Indian origin scientist to receive top international award

Washington, January 9 (ANI): A scientist of Indian origin has been selected as the 2010 laureate of the Swiss Chemical Society's Grammaticakis-Neumann Prize.

The scientist in question is Sivaguru Jayaraman (Siva), Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and molecular biology at North Dakota State University, Fargo, US.

The honor includes an invitation to speak at the Swiss Chemical Society Fall Meeting in September 2010, a diploma and a financial award of 5,000 (CHF) or approximately 4850 dollars.

Dr. Siva will receive the Grammaticakis-Neumann Prize in Zurich, Switzerland on Sept. 16, 2010.

The prize from the Swiss Chemical Society is awarded to a promising young research scientist for an outstanding contribution in photochemistry, photophysics or molecular photobiology.

Research conducted by Prof. Siva involves the use of light to initiate chemical reactions and control photoreactivity in the excited state using molecular design and nanoconfinement.

The cornerstone of Prof. Siva's program involves synthetic effort that allows a freedom of design to produce new structural motifs not only for studying stereoselective reactions, but also for chemical and bio-molecular recognition of encapsulated guests within water soluble nano-reaction vessels.

Dr. Siva's research investigates the molecular and supramolecular assembly characteristics of systems to gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between molecular structure, assembly, dynamics and the role of external interactions critical for molecular recognition events in light-initiated reactions.

Additionally, Dr. Siva's research group uses modern molecular tools and spectroscopic techniques to gain deeper understanding of molecular interactions in chemical and biological systems, using light as both a reagent that initiates the chemistry and as the product of excited state reactivity of organic molecules.

"This international award recognizes the exceptional contribution of Dr. Siva's work, highlighting the caliber of research conducted at NDSU that carries global impact," said Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer. (ANI)