Prof.Goutam Kumar Lahiri received his Ph.D degree from Jadavpur university in 1990 under the supervision of Prof. Animesh Chakravorty. After completing his postdoctoral studies at West Virginia University, USA, he joined the department of chemistry at IIT Bombay, in 1993 where he is currently an Institute Chair Professor. He has been a visiting professor at Bristol University, UK (2000) and Stuttgart University, Germany (2007-2008). He also has been a research professor at Stuttgart University, Germany (2002-present).

Academic and Research Achievements: Prof. Lahiri has established a unique record of the design, development and critical analysis of new kinds of molecules with mixed valency of metal and organic constituents, specifically based on oligonuclear ruthenium and osmium complexes with non-innocent, i.e. potentially electron-transferring ligands. The non-innocent ligand library comprises of known redox active components such as biologically relevant coenzyme models (quinones, nitrosyl function, dye-related nitrogen containing systems) as well as otherwise popular redox-inactive ligands under selective coordination situations. In addition to innovative synthetic approaches the work addresses fundamental features such as energy aspects (electrochemistry), electronic interactions (absorption spectroscopy), spin effects (magnetism and resonance studies). This combination allowed for a particularly deep insight into the interactions between metal ions and electronically active organic molecules, which are of great significance in energy and information transferring molecular systems including the effective role of redox non-innocent assemblies to function as electron reservoir for catalysis. Complementary to this fundamental research activity are achievements in developing industry-connected transition metal derived catalysts for a variety of important organic transformations including their applications under environmentally benign conditions. He has published over 250 research articles in different international journals of repute.

Other Contributions: Besides academics, Prof. Lahiri has also been actively involved at discharging other advisory duties. He has been a Program Advisory Committee (PAC) member of DST(Inorganic, 2004-2006) and CSIR (Inorganic/Physical, 2016-present). Currently he also serves as an Associate Editor for Journal of Chemical Sciences, Bangalore (2018-present).

Awards and Honours: Prof. Lahiri has been conferred with several awards and honours which include B. M. Birla awards in chemistry (1996), Royal Society Award for International Authors (2000), Fellow, Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (2001), Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences-Bangalore (FASc, 2005), Mercator Chair Professorship (DFG-Germany, 2007), Ramanna Fellowship (DST, 2007 and 2011), Excellence in Teaching (IIT Bombay, 2010 and 2015), Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Research (IIT Bombay, 2011), Institute (IIT Bombay) Chair Professor (2011, 2014 and 2016), Rev.Fr. L. M. Yeddanapally Memorial Award; Indian Chemical Society (2015), CRSI Silver Medal (2016), Fellow, National Academy of Sciences (FNASc, 2016), Fellow, Indian National Science Academy (FNA, 2019), J C Bose Fellowship (SERB, 2019)