Prof. P. Ramu Sridhar, Professor, School of Chemistry at University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been chosen to receive the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Bronze Medal for the year 2022 for his contributions to research in chemistry.
Prof. P. Ramu Sridhar
Dr. P. Ramu Sridhar has been working on the development of novel synthetic methods in carbohydrate chemistry and has made significant contributions to this emerging area in India. He is the first one to use 1,2-cyclopropanecarboxylated sugars as glycosyl donors in traditional oligosaccharide synthesis. He has introduced excellent methods in carbohydrate chemistry particularly in the synthesis of Oligo Glyco-Amino acids (OGAAs), C-spiro-glycosides, a class of spiro-sugars, and sugar fused bicycles that are present in a number of bioactive natural products.
Dr. Ramu Sridhar has made noteworthy contributions in the synthesis of septano-oligosaccharides, a class of ring expanded sugar mimics of biological interest. He is one of the only three scientists in the world over who synthesized the largest septano- oligosaccharide known. Using carbohydrates as synthetic precursors, he has achieved the stereoselective total synthesis of several natural products including D-ribo-C18-phytosphingosine, L-ribose, fused bicycles of natural products, (S)-(-)-longianone (first total synthesis), C18-guggultetrol, Neosemburin (first total synthesis), (–)-brevisamide and dihydro-pyrenolide-D. Recently, he discovered an interesting glycal dimerization reaction to produce novel kind of C-glycosidic architectures. Apart from the carbohydrate chemistry, his research also involved the total synthesis of bacterial siderophores. Very recently, he accomplished the first total synthesis of bacterial siderophore “Gobichelin-B” an interesting mixed ligand iron chelator.
Dr. Ramu Sridhar has published extensively his research finding in internationally reputed journals, and also trained several research students. His research contributions have been acknowledged widely as seen from the major recognitions he has already received such as the Guha research medal (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore), Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Young Scientist medal of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, H. C. Srivastava Young Scientist award from Association of Carbohydrate Chemists and Technologists (ACCTI) and very recently he received the University of Hyderabad Chancellor’s award.