He has been Co-editor of the Journal of Applied Crystallography (1996-2005) and Acta Crystallographica, Section A (1998-2008), and also on the Editorial boards of Phase Transitions (1989-2004), Materials Science Forum (1997-2000), Zeitschrift Kristallographie (2009-) and Bulletin of Materials Science (1989-92, 2005- ).

Awards and Honours: Professor Pandey was conferred the INSA Young Scientist Medal (1980), Homi Bhabha Fellowship (1985-87), Medal by Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) (1989), Annual Prize by ICSC-MRSI (2004), Raja Ramanna Lectureship Award by DAE (2008), ISCA Platinum Jubilee Lectureship Award (2009) and CNR Rao Education Foundation Award for Excellence in Scientific Research (2009). He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2000), Vice President of the Indian Crystallographic Association and Member of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials.