M. Palaniandavar, professor of eminence, Department of Chemistry, Bharathidasan University
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M. Sathiyabama, professor and head, Department of Botany, Bharathidasan University
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

M. Lakshmanan, Professor of Eminence and DST-SERB National Science Chair, School of Physics, Bharathidasan University
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

R. Ramesh, professor and coordinator, Centre for Organometallic Chemistry, Bharathidasan University
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T.C. Sabari Girisun, Assistant Professor, Nanophotonics Laboratory, School of Physics, Bharathidasan University
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Five scientists from Tiruchi’s Bharathidasan University (BDU) are featured in this year’s Stanford University rankings list of top 2% of scientists in the world.

The list, published by Elsevier, includes M. Lakshmanan (Physics), R. Ramesh (Chemistry), M. Palaniandavar (Chemistry), M. Sathiyabama (Botany) and T.C. Sabari Girisun (Physics), besides three faculty members from affiliated colleges — K. Ravichandran (Physics) and M. Ayyanar (Botany), both from A.V.V.M. Sri Pushpam College, Poondi, and M. Jothibas (Physics) from T.B.M.L College of Arts and Science, Poraiyar.

The ranking represents a global acknowledgment of scientists, based on metrics such as citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions, and a composite indicator, c-score.

According to an official statement, the August 2024 data update includes more than 2.17 lakh researchers under 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields. India has 2,939 out of 2,17,097 scientists. About 13% are featured on the career long impact list. There are 5,351 out of 2,23,152 scientists (about 24%) alone in the 2023 list that considered all citations from 1,788 to present.

The inclusion of BDU’s academicians has come in the seventh version of the updated science-wide author database.

Mr. Lakshmanan is a leading international expert in the area of nonlinear dynamics, having made exceptional contributions to varied topics such as integrable systems, solitons, bifurcations, chaos, synchronisation, collective dynamical states, quantum chaos, magnetic and optical solitons and mathematical aspects.

Professor Ramesh is noted for his work in organometallatics and metal mediated organic synthesis. The transition organometallic complexes have been explored as efficient catalyst for greener and sustainable synthesis of new biologically valuable complex organic molecules including heterocycles utilising readily available alcohols.

Mr. Palaniandavar is an international expert in the bioinorganic chemistry. His research interest includes synthesis of copper, nickel and iron-based small molecules as functional models for dioxygen-activating metalloenzymes. He has been actively working on metal – DNA interaction, and designing new copper-based anticancer drugs and studying their structure-activity relationship.

Ms. Sathiyabama is proficient in the field of molecular plant pathology, and has specialised in management of plant disease using bio- polymer and bio-polymer based nanoparticles.

Mr. Sabari Girisun’s research delves into the intricate nanoscale interactions between high-intensity light and matter. His work is primarily aimed at developing advanced materials for laser safety devices, upconverter hybrid solar cells, and biomedical implications such as cancer therapies and neuronal regeneration.

Professors Lakshmanan, Ramesh and Palaniandavar are featured in the career long impact list.

The academicians have also received other distinctions. Mr. Lakshmanan was conferred with the Vigyan Shri award in the field of Physics this year. He and Mr. Palaniandavar are the recipients of Fellowships of Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences and Tamil Nadu Scientist Award, said the statement. Mr. Ramesh is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, and of Academy of Sciences, Chennai and has been is a Tamil Nadu Scientist awardee. Ms. Sathiyabama is a Fellow of Academy of Sciences, Chennai and of the National Academy of Biological Sciences.

BDU Vice-Chancellor M. Selvam congratulated the scientists and all faculties for their research contributions.