Dr. Akshai Kumar has about 18 years of experience in the area of organometallic chemistry, homogeneous catalysis and heterogenization of molecular catalysts. He has 50 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including one in Chemical Reviews (Impact Factor = 54. 301) apart from 6 book chapters and 4 US patents (granted), 1 INDIAN patent (granted), 6 International patents (filed) and 6 INDIAN patents (filed). He has vast experience in using these organometallic compounds for homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Career highlights include the development of efficient catalyst for transformation of waste to fuel and value- added chemicals. This includes conversion of unproductive hydrocarbons to fuel-grade chemicals, generation of green hydrogen, transformation of inexpensive glycerol to high value lactic acid and upgrading low-energy density ethanol to high-energy density fuels.

He is a member of Indian Young Academy of Science, Member of Bureau of Indian Standards, and fellow of the Indian Chemical Society. In addition to Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, currently, he is the Head, Centre for Nanotechnology at IIT Guwahati. 


Professional, Research and Academic Background


April 2022 - Present: Head, Centre for Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati , Assam, INDIA.


June 2021 - Present; Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati , Assam, INDIA.


July 2015 - June 2021; Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati , Assam, INDIA.


2012 - 2015; Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA.

(Research Supervisor: Prof. Alan. S. Goldman)


2010 - 2012; Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Goethe University, Frankfurt, GERMANY.

(Research Supervisor: Prof. Andreas Terfort)


2009 - 2010; Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA.

(Research Supervisor: Prof. Ashoka G. Samuelson)


2004 - 2009; PhD in Organometallics and Coordination Chemistry,

Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, INDIA.

(Research Supervisor: Prof. Ashoka G. Samuelson)


2002 - 2004; M.Sc. in Inorganic Chemistry,

Department of Chemistry, Mangalore University, Mangalore, INDIA.


1999 - 2002; B.Sc. [Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics],

St. Aloysius College, Affiliated to Mangalore University, Mangalore, INDIA.


Academic Scholarships / Awards received


December 2021 - Fellow of Indian Chemical Society (FICS - Life Fellow)

September 2021-Present, Member, Bureau of Indian Standards.

Selected as Member of Indian National Young Academy of Sciences (INYAS), Indian National Science Academy Feb 2021 - Jan 2026;

Lifetime member of the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI)

September 2020 - 22, Visiting Faculty, NIPER Guwahati, Guwahati, INDIA

Jan 2020 - Present, Member, Board of Studies, St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, INDIA

Editor, Book titled “PINCER-METAL COMPLEXES: APPLICATIONS IN CATALYTIC DEHYDROGENATION CHEMISTRY ” Elsevier, 2021

Membership of American Chemical Society: 2013-2015, 2019-2022

Session chair (along with Dr. R. Prasanna Venkatesh) for Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CR) and Others (OT) in the 18th Annual Session of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers; CHEMCON-2015, IIT Guwahati, Dec 2015.

Centre for Enabling New Technologies Through Catalysis (CENTC) Post Doctoral Fellow. June 2012
Best poster award: 12th Symposium on Modern Trends in Inorganic Chemistry (MTIC XII – Dec 2007), IIT Madras, Chennai, INDIA. Dec 2007

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Junior & Senior Fellowship Dec 2004 & 2006

Rastriya Pratibha Vidyarthi Vetana Scholarship; Mangalore University June 2002

Dr. Akshai Kumar Alape Seetharam

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry,

Head, Centre for Nanotechnology

Associated Faculty, School of Health Science & Technology
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Guwahati - 781039, Assam, INDIA

Member, Indian National Young Academy of Sciences (INYAS-INSA)

Fellow, Indian Chemical Society

Tel: +91-3612583479 (O)

         +91-3612583051 (O)     

Fax: +91-3612582349

Email: akshaikumar@iitg.ac.in

            akshaikumara@gmail.com

Akshai Kumar hails from Mangalore. He obtained his B.Sc. in 2002 from Mangalore University. From the same university in 2004, he received his Master’s degree in inorganic chemistry. He pursued his doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Ashoka G. Samuelson at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, where he was awarded a Ph.D. degree in 2009. After a postdoctoral stint in the same laboratory, in October 2010, he joined the group of Prof. Andreas Terfort at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2012, he extended his postdoctoral activities and worked in the Goldman group at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick. In 2015, he was appointed as Assistant Professor in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.


He utilizes his expertise in catalysis (heterogeneous and homogeneous), organometallics and organofluorine chemistry to bring about; (i) Upgradation of light hydrocarbons and their derivatives to fuel grade chemicals. (ii) Utilzation of petrochemicals and alkanes to generate aromatics. (iii) Biomass conversion and transformation of waste biomass to value –added fine chemicals (iv) Greenhouse gas to fuels and fine chemicals (v) Synthesis of heteroatom and fluorine doped π-conjugated molecules for material applications (vi) Asymmetric catalysis The targets are achieved via pincer−metal-catalyzed C−H and C−F activation reactions for the synthesis of fuel chemicals and heteroatom- doped π-conjugated organic materials.