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Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF)
Pooja Yadav
Academic Background
Research Interest
My current work is focused on developing a sustainable and robust methodology for C-H functionalization reactions. Sunlight is a renewable source of energy that provides us heat and light. Given the current scenario where non-renewable resources are at the verge of extinction, researchers have started looking for a renewable source of energy like solar energy, wind energy, etc. Inspired by this organic chemist also started looking for more greener and sustainable approaches for performing reactions. Photoredox catalysis has achieved this by using visible light as the energy source. C-H functionalization on the other hand plays a very important role in organic synthesis. Some of the key challenges in this arena is the lack of selectivity and reactivity of the C-H bond due to its lower acidity. This can be overcome by using transition metal catalysts, which facilitates the activation of unreactive C-H bonds.
We are also interested in exploring electro-organic synthesis for the construction of interesting molecular skeletons. Electro-organic synthesis generally replaces the use of oxidants and reductants with electricity, which make this method more sustainable and the conversions much milder.
Advisor Information
Dr. Gopinath is an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry department at IISER Tirupati. He completed his Ph.D. from the Dept. Of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2011. He then moved to Tokyo, Japan, to work as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Microbial Chemistry to work on asymmetric catalysis and synthesis. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral research scientist in the Chemistry Department at Columbia University, New York, the U.S.A, on prebiotic chemistry.
His primary research focus is to develop new synthetic methods using catalysis as the main tool with a special focus on visible light photoredox catalysis, transition metal catalysis & dual catalysis. These synthetic methods will later be used for applications in the total synthesis of natural products, drugs & other bioactive compounds. He is a recipient of JSPS postdoctoral Fellowship, Ramanujan Fellowship, Early career research fellowship etc. He is a member of the American chemical society (2020-2021), Chemical research society of India (CRSI), & JSPS alumni association.
