Vinod K. Singh (Hindi: विनोद कुमार सिंह; born 9 September 1959) is a Rahula and Namita Gautam Chair Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur.
He is also the Director's Chair Professor at IISER Bhopal & adjunct Professor at NIPER Hyderabad. He is currently the President, Chemical Research Society of India and the Chairman, Governing Council of IACS Kolkata.[2]
He has made significant contributions in the management of higher educational institutes, science education, science policy, and planning. In 2020, he was awarded a TWAS-CASAREP[7] award for building scientific institutions.
He had been a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (SAC-PM) during 2009–2014.
Education
Singh had his early education from a primary school in his village area. He passed high school and intermediate from the Wesley Inter College and BSc from D. A. V College, both in Azamgarh. He did his MSc (Chemistry) from Banaras Hindu University in 1980, and joined the Malt-Chem Research Center Nandesari, Baroda, where he earned a PhD degree in 1986 under the supervision of Dr. Sukh Dev. He spent two years (1985–1986) in Canada where he worked with Professor M.H. Benn (University of Calgary) and Professor J.P. Kutney (University of British Columbia). He moved to Professor Elias James Corey's group at Harvard University in early 1987 and worked there for 3 years as a post-doctoral fellow.
Profession
Singh started his career as a senior scientist in Neurogen Corporation, Connecticut, US, in March 1990. In the meantime, he accepted an offer for a faculty position from IIT Kanpur and joined the Institute in December 1990 as an assistant professor in Chemistry. He was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and professor in 2001. He came from IIT Kanpur to start IISER Bhopal in the year 2008 as a Founder Director and was there for 10 years. He served as a Director/Mentor Director in Institutes such as School of Planning and Architecture,[10]IISER Berhampur, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal, and IIIT Bhopal.[9] He also served as a chairperson of the BoG in NITTR[8] (National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research). Currently, he is serving as the chairman of the Governing Council at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata.[11]