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Dr. Pradeep Mathur
Winner
of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2000
 Science
flows through the genes of the Mathur family. Prof Dr Pradeep
Mathur won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award, the highest
national award in the field of science for his contribution to chemistry.
His brother Dr Deepak Mathur, who also won the Bhatnagar
award in the year 1991 for his contribution to the field of atomic
collisions & nuclear reactions, presently works for Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
Dr Pradeep Mathur is a widely travelled scientist. He completed
his schooling and undergraduate study in London, followed by a Ph.D
degree from Keel University. He then worked towards his post
doctoral research at Yale University in the U.S. After this,
Dr Mathur chose his motherland, India, as his work place and joined
the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in the year 1984
as a lecturer in chemistry department. He has been there as a lecturer
for 11 years, and as full professor for the last 5 years. He is
also a fellow of the Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore.
Dr Mathur's specialised field is Organometallic Chemistry.
He has been working in this area for the last 16 years, and has
been successful in developing new types of clusters by application
of non-linear optics, catalysis and activation of organic compounds.
Clusters are a class of organometallic compounds which have the
potential to be used for various industrial purposes. However it
has been a major problem for scientists to design and synthesise
clusters of particular shapes and sizes. Dr Mathur has been successful
in developing methods for obtaining clusters of required shapes,
sizes, and properties. He has also shown that some of these clusters
can be used for applications such as catalysis, and organic transformations.
His most recent work has been to use x-ray defraction techniques
for structure reactivity corelation studies.
 Single
crystal x-ray defraction methods are used for obtaining detailed
structures of molecules. By looking at the structures, one can obtain
information about possible reactivity and other potential applications
of the new materials. Potential applications range from use in new
materials present in petro-chemical industries, and new catalysts
related to optics that could be used for night-vision devices. For
example, it can be used in war, at the time of any operation conducted
in the night, by which a particular location can be made visible
and targeted correctly.
Handsome Dr Mathur is a very popular teacher. He has received the
Best Teacher Award from I.I.T. Bombay.
Author: Mahagyany
Photographer: Vinayak
Prabhu
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