Mariappan Periasamy obtained BSc (1973) and MSc (1975), both from American College, Madurai; and PhD (Organic Chemistry) (1979) from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore with MV Bhatt for his studies on mechanism of SET oxidation of aromatic rings. After a postdoctoral stint with HC Brown at Purdue University, USA (1979-82) for studies on non-classical ion problem, he joined the School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad (1982) where he continues to work.

Academic and Research Achievements: Periasamy's notable findings involve development of new organic synthetic methods using boron and transition metal reagents. His research group devised several new routes to organometallics and chiral reagents using simple bench-top chemicals for synthetic applications. The NaBH4/I2 reagent system developed by his research group is widely used for large-scale processes in industries. Since 2000, he has worked on the development of cost-effective small-scale processes and machines for production of electricity from biomass/solar energy and regeneration of zinc from zinc oxide after use in fuel cells.

Other Contributions: Professor Periasamy served as Member on the Editorial boards of Indian Journal of Chemistry, Section B (2008-); Synthesis & Synlett, Thieme, Germany (2009-). He was Member, International Scientific Committee on Boron Chemistry (2007- ).

Awards and Honours: Periasamy was conferred the Professor BH Iyer Medal by IISc, Bangalore (1978-79), Dr Husain Zaheer Science Foundation Young Scientist Award by CSIR-IICT (1992), Professor NS Narasimhan Endowment Award by Poona University (1995); SS Bhatnagar Prize for Chemical Sciences (1996); Professor AB Kulkarni Endowment Lectureship by University of Mumbai (1999), Professor DP Chakraborty 60th Birth Anniversary Award by Indian Chemical Society (2004), JC Bose National Fellowship by DST (2006-11) and the Silver Medal by the Chemical Research Society of India (2007). He was also elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1994).