Tushar Kanti Chakraborty earned his BSc Hons. degree from Presidency College, Calcutta University and MSc and PhD in Chemistry from IIT, Kanpur under the supervision of Professor S Chandrasekaran. His postdoctoral research was carried out at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, (1984-87) in Professor KC Nicolaou's laboratory. Subsequently, he joined the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in April 1987. In 2008, he joined Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow as its Director.

Academic and Research Achievements: His research interests span diverse areas of organic chemistry from total synthesis of biologically active natural products to peptides and peptidomimetics and designing new molecules. His works on designing new amide-linked molecular entities based on Sugar Amino Acids and related compounds have led to an exciting new area of research. He has worked extensively on the synthesis of glycopeptide antibiotics like vancomycin and teicoplanin, on the development of novel immunophilin ligands, synthesis of immunosuppressants like FK506, rapamycin, stevastelins, antascomicin and anticancer compounds like amphidinolides, epothilones, crocacins, clavosolide and the like. His publications in wide ranging areas of organic chemistry - from molecular modeling and designing of molecules to the synthesis of structurally complex natural products - are very well cited. He has published over 135 papers and mentored 18 Ph.D. students so far.

Other Contributions: He is on the Editorial Boards of the Indian Journal of Chemistry B and the Journal of Chemical Sciences.

Awards and Honours: Professor Chakraborty received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize for Chemical Sciences in 2002, the JC Bose Fellowship (2008), the NASI-Reliance Platinum Jubilee Award in Physical Sciences (2006). Other Honours include Ramanna Fellowship by DST, (2007), Andhra Pradesh Scientist Award (2005), Chemical Research Society of India Bronze Medal (2002), Dr Basudev Banerjee Memorial Award of the Indian Chemical Society (1999), CSIR Young Scientist Award (1991) and AP Akademi of Sciences Young Scientist Award (1991). He is a Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2003) and National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (2000).