Dr. V.Kameswara Rao, Director, ACRHEM (now renamed as DRDO Industry Academia – Centre of Excellence, University of Hyderabad (DIA-CoE, UoH) has been conferred with honorary fellowship of the High Energy Materials Society of India (HEMSI) during the 13th High Energy Materials Conference and Exhibits (HEMCE) – 2022 organized by High Energy Materials Society of India Chandigarh-Delhi Chapter in association with Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory(TBRL), Chandigarh at TBRL Ranges, Haryana, India during 26th-28th May 2022 for his contributions “In the development of various products, which include Ferrocene Grafted HTPB (Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene), a polymer binder material and crucial component which enhances the burning rate of propellants and nanomaterials used for strategic defence applications by DRDO”. His other important contributions to DRDO include the development of (i) a two-step process for the synthesis of CL-20 against the four-step synthesis used in its preparation. (ii) a novel process for bulk synthesis of ferrocene grafted HTPB as per the requirement of DRDO and also contributed in the preparation of nano copper chromite. Few of his previous awards include a DRDO commendation certificate for developing Air cleaning filters; three best research paper awards from Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior; group awards for the development of Air cleaning filters and Nerve agent detector.
Dr. V.Kameswara Rao, Director ACRHEM receiving honorary fellowship of the High Energy Materials Society of India (HEMSI) award in HEMCE-2022, held at TBRL, Chandigarh, India.
Since joining as a Director of ACRHEM (Phase-III) in 2018, he has been instrumental in promoting the basic and applied High Energy Materials research in DIA-CoE, UoH (ACRHEM) through distinct interdisciplinary research projects in the areas of Design and Synthesis of new high energy materials, development of energetic binders, oxidizers, nano-materials, nano-thermites, laser based detection technologies through light-matter interaction studies, numerical and ab-initio simulations to explore the structure-sensitivity correlations of HEM’s. During this tenure, he rigorously promoted the upscaling process of several chemicals prepared in ACRHEM, UoH and successfully transferred several notable technologies of ACRHEM to different DRDO labs. He also initiated a ACRHEM news letter to circulate the highlights of regular research activities happening at ACRHEM to the other HEM’s research communities elsewhere in India. He also delivered a invited talk entitled “Science and Technology of HEMs at ACRHEM” during HEMCE-2022 Conference.
Before joining ACRHEM-UoH, Dr V.Kameswara Rao, had served as a Scientist in DRDO, India for 31 years (1987 – 2018) at various prestigious levels , including Scientist ‘G’ and the Head of the department of Biosensor development Division, Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior till 2018. He was born in Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh. His areas of research include corrosion, electro-organic synthesis, Development of gas sensors, Biosensors, Adsorption materials and nanomaterial-based sensors, development of decontamination solutions etc. He contributed to developing many technologies like (i) air cleaning filters for confined atmospheres (Arihant Submarine), Nerve agent detectors, DS2 and Immunosensors, (ii) screen-printed electrodes and used them in the development of amperometric immunosensors. He organized two Continuing Education Programme (CEP) courses for DRDO. To this end, he has authored two Indian patents, 55 research publications, three review articles in reputed national and international journals. He is a member of several research societies, including the High Energy Materials Society of India (HEMSI), Computer Society of India (CSI), Biosensor Society of India (BSI), Society for Advancement of Electrochemical Science and Technology (SAEST) and he also serves as a reviewer of nearly 20 journals.
Some of his notable publications appeared in reputed journals. They are Analyst, Talanta, Journal of Clinical microbiology, RSC advances, Analytica Chimica Acta, Electroanalysis, Thin Solid Films, Analytical methods, Analytical sciences (Japan), New Journal of Chemistry , Chem Comm , Sensor letters, Biosensors & Bioelectronics , Bioelectrochemistry and Biotechnology reports.