Indian chemist
Garikapati Narahari Sastry is an Indian Chemist and a Professor at the Department of Biotechnology at IIT-Hyderabad. He served as Director of CSIR- North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat Jorhat, Assam from 19 February 2019 and served there till 10 January 2024. After taking charge as the Director, he has worked towards converting knowledge in the areas of computational modelling and Artificial intelligence from basic to translational research, by working closely with society and industry. Ultimately, revitalizing the strength of science and technology is essential in achieving the self-reliant and strong India. In the era of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, combining our traditional wisdom with modern science appear to be indispensable in the sectors such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Industrial and Societal development at large. Prior to joining as the Director, he headed the Molecular Modelling Division at the CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad, India. Sastry has made pioneering contributions in the areas of computational chemistry and computational biology.
He was awarded Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in 2011, the highest science award in India, in the chemical sciences category.
Early life and education.
G. N. Sastry completed his BSc (1985) and MSc (1988) from Osmania University. He earned his PhD from University of Hyderabad in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. E. D. Jemmis in 1995. Subsequently, he moved to Israel to carry out his first postdoctoral studies (1994 – 1996) with Prof. Sason Shaik in Hebrew University where he majorly focused on valance bond modelling and electronic transfer reactions. In 1996, he moved to Switzerland and did his second postdoctoral studies with Prof. Thomas Bally in University of Fibourg, Switzerland. In Switzerland he worked in Molecular modelling and theoretical and physical organic chemistry.
Career.
After two postdoctoral stints, he moved to India and he has served as Assistant Professor in Pondicherry University for five years (1997 – 2002). There majorly focused on Molecular modelling and theoretical and physical organic chemistry. In 2002 he moved to CSIR – Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad where he served for almost two decades and made fundamental contributions in supramolecular chemistry which itself is a highly interdisciplinary areas. On 19 February 2019, he took charge as a Director in CSIR – North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam and served their till 10 January 2024. Currently, he is serving as Professor at Department of Biotechnology at IIT-Hyderabad.
Scientific contributions.
Sastry's group is highly interdisciplinary with diverse background that include chemistry, biology, material science, and computer science. With more than 300 research papers, which received over ~11000 citations, and an h-index of 52, he is one of the most prolific scientist in India making contributions in areas like noncovalent interactions, computer aided drug design, bucky bowl chemistry, and applications of machine learning in computational drug discovery. He is also interested to unravel ~5000 years of traditional knowledge with 100 years of modern science. DISHA (Development of Informatics for Societal Health Advancement) has been conceived by Dr. G.N. Sastry with the aim to leverage the activities of data driven approaches in healthcare.
In the last decade, his group is involved in developing an indigenous software, Molecular Property Diagnostic Suite (MPDS), which aims to strengthen the computational drug discovery, and thereby working towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Dr. Sastry is also involved in a number of outreach programs and widely traveled across the globe and has visited over 25 countries. His stays as a visiting professor (faculty) in Japan, USA, Germany and Switzerland, besides several short visits to attend and organize meetings abroad has established a strong relationship in building international collaborations across the disciplines.
Leadership activities.
As the Director, Dr. Sastry has shown outstanding leadership with many major programs and creating facilities contributing to the northeast region as well as nation.
References.
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