1975 - MSc - Chemistry Prof. of Theoretical Chemistry @ Indiana University, USA
Professor Krishnan Raghavachari has an internationally-recognized research program in theoretical and computational chemistry. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT Madras in 1975. He joined Carnegie?Mellon University to work with Professor of Theoretical Chemistry and Nobel Laureate, Sir John Pople, and earned his Ph.D. in 1981. During his career, Prof. Raghavachari has developed a range of new theoretical methods and algorithms that have been instrumental in the widespread use of computational chemistry by non?experts. He has made many key contributions to the famous and widely-used “Gaussian” program, recognized by the Nobel Committee in its award to Prof. Pople.
Prof. Raghavachari joined Bell Laboratories in 1981, and received their Distinguished Researcher Award in 1987. He joined Indiana University as a Professor of Chemistry in 2002, and was selected as a Distinguished Professor in 2014. Research in his group focuses on new developments in electronic structure theory along with challenging applications in structures, chemistry, mechanisms and properties of molecules and materials. The work is collaborative and multidisciplinary in scope, covering the areas of Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Biochemistry. He has made seminal contributions to the development and application of electron correlation techniques in computational quantum chemistry. In particular, his analysis of the nature of “three electron correlation” effects led to the accurate and highly-successful method, labeled CCSD (T), that has been termed as the “gold standard of quantum chemistry”. He has authored over 325 scientific papers in many areas of chemistry. His papers have been cited more than 50,000 times, making him one of the highest-cited scientists of Indian origin.
Prof. Raghavachari has received many honors and awards. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2001, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2008. He served as the Chair of the Theoretical Chemistry subdivision of the American Chemical Society in 2006. He received the Davisson?Germer Prize in Surface Physics in 2009. In 2010, he was elected as a member of the “International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science”, the highest honor in his field.
In recognition of Prof. Krishnan Raghavachari’s distinguished academic career and research contributions in the field of computational quantum chemistry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer him this award.
