0 Contents Vision………………………………………………………...... 1 Profile of the Department………………………………...……..2 Faculty Profile ………………………………………...………..3 Research Fellows ……………………………………………....14 Programmes Offered……………………………………............18 Academic Labs…………………………………….…….…......18 Research Labs …………………………………….………........18 Facilities…………………………………………………….......19 Research Projects ……………………………………………....22 Research Collaboration …………………………………….......24 Awards and Recognition……………………………………......26 Publications ………………………………………………….....27 Patents………………………………………………………......41 Books Published ………………………………………..............41 Students‟ Achievements…………………………………...........41 Student Activities………………………………………….........42 1 Vision To develop the Department into an internationally acclaimed one by offering high quality academic and research programmes in the frontier areas of science which benefits the society in bringing peace and harmony 2 Department of Sciences At the time of start of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham as a Deemed University, Ettimadai campus had two small science departments namely physics and chemistry. In 2006, for better coordination and to nurture interdisplinary interaction, these two departments got amalgamated into a single department and renamed as Department of Sciences. Presently the Department has over 27 faculty members including PhDs from various universities in India and abroad. The Department offers Five year integrated MSc. programmes in Physics and Chemistry. The department also offers PhD programme in almost all areas in physics and chemistry. In addition to this, the Department is actively involved in teaching basic physics and chemistry courses and also a number of elective courses in the B.Tech and M. Tech programmes to cater to the student need and interest. The Department has expertise in various fields such as Theoretical Nuclear and Quantum Physics, Biosensors, Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Biomaterials, Fuel cells, Electrochemistry, Organometallics, Quantum Optics, Non linear optics, Medicinal Organic Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Solar cells, Thinfilms, Corrosion, Environmental Chemistry, Ion traps, Atomic physic and Laser Materials Processing. In addition to the teaching labs for MSc and B Tech students, the Department has several Research labs with state of the facilities include Biosensor Research Lab, Amrita Materials Synthesis and Processing Lab, Amrita Biochemistry Materials Research Lab, Dhanvanthari Lab, Amrita Nonlinear Optics Lab, Particle Dynamics Lab. The department has funded projects from various agencies like DBT, DST, CSIR, DRDO, ISRO, MHRD etc. Currently the funded project worth is over 300 lakhs. 21 research fellows are working towards their PhD and they are supported with fellowships from CSIR, INSPIRE-DST etc. Faculty also collaborates within and outside Amrita for interdisciplinary research initiatives. The Department is active in conducting various activities like seminars, Invited lectures, colloquium and quizzes to nurture the interest of student community in basic science and its relevance to technology. 3 Faculty Profile Dr. Mahadevan S. currently serves as Associate Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Sciences, School of Engineering, Coimbatore. An M Tech (Microwave and Radar) from Cochin University of science and Technology (CUSAT) and PhD in Nuclear Physics from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. His areas of research include Theoretical Nuclear Physics, Quantum mechanics and Solid state physics. He has around 21 years of teaching experience. Cleared GATE and UGC-CSIR examination. Prior to joining Amrita, he served in Indian Institute of Astrophysics as Research scholar. He has 15 publications in refereed journal and conference proceedings. He is also chairing the Council of Wardens of the University. Dr. T Ramachandran joined Amrita in 2004. He is a Ph. D. (Madras University). Prior to coming to Amrita, he had a long teaching and research career at PSG College of Technology. He was instrumental and part of various stages of development of the department of chemistry from offering supportive courses to engineering to starting of BSc (Applied Sciences), MSc, M Phil and PhD programmes in chemistry. He had been advisor to 9 PhD, 8 Mphil and 26 MSc students. He has more than 29 National and International publications to his credit. He had authored 5 text books. He was involved in consultancy work to about 10 electrochemical processing industries in and around Coimbatore. At present he is guiding 2 PhD scholars and several UG projects. His current fields of research interest are Electrochemical Sensors for Biomolecules, Fuel Cells (PEMFC and DMFC), DSSC. Research interests: Industrial Electrochemicstry, Batteries and Fuel cells. 4 Dr. K. S. Rajni did her M. Phil and PhD in Physics from Bharathiyar University. Her doctoral studies were focused on Preparation of Photo Electro Chemical (PEC) Cells based on CdSe, InSe Doped CdSe and ZnSe Doped CdSe Thin Films by Electron Beam Evaporation Technique. Dr. Rajni is guiding a number of undergraduate & post graduate student projects and Ph. D. research scholars. She currently researches on Dye Sensitized Solar Cell using Naturally Available Organic Materials as Sensitizer. She involved in the project titled, Developing Nano Electrodes and Membrane for Direct Methanol and Ethanol Fuel Cells – Preliminary Studies. Dr. Sivakumar M. currently serves as Associate Professor in Physics. He has several international publications to his credit. He obtained his PhD from Lisban Technical University, Portugal. He has a DRDO funded project in the area of nanomaterials processing. His areas of research include Laser Materials Processing and nanocomposites. Mr. S. Boopalakrishnan serves as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry in the Department of Sciences. He joined Amrita in the year 1996. Prior to joining Amrita, he worked as lecturer in Department of Chemistry, Govt. College of Technology. Currently doing PhD in Anna University on the Corrosion studies of Bio-implantable metals. 5 Dr. Asha Sathish currently serves as Assistant Professor in Chemistry. She received her PhD from Bharathiar University. Her area of research includes Fuel cells, Organometallic Chemistry. Dr. Yamuna Ram received her Ph.D in Organometallic Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in March 2005. She was a CSIR Research Fellow while at IIT. She joined Amrita in 2006. Before joining Amrita, She has worked as faculty in SRM University, Chennai. Dr. Yamuna Ram has published 18 research articles on cobaloximes, porphyrins and nano hybrid related to non-linear optical and liquid crystalline materials in international journals and international conferences. She serves as a reviewer for journal of optical engineering and applications. She is a member of The Indian society for advancement of materials and process engineering. She is a principal investigator for two projects one from CSIR and the other from DST-Fast track young scientist project and Co-PI for DRDO and MHRD projects. Under Dr. Yamuna supervision two P.G. dissertations have been awarded. She is currently guiding three Ph.D research scholars. Research interests: Cobaloximes, porphyrins, nano materials, non-linear optical, liquid crystalline materials and lead acid battery. Dr. Prema P. currently serves as Assistant Professor in Physics. She obtained her PhD from Amrita University Coimbatore. Her areas of research include Theoretical Nuclear Physics. 6 Dr. Prasanna Ramani did his master‟s degree in Chemistry from Bharathidasan University, India and Ph. D. in Chemical Sciences from University of Milan, Italy. His doctoral thesis work was focused on Synthesis/labeling of Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids (artificial DNA) and their Analytical Properties. Dr. Ramani is also guiding a number of undergraduate & post graduate student projects and two Ph. D. research scholars. He currently researches on synthesis of biologically interesting molecules and natural product chemistry. His postdoctoral research was supported by UNESCO grant from University of Trieste, Italy. Before his doctoral studies, Dr. Ramani worked for three years as Senior Chemist at Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Chennai, India. Dr. Satheesh Babu T. G. currently serves as Associate Professor Chemistry. He obtained his PhD fromAmrita University Coimbatore. He has more than ten years of teaching experience in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. He has served as Principal investigator & Co-investigator for several funded research projects from various agencies such as ISRO, DRDO and DBT. He has more than 30 peer reviewed papers in international journals and conferences to his credit. Dr. Satheesh has contributed as a Reviewer of Journals Electrochimica Acta (Elsevier), Biosensors and Bioelectronics (Elsevier), Electroanalysis (Wiley) & Journal of Experimental Nanoscience (Taylor and Francis). Recently He received the Prestigious Young Innovative Biotechnologist Award instituted by DBT, Govt. of India. 7 Currently he is leading the Biosensor research group at Amrita University and guiding six Ph. D students in addition to the M. Tech and MSc students in the areas of non-enzymatic biosensors, immunosensors, DNA sensors, Lab - on - a – Chip. Dr. Poongothai N. currently serves as Assistant Professor in Chemistry, Department of Sciences. She did her master‟s degree in Chemistry from Madras University, M. Phil in Avinashiligham Deemed University, Coimbatore and Ph. D. in Anna University. Her areas of research include Corrosion Inhibitors.