I am from the temple city, Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu located in the South India. After completing my B.Sc. in the American College, Madurai in 1982, I left Madurai, and as they say, Madurai has not left me. I studied in IITs at Madras and Delhi to get an MSc and MTech before going to the USA for my Ph. D. (Kansas State) and postodoctroal work (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). I returned to India to take up an academic position at IITK in late 1994 and moved to IISc in the middle of 1997. Living in Kanpur for about two and a half years changed my views on many things in life. To sum it up, going to the the USA for my higher studies did not give me a cultural shock, as warned by the International Student Centre at the Kansas State University, before my arrival. Living in Kanpur was.

I am currently a Professor at the Inorganic and Physical Chemistry. The year 2005 was significant as I started an Indo-French collaboration and Chaired an important project for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The main reason I consider this year important is because, from this year I started traveling to Europe more often, and until this year I had seen mostly India and the USA. I loved Europe, which I think has a more balanced life than the USA or India. My views have been shaped by so many places and individuals I was fortunate to be associated with.

My webpage at the Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Department, Indian Institute of Science has more details about my professional career.