Dr. Chinnakonda S. Gopinath 

Principal Investigator

Curriculum Vitae 

  • 2000-present: Scientist at NCL. 
  • 1997-2000: Post Doctoral Fellow at University of California at Riverside with Prof. Francisco Zaera on molecular beam studies  of three way catalytic converter reactions on Rh(111) surfaces. 
  • 1995-1997: AvH fellow  at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany with Drs. N. Nücker and S. Schuppler on Angle resolved  photoemission studies of one and two dimensional materials. 
  • 1993-1995: Research Associate at RSIC, IIT Madras. 
  • 1989-1993: PhD at RSIC, IIT Madras with Prof. S. Subramanian. Thesis Title 'Photoelectron  spectroscopic studies of high Tc cuprate superconductors. 
  • 1987-1989: Project Associate at Dept of Chemistry, IIT Madras. 
  • 1984-1986: M.Sc. Chemistry(Physical Chemistry special) Madurai Kamaraj University. Carried out a dissertation work on ‘Emulsion Polymerization’. Scored the highest marks (or First rank) and was awarded a Gold medal for the same
  • 1981-1984: B.Sc. Chemistry, Madurai Kamaraj University.

 

Affiliation: 

  • Life Member of the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI). 
  • Life Member of the Catalysis Society of India (CSI).

 

Awards:

  • Elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore from 2011.
  • Visiting CNRS Professor at UCCS, Univ. Lille1, Lille, France between Sept. - Nov. 2010. Also awarded Professorship from EU’s Erasmus-Mundus sponsored ASC course for teaching one month at Univ. Lille 1 on May 2012.
  • Recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Research Fellowship from AvH Foundation, Germany on 1995.
  • Recipient of Bronze medal from CRSI on 11th National Symposium in Chemistry at NCL, Pune, Feb. 2009.
  • Recipient of the Scientist of the year Award from NCL, Pune on 2006 and Dr. S.S. Deshpande National Award from Holkar college on 2013.
  • More than 6900 citations with an h-factor = 48 (Courtesy: Google Scholar)
  • Scored the highest mark and received the Dr. T.P. Meenakshisundaranar Gold Medal for securing the First Rank in M. Sc. (Chemistry) at Madurai Kamaraj University on 1986.

 

Professional Experience and Major Accomplishments:

  • Initiated serious surface science studies, especially photoemission studies, of catalysts, inorganic, polymeric, magnetic and electronic materials at NCL from 2000. Currently Head of the Center of Excellence on Surface Science at NCL, Pune.
  • Project on fabrication of Molecular beam instrument was successfully completed and nitric oxide reduction on Pd metal surface is currently explored. This is a collaborative research project between NCL, India and Fritz-Haber Inst., Berlin. Molecular beam instrument is fully developed independently in my group at NCL and employed for vapor-phase reactions on metal surfaces.
  • New materials prepared for solar energy harvesting through water splitting and DSSC.
  • Mechanistic details of catalytic reactions under in-situ conditions by IR spectroscopy and the same for catalyst development.
  • Collaborated with international scientists from USA, Germany, France, Japan, Korea, Australia and several institutions within India.
  • Convener for CRSI-NSC-17 (Feb 6-8, 2015) and Indo-French Workshop on Organic Photovoltaics (Oct. 15-17, 2014). Both held at NCL, Pune.

 

Editorial:

  • Editorial Board Member of Indian Journal of Chemical Technology, 2015
  • Editorial Board Member, Journal of Chemical Sciences, Springer, between Jan 2012 to Dec 2015.
  • About 50 research articles are reviewed annually, sent by the renowned journals from top-publishers, ACS, Wiley, RSC, Elsevier, Springer etc.
  • Regularly review research proposals from different funding agencies (DST, IFCPAR, CSIR etc.).
     

 

Recent Invited Talks:

  •  C. S. Gopinath, Can we really succeed in solar hydrogen generation through artificial photosynthesis in direct sunlight ? Some light on sunlight harvesting. NMR Meets Materials”, TIFR,  Hyderabad, May 4-5, 2017.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, A possible approach to understand catalysts and catalysis under the real-world working conditions, Indo-French symposium on ‘Catalysis by design using NMR’ (NMR-CAT-2017), Univ. Lille 1, Lille, France, March 15-17, 2017.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, UV Photoelectron Spectroscopy at Near Ambient Pressures : An Unique Tool to Explore Electronic Structure under in-situ conditions, National Conference on Electron Spectroscopy (NCES-2016), Puri, Dec. 22-24, 2016.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, Some light on sunlight harvesting, Bridging the Learning Gap in Chemistry from Concepts to Applications, S P College, Pune, October 01-03, 2016.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, Why Should India do Quality Research, Innovate, and Role of Teachers, Bridging the Learning Gap in Chemistry from Concepts to Applications, S P College, Pune, October 01-03, 2016.     
  •  C. S. Gopinath, Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Applications to Variety of Solid Surfaces, Refresher course on analytical techniques to college teachers, SPPU, Dept. Chemistry, July 2016.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, What is the real influence of low dimensional morphologies towards better light harvesting efficiency ? A case study of Au-RGO-TNT composite, Univ. Bordeaux, April 2016.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, UV Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UVPES) at Near Ambient Pressure (NAPPES) : A Necessary Tool to Explore Materials and Catalysis under in-situ/operando Conditions, FAME Master Program, Univ. Bordeaux, April 2016.
  •  C. S. Gopinath, A Possible Approach to Shift the Catalysis Regime : More Wine in The Old Bottle, Univ. Bremen, April 2016
  •  C. S. Gopinath, Towards bridging the material gap in heterogeneous catalysis : A case study with Ceria-Zirconia (Ce1-xZrxO2) thin films, Univ. Erlangen-Nürnberg, April 2016
  •  C. S. Gopinath, A Possible Approach to Shift the Catalysis Regime : More Wine in The Old Bottle, Univ. Ulm, April 2016.

 

Review/Chapter in Books: 

  • M. Vijayaraj, T. Mathew and C.S. Gopinath, Selective alkylation of organic substrates on spinels, Heterogeneous Catalysis Research Progress, Ed. Mathias B. Gunther, pp. 145-191, (2008), Nova Science, New York.
  • S. Nagarajan and C.S. Gopinath, Diffusion of chemisorbed oxygen into Pd-sub-surfaces and its influence in catalysis, J. Indian Institute of Science, Vol. 90, 245-260 (2010) (Invited).
  • M. Mapa, S. RajaAmbal, C. S. Gopinath, ZnO-based Solid Solutions for Visible Light Driven Photocatalysis, Transactions of the Materials Research Society of Japan Vol. 38, 145-158 (2013).
  • S. Raja Ambal, K. Sivaranjani, and C. S. Gopinath, Recent Developments in Solar H2 Generation from Water Splitting, J. Chem. Sci. Vol. 127, pp. 33-47, (2015).
  • Anand S. Burange and C. S. Gopinath, Applications of Nanostructured Noble Metal Catalysts for Chemoselective Hydrogenantion reactions, Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2016) (J. Accepted)