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Kattera Appanna Suresh did his B.Sc. (1967) at the St. Philomena\'s College, Mysore and M.Sc. (1969) at the Post Graduate Centre , Manasagangothri, University of Mysore. He joined the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore (1972) to work in the area of Liquid Crystals under the guidance of Professor S.Chandrasekhar, F.R.S. He was appointed as Scientist at RRI in 1977. He obtained his PhD degree in the year 1979. He visited the Institute, College de France, Paris (1983) as a Joliot Curie Fellow to do research at the Laboratory Physique de la Matiere Condensee headed by P.G.de Gennes, Nobel Laureate in Physics. Later, he worked as a Research Scientist (1986-87) at Dowell Schlumberger, St. Etienne, France. He moved over to Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA as a Visiting Scientist (1987-1989). He returned to RRI (1989) to set up the laboratory for Light Scattering and Surface Science. He continued at RRI as an Associate Professor (1992), Professor (1997) and Senior Professor (2004). He had collaborative research with many groups and visited their labs as Visiting Professor: Curie Institute, Paris (March-April 1993); Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy (May 1993); Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent, USA (July-August 1996); Tokyo University of Science, Yamaguchi, Japan (July-August 2003); Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, USA (June-December 2004); Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA (June-July 2006); Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria (July-August 2010); Wigner Research Centre of Hungarian Academy of Sciences,Budapest (August-September 2012). In the year 2007, he moved over to the Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, Bangalore as its Director. The Centre was renamed as Centre for Soft Matter Research (2010) where he continued as Scientist of Eminence (2010-2015). The Centre was again renamed as Centre for Nano and Soft Matter sciences where he continues as Honorary Professor (2015 - ). \\r\\nAcademic and Research Achievements: Professor Suresh has made some significant contributions to the area of Physics of Liquid Crystals and Surface Science. In Liquid Crystals, he discovered new optical diffraction effects in chiral smectic C in the phase grating mode. This has significant impact in optical signal processing. Established using x-ray diffraction technique an uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transition. In absorbing cholesteric liquid crystals, he demonstrated anomalous transmission at normal incidence and discovered new features in the oblique incidence mode. He is a co-discoverer of the Discotic Liquid Crystal. Based on his x-ray investigations, he proposed a model of the columnar discotic liquid crystal phase with a two dimensional hexagonal order and a liquid-like order in the third dimension. This work on the Discotic Liquid Crystal led to innumerable investigations by others and became a citation classic. In the area of Surface Science, his contributions include: First demonstration of the formation of three dimensional liquid crystal phases at air-water interface. Discovery of novel phase diagram in mixed Langmuir monolayers. Unusual polar head group interactions in monolayers which mimic biological systems. Discovery of fractal structures near critical points in phase transitions in Langmuir monolayers. First measurement of nanoscale electrical conductivity of Langmuir-Blodgett films of discotic-DNA complex by atomic force microscopy, an important work in organic electronics. Discovery of spiral spatiotemporal patterns arising due to driven molecular precession in a Langmuir monolayer. He has published about 150 papers and has mentored 11 Ph.D. students. \\r\\nOther contributions: Professor Suresh is the elected President of the Indian Liquid Crystal Society (2007 ......). He is the Member Secretary of the International Liquid Crystal Society, Kent, OH, USA (2004 .......). He has also served as a Member/Chairman of Committees on research funding by Department of Science and Technology. He has been a Member of the International Advisory Board, International Scientific Committee of several International and National Conferences. Professor Suresh has been invited to many conferences to deliver keynote addresses, plenary and invited talks. \\r\\nAwards and Honours: Professor Suresh was awarded the prestigious Joliot Curie Fellowship (1983) to do research at the Laboratory Physique de la Matiere Condensee headed by Pierrie G. de Gennes (Nobel Laureate in Physics 1991) at the College de France, Paris. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, (1997). |
