Nilanjana Majumdar

Nilanjana Majumdar

Organic Chemistry Division

About Me

Dr. Nilanjana Majumdar started her chemistry journey from Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal, India. She completed her undergraduate education there with first class first in B.Sc. (Chemistry Hons.). In 2003, she went to IIT Kharagpur to pursue Masters. For Ph.D., she moved to United States in 2006 and worked under the supervision of Professor William D. Wulff in Michigan State University. After graduation in 2012, she moved to Tokyo, Japan for first postdoctoral experience in Professor Masakatsu Shibasaki's group with JSPS fellowship. After three years in Japan, she worked in Professor Benjamin List's group for one year in Max-Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, Germany. In April, 2018, she joined CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow as Senior Scientist in Medicinal & Process Chemistry Division. Since 2022, she has been promoted to the post of Principal Scientist. In 2025, she moved to CSIR-NCL, Pune as Principal Scientist.


Personal website: https://nilanjana26.wixsite.com/nilanjana


Professional Experience

2025 – till date:  Principal Scientist, CSIR-NCL, Pune, India

2022 – 2025: Principal Scientist, CSIR-CDRI. Lucknow, India

2018 – 2022 :  Senior Scientist, CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow, India

2016 – 2017: Postdoctoral researcher at Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. Advisor: Professor Benjamin List
2012 – 2015:  Postdoctoral researcher under JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Fellowship at Institute of Microbial Chemistry (BIKAKEN), Tokyo, Japan. Advisor: Professor Masakatsu Shibasaki

2012: Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Advisor: Professor William D. Wulff


Selected Publications

  • Adhikari, A. S.; Majumdar And N.*, Catalytic Asymmetric Ring Opening Reactions of Vinylcyclopropanes, Eur. J. Org. Chem., 27, e202301225 (2024), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.202301225.
  • Pandit, S.; Majumdar And N.*, Catalytic Intermolecular [4+2]-Cycloaddition toward the Stereo­selective C2–C3 Annulation of Indoles, Synthesis., 57, 362 - 379 (2024), DOI:10.1055/a-2383-7416.
  • Adhikari, A. S.; Pandit, S.; Kant, R.; Majumdar And N.*, Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Allylic Substitution of Vinylcyclopropanes by Carboxylic Acids, ACS Catalysis., 13, 6261 - 6267 (2023), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.3c00959.
  • Adhikari, A. S.; Majumdar And N, Unconventional Reactivity of a Grubbs Catalyst: Hydroalkylation Overriding Metathesis, Org. Lett., 25, 8611 - 8616 (2023), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.3c03456.
  • Majumdar And N.*, Carboxylic Acids as Building Blocks in Catalytic Asymmetric Reactions, ACS Catalysis., 12, 8291 - 8324 (2022), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.2c02410.
  • Pandit, S.;§ Adhikari, A.S.;§ Majumdar And N.* (§ equal contribution) , Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Ring Opening of Alkenyl Oxiranes by Unactivated Carboxylic Acids, Org. Lett., 24, 7388 - 7393 (2022), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.2c02919.
  • Pandit, S.; Pandey, V. K.; Adhikari, A. S.; Kumar, S.; Maurya, A. K.; Kant, R.; Majumdar And N.*, Palladium-Catalyzed Dearomative [4+2]-Cycloaddition Towards Hydrocarbazoles, J. Org. Chem., 88, 97 - 105 (2022), DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.2c01869.
  • Ramachandran, R.; Bhosale, V.; Reddy, H.; Atam, V.; Faridi, M.; Fatima, J.; Shukla, V.; Singh, V.; Negi, M. P. S.; Srivastava, M.; Thakur, T.; Srivastava, A.; Tripathi, C. B.; Ghosh, N.; Majumdar, N.; Tripathi, R. K.; Rath, S. K.; Mishra, P. R.; Sharma, S.; Kundu And T. K, Phase III, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo controlled trial of Efficacy, Safety and Tolerability of Antiviral drug Umifenovir vs Standard care of therapy in non-severe COVID-19 patients, nt. J. Infect. Dis., 115, 62 - 69 (2022).

Research Interest

  • Asymmetric Synthesis

Contact Details

Division of Organic Chemistry
CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road
Pune-411008, India.