chemistry

Govindarajan Padmanaban

Govindarajan Padmanaban is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Govindarajan Padmanaban rather than just read about it. In short: Govindarajan Padmanaban (born 20 March 1938, in Madras) is an Indian biochemist and biotechnologist. He was the former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and currently serves as an honorary professor in the department of biochemistry at IISc and Chancellor of the Central University of Tamil Nadu.

Key takeaways

Govindarajan Padmanaban belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Govindarajan Padmanaban to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Govindarajan Padmanaban from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Govindarajan Padmanaban (born 20 March 1938, in Madras) is an Indian biochemist and biotechnologist. He was the former director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and currently serves as an honorary professor in the department of biochemistry at IISc and Chancellor of the Central University of Tamil Nadu.

Early life and education Padmanaban was brought up in a family of engineers. He belongs to the Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu but had settled in Bangalore. He received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Madras and master's degree in Soil Chemistry at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 1966.

Research In the early years of his research, he primarily worked in the transcriptional regulation of Eukaryotic genes in the liver. He was interested in elucidating the multifaceted role of heme in cellular processes. His group discovered the heme-biosynthetic pathway in the malarial parasite and showed it to be a drug target. He has also been interested in the area of vaccine development. His team was successful in showing the antimalarial property of Curcumin and its efficacy in combination therapy in 2004.

Awards

Asian Scientist 100 (2025) Vigyan Ratna Award (2024) Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (1983) Padma Shri (1991) Padma Bhushan (2003) Elected Fellowship of the National Academy of Medical Sciences

References

Siddharthan, Rahul (2007). "The case of the Padmanaban Committee". Current Science. 93 (3): 281–2. Search Results for author Padmanaban G on PubMed.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Govindarajan Padmanaban

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Govindarajan Padmanaban claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Govindarajan Padmanaban before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Govindarajan Padmanaban ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Govindarajan Padmanaban

In research: Govindarajan Padmanaban appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Govindarajan Padmanaban in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Govindarajan Padmanaban is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 20th-century Indian biologists, 20th-century Indian chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Govindarajan Padmanaban outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Govindarajan Padmanaban in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Govindarajan Padmanaban means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Govindarajan Padmanaban out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Govindarajan Padmanaban in simple terms?

Why does Govindarajan Padmanaban matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Govindarajan Padmanaban?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Govindarajan Padmanaban.