Track-1 (Emerald 2): Synthesis & Screening of Drugs & Phytochemicals Keynote Speakers

Asit Chakraborti Professor and Head, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research Dr. Chakraborti did M. Sc. (Organic Chemistry) from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal Ph. D. (Synthetic Organic Chemistry) from IACS, Kolkata. He was post-doctoral research fellow in the Chemistry Department, Clemson Univ, South Carolina, USA during 1985-1987 and in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology, Purdue Univ, USA in the laboratory of Prof. Mark Cushman during 1987-1989. He joined the Department of Chemistry, Burdwan Univ as senior lecturer in 1990 and moved to NIPER, S. A. S. Nagar as a founder faculty as Assistant Professor. He became Assoc Prof. in 1999 and is serving NIPER as Professor and Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry since 2001. He has guided 26 Ph. D. and 81 Masters students, wrote 3 book chapters, filed 36 patents, and published 136 papers in international journals with 4630 citation and an h-index of 42. He is the recipient of Ranbaxy Research Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences, ISMAS Eminent Mass Spectroscopic Award, CRSI Medal, University Gold Medal, and Bardhaman Sammilani gold Medal. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.
G Sastry Scientist and Head, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology Dr. G. Narahari Sastry obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Osmania University and Ph.D. from University of Hyderabad. After PDF stays in Israel and Switzerland, he started his independent research career in 1997 at Pondicherry University. Dr. Sastry’s research interests are computational chemistry and computer aided drug design. Several of his computational predictions have seen experimental realization. He has organized and participated in many conferences, and delivered about 175 invited/plenary lectures. He has published about 215 papers which received over 3100 citations. He has been awarded Shanthi Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in chemical sciences (2011), National Bioscience award(DBT)2009, Swarnajayanthi Fellowship 2005 (DST), B.M. Birla Young scientist award for 2001, B.C. Deb memorial award (2008), CRSI Medal 2011, and AvH fellowship. He was a visiting professor at IMS, japan; LMU, Munich, Germany; and Jackson State University, USA. He was elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), Fellow of Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy (FABP) and Andhra Pradesh Akademy of scienices (FAPAS).
Anamik Shah Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapith Professor Dr. Anamik Shah is working as a senior most faculty member at Department of Chemistry, Saurashtra University. The Department of Chemistry when established in 1979 under the stewardship of Professor V. M. Thakor, he was the first Ph.D. student from the department. After appointment as a faculty member at Saurashtra University in 1983, for last 29 years, Professor Anamik Shah is teaching Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, and Pharma Analytical Chemistry. Professor Shah is one of the Professors in the National University System to work on several industry-academic research projects. Research group of Prof. Shah has successfully worked on 14 National and International Research Projects. Professor Shah is successfully running research programs of more than 8 crore of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, National Institute of Health (NIH)-USA, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Atomic Energy, National Medicinal Plant Board - New Delhi, on diversified fields of medicinal chemistry research on anti HIV, anticancer and antitubercular drug discovery, preservation of molecular diversity, etc. He is currently President of Indian Society of Chemists and Biologists, Lucknow, where he has also served as Vice President during 2002 to 2010. Professor Shah has pursued his degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Chemistry) in year 1983, Master of Science in year 1977, and Special LLB in year 1988. He is awarded by International Scientific Partnership Foundation, Russia, along with many others.
Ashok Vaidya Research Director, Kasturba Health Society Prof. Ashok D B Vaidya, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist, is known as the father of Reverse Pharmacology. Over half-a-century of career in drug research/ discovery/development, he has pioneered phase 1 to 4 clinical trials with new drugs. He has trained many scientists in drug research. He was the Merck International Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at Yale. He retired as the Regional Medical Director of Ciba. Currently, he is the Research Director of Kasturba Health Society and Adjunct Professor at Saurashtra and Drexel University. He has played a major role in guiding drug research, as a consultant/expert at WHO, CSIR, ICMR, DBT, AYUSH, Universities and Industry. He has been a leader in new drug research and has around 250 publications. He has received many honours, including lifetime achievement awards from the Indian Pharmacological Society, Nutra Summit India and Unilever. His search for new drugs through Reverse Pharmacology is fruitful in hepatitis, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, malaria and cancer. The evidence in Ayurveda has been enhanced by his school of drug research.