| Born | Thiruvenkata Rajendra Seshadri (1900-02-03)3 February 1900 |
|---|---|
| Died | 27 September 1975(1975-09-27) (aged 75) New Delhi, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Presidency College, Madras |
| Known for | Work on Indian pharmacology, oxygenheterocyclic compounds |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Organic chemistry Pharmacology |
| Institutions | University of Madras Victoria University of Manchester University of Graz University of Edinburgh Agricultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore (nowTamil Nadu Agricultural University) Andhra University University of Delhi |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Robinson |
Thiruvengadam Rajendram SeshadriFNA,FRS was an Indian chemist, academic, writer and the Head of the Department of Chemistry at theUniversity of Delhi, known for his researches on the Indian medicinal and other plants.[1] He was a Fellow of theRoyal Society, UK and an elected member of theGerman Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[2] Besides several articles, he also published two books, Chemistry of Vitamins and Hormones[3] andAdvancement of Scientific and Religious Culture in India.[4] The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan, in 1963, for his contributions to Science.[5]
Money and materials alone do not secure good research, they are only adjuncts and it is the human element behind them that matters, said T. R. Seshadri.[6]
Seshadri was born on 3 February 1900 atKulithalai, an ancient village with history dating back to theCholas of the 9th century CE, in the present-dayKarur district of the south Indian state ofTamil Nadu, in aBrahmin family, to Namagiri Ammal and Thiruvengadatha Iyengar, a school teacher, as the third of their five sons.[1] After his primary schooling at the local school in his village, he did his high school studies at thetemple town ofSrirangam as well as at the National College Higher Secondary School,Tiruchirappalli and joinedPresidency College, Madras in 1917 for his graduate studies (BSc honours) which was completed in 1920 with financial assistance from theRamakrishna Mission. After graduation, he worked with the Mission for a year, but continued his studies at Presidency College for his master's degree and thereafter, for research under the renowned chemist, Biman Bihari Dey, during which period he won two research awards, the Curzon Prize and theWilliam Wedderburn Prize, from theUniversity of Madras.[6] He secured a scholarship from the state government in 1927 for higher studies atUniversity of Manchester where he did his doctoral research under the guidance of the renowned British chemist andNobel Laureate,Robert Robinson, to secure a PhD in 1929.[7] He was a colleague ofK. Venkataraman. His researches at Manchester were focused on the development ofanti-malarial drugs and synthesis of compounds.[6] Before returning to India in 1930, he had short training stints in Austria on organicmicroanalysis withFritz Pregl, a Nobel laureate, and in Edinburgh onalkaloid Retrorsine withGeorge Barger, aRoyal Society fellow.[8]
Back in India, he continued his work on plant chemistry as a research scholar of theUniversity of Madras at Government College of Agriculture,Coimbatore where he stayed for four years.[8] In 1934, he joinedAndhra University,Waltair, as the Reader and Head of the Department of Chemistry and served the university for 15 years.[6] During his tenure there, he set up several laboratories and a research school onflavanoids, while continuing his own researches. He also established two new departments in the university, viz.Department of Chemical Technology andDepartment of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.[6] The onset ofWorld War II in 1941 affected his work as the chemicals were short in supply and the department of chemistry at the university was taken over by the British Army, which forced him to move first toGuntur in 1942 and then toMadras in 1943. It was only in 1946, after the war ended, he could return to Waltair, when the laboratories, which suffered damages during the war, were rebuilt.[6]
After theIndian independence,Maurice Gwyer, the then vice chancellor of theUniversity of Delhi, a formerChief Justice of India and the founder ofMiranda House, invited Seshadri to join the Delhi University as the Head of the Department of Chemistry in 1949.[6] Accepting the offer, he established a new research school there where researches were primarily focused on natural products, such asterpenoids,alkaloids and quinonoids.[8] The school is known to have attracted research students from India and abroad where he guided a research team, composed of post-doctoral research scholars from England, France and Germany, besides India. He worked at the university till his superannuation in 1965, upon which he was made the first Professor Emeritus of the university.[7] In between, he was offered the post of the Chairman of theUniversity Grants Commission but he did not accept it. He served as Provost of theJubilee Hall, University of Delhi from 1952 to 1956. He continued his researches for seven more years, till 1972, when ill health, among other issues such as stoppage of research grants, forced an end to his active career.[6] He lived for three more years, mostly battling ill health, reportedly in poverty, and died, at the age of 75, on 27 September 1975.[7] The story of life has been published byResonance, a journal of theIndian Academy of Sciences, under the title,Professor T R Seshadri — An Acharaya par excellence.[9]
Some of the notable contributions of Seshadri are on the academic administration front. As the head of the Chemistry department at Andhra University, he was instrumental in the establishment of several laboratories, two new departments and a research school. He founded another research school atDelhi University which soon became a centre of excellence in chemical research, under the nameCentre for Advanced Study for the Chemistry of Natural Products where he served as the head from 1949 to 1975.[10] He is credited with pioneering research on plant chemistry, primarily in oxygenheterocyclics, and contributed to the isolation and structural elucidation offlavanoid pigments.[10] His studies onaglucones andglucosides resulted in the development of a new method ofmethylation for the degradation study of the pigments. His researches also focused on demethylation,hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, nuclear methylation,allylation,prenylation, among other topics.[10] His researches and work experiences have been documented by way of over 1000 articles[6][11] and two books, Chemistry of Vitamins and Hormones[3] andAdvancement of Scientific and Religious Culture in India.[4] He mentored 160 students in their doctoral studies and, on his retirement, donated all the books in his personal library to the Chemistry department of the Delhi University.[6]
Seshadri, who was a member of the scientific advisory committee to the Government of India andUNESCO, served as an expert advisor to several government agencies such as theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research,Indian Council of Medical Research,Indian Council of Agricultural Research andDepartment of Atomic Energy and chaired many expert committees related to education, health and science.[6] He was the president of theIndian National Science Academy (INSA) (1967–68) and theIndian Academy of Sciences (IAS)[12] and was a member of the editorial boards of theIndian Journal of Chemistry and two international journals,Tetrahedron andPhytochemistry.[6] He also served as the president of organizations such as theIndian Chemical Society, Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Oil Technology Association, the North India chapter of theRoyal Institute of Chemistry, London, Indian Pharmaceutical Congress andIndian Science Congress Association (1966–67).[10]
Seshadri received doctorates (honoris causa) fromAndhra University,Banaras Hindu University,Osmania University andDelhi University, honorary professorship fromAndhra University andOsmania University, and was aCooch-Behar Professor of theIndian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS),Kolkata.[10] He delivered several award orations includingH. K. Sen Lecture of the Institution of Chemists (India),B. C. Guha Lecture of theIndian Science Congress Association,B. M. Singh Lecture of thePanjab University andK. Venkataraman Lecture of theUniversity of Mumbai.[10] TheIndian National Science Academy elected him as their Fellow in 1942, which preceded elected fellowships fromIndian Academy of Sciences in 1954[13] and Royal Society, London in 1960.[1] A year later, theGerman Academy of Sciences Leopoldina elected him as their member in 1961.[2] The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan in 1963.[5] He was also a recipient ofMeghnad Saha Medal of the Indian National Science Academy and two awards from theIndian Chemical Society viz.Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Medal andAcharya Gnanendra Ghosh Medal.[10] INSA has institutedProfessor Tiruvenkata Rajendra Seshadri Seventieth Birthday Commemoration Medal[10] andDelhi University conductsProf. T. R. Seshadri Memorial Lecture, an annual oration, in his honour.[14]
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