30 Facts About Swaminathan Sivaram

Swaminathan Sivaram was born on 4 November 1946 and is an Indian polymer chemist, inventor, institution builder and a former director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune.

Swaminathan Sivaram is known for his pioneering work on alkylation of tertiary alkyl halides with trialkylaluminum and olefin polymerization and holds the highest number of US patents by an Indian working outside the US.

Swaminathan Sivaram is a fellow of several significant professional organizations.

Swaminathan Sivaram continued in the US for two more years and worked as a research associate at the Institute of Polymer Science of the University of Akron, Ohio.

Swaminathan Sivaram returned to India in 1973 and joined the Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, Baroda as a research scientist where he worked in various capacities such as research manager and deputy general manager till 1988, when he moved to the National Chemical Laboratory as the Head of the Department of Polymer Chemistry.

Swaminathan Sivaram has served as visiting faculty at many universities in India and abroad.

Swaminathan Sivaram was a guest lecturer at the Free University of Berlin in May 1999 and the Harold A Morton Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Akron in 2006.

Swaminathan Sivaram has been involved with the Government of India and its various autonomous bodies and is a former member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet.

Swaminathan Sivaram is a former member of the Task Force on Public Sector of the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Innovation Council on Chemicals and Petrochemicals of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and the Board of Trustees of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission.

Swaminathan Sivaram was the vice president of several science forums and societies such as the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2007 to 2012, the Indian National Science Academy from 2004 to 2006, the Chemical Research Society of India from 2005 to 2008 and the Materials Research Society of India from 2004 to 2007.

Swaminathan Sivaram has sat on the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune and the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Swaminathan Sivaram has served as the faculty selection committee of the Indian Institute of Technology for their Mumbai, Kanpur, Chennai and Hyderabad institutes and is a member of the Scientific Council for Catalysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.

Swaminathan Sivaram's researches have helped in creating new properties in polymers and threw more light on the synthesis, structure and properties of polymeric materials.

Swaminathan Sivaram has worked on polymer-layered clay nanocomposites and has been successful in synthesizing several organic modifiers for clay for the preparation of exfoliated nanocomposite of clay.

Swaminathan Sivaram's researches are recorded in over 200 articles published in peer reviewed journals; ResearchGate, an online knowledge repository, has listed 225 of them.

Swaminathan Sivaram is the author of Living Anionic Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate, a book detailing his research on Living anionic polymerization.

Swaminathan Sivaram has edited two books, Polymer Science, and Macromolecular Symposia, Volume 240.

Swaminathan Sivaram is the holder of approximately 100 patents of which 50 are approved in the US.

Swaminathan Sivaram is known to be the holder of the highest number of US patents by an Indian-based outside the US and many of his inventions have been put to commercial use in India and abroad.

Swaminathan Sivaram has guided 36 students in their doctoral researches.

Swaminathan Sivaram is the founder of the NCL Innovation Park and the Technology-Business Incubator under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a first time in India.

Swaminathan Sivaram was involved in the establishment of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and served as the project director during formation of IISER Pune, in 2006.

Swaminathan Sivaram is the founder chairman Venture Center, a not-for-profit initiative by the National Chemical Laboratory for promoting technology and knowledge-based enterprises for India, and sits on its board of directors.

Swaminathan Sivaram, a Bhatnagar Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, The World Academy of Sciences, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

In 1987, Swaminathan Sivaram received the VASVIK Industrial Research Award for applied industrial research.

Swaminathan Sivaram received the Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India in 2002, followed by the Chemcon R A Mashelkar Medal of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2003, the same year as he received the Vishwakarma Medal of the Indian National Science Academy.

Swaminathan Sivaram is a recipient of the Millennium Medal of the Indian Science Congress Association and the K G Naik Gold Medal of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

Swaminathan Sivaram has been an invited speaker at the meetings of the American Chemical Society in 1985,92 and 94, International Conferences on Ionic Polymerization of 1995,97,99,2001 and 2005, World Polymer Congress in 2000, Europolymer Congress in 2001, and the Polycondensation conferences of 1997,2002 and 2004.

Swaminathan Sivaram has delivered keynote addresses at World Polymer Congress in 2004,2006 and 2011, International Symposium on Materials for Advanced Technologies at Singapore in 2005 and the Indian-China-Singapore Trilateral Symposium on Advances in Nanosciences at Singapore in 2010.

Swaminathan Sivaram was associated with the International Conferences on Ionic Polymerization for several of their conferences such as World Polymer Congress in 2000,2003,2004,2010,2011 and 2012 as a member of the International Organizing Committee.