Dr Ranjana Aggarwal, Director, CSIR-National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies (CSIR-NISTADS), New Delhi, has been assigned the additional charge of the post of Director, CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (CSIR-NISCAIR), New Delhi.
Previously, Dr Ranjana Aggarwal has served as Professor of Chemistry and Director, Women’s Studies Research Centre at Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra where she was actively engaged in capacity building programmes, promotion of gender sensitization and skill development particularly among rural women. She obtained her BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from Kurukshetra University and then after carrying out two years postdoctoral research on erythromycin biosynthesis at Cambridge University, UK, she joined her Alma mater in 1995 as a lecturer. Subsequently, she worked in many well known European Labs such as again at Cambridge University as Commonwealth Fellow, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and the University of Trieste, Italy. She is actively collaborating with scientists of the USA, Spain and Ireland.
Her research interests consist of design and synthesis of azaheterocycles, involving green reagents of therapeutic interest as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and photodynamic agents, computational studies and 2D NMR spectroscopy. She has also been granted a research grant by the Haryana State Council for Science and Technology to develop new leads to treat cancer by targeting DNA.
Her research contributions have been acknowledged in the form of awards, notably Dr Basudev Banerji Memorial Award (2014) by Indian Chemical Society and Prof. S.S. Katiyar Endowment Award (2015) by Indian Science Congress. As an accomplished academician, she has been nominated as Member of the National Monitoring Committee for Minorities Education by MHRD, New Delhi. She is a visitor’s Nominee for Delhi University and Central University, Assam, Silchar and Chancellor’s Nominee for many Haryana State Universities.
