Vinod K. Singh

Professor Vinod Singh is currently the Institute Chair Professor at IIT Kanpur. He also holds the position of Director's Chair Professor at IISER Bhopal. He is the Chairperson of the Governing Council of IACS Kolkata, Chairperson of the Research Council of CSIR-AMPRI Bhopal, and Chairperson of the Recruitment and Assessment Board (RAB) of the CSIR. He is also a Member of the CSIR Society, chaired by the PM.

Born on 9th September 1959 in Anantapur, a village in Azamgarh (UP), Professor Singh received his early education from his native place. He did an MSc (1980) in Chemistry from BHU and a PhD (1986) from M.S. University Baroda (Malti-Chem Research Center, Nandesari; Supervisor: Dr Sukh Dev). After spending 2 years in Canada (1985-1987) at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia, he moved to the USA to do other postdoctoral work (1987-1990) at Harvard University with Professor E. J. Corey, a Nobel Laureate. After a brief stint as a Senior Scientist at Neurogen Corporation, CT, USA, Vinod Singh joined IIT Kanpur in 1990 as an Assistant Professor and rose to the rank of Professor.  After superannuation, he was given an Emeritus position, with the honour of Institute Chair.

Professor Singh's research falls in the Synthetic Organic Chemistry area, specifically asymmetric synthesis. He has been recognized with several awards and honours such as Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1998), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2004) and Padma Shri (2014), among others. In addition, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS).

Professor Singh is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett., J. Org. Chem., Asian J. Org. Chem., Tetrahedron Lett., and Org. Chem. Frontiers. He was an Editor of an Elsevier journal, Tetrahedron Lett. (2014-2023)

Professor Singh has made significant contributions to the management of higher educational institutes and higher education policy for the government. As a Founding Director of IISER Bhopal for over 10 years (2008-2018), he set up the whole campus from scratch. He has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of SPA Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Directorship of MANIT Bhopal. In 2020, he was awarded a TWAS-CASAREP award for building scientific institutions.

Professor Singh was a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC to PM; 2009-2014). He was also the President of the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) during 2020-2023.