chemistry

Sankaran Thayumanavan

Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan rather than just read about it. In short: Sankaran "Thai" Thayumanavan is an Indian-American chemist, who is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is known for his work in polymer chemistry.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sankaran "Thai" Thayumanavan is an Indian-American chemist, who is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is known for his work in polymer chemistry. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Early life and education Thayumanavan grew up in the cities of Tirunelveli and Madurai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. He obtained his B.Sc. (1987) and M.Sc. (1989) degrees in the American College, Madurai, India. He was awarded his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1996. His postdoctoral work was carried out with Seth Marder at the California Institute of Technology.

Career Thayumanavan started his academic career as a faculty member at Tulane University. He moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2003, where he is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Chemistry Department and Biomedical Engineering Department. He is also the Director of the Center for Bioactive Delivery at the Institute for Applied Life Sciences. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the AAAS "for distinguished contributions to supramolecular polymer chemistry". Thayumanavan’s early work involved contributions to the design, syntheses, and self-assembly behavior of amphiphilic homopolymers. His research in molecular design principles from physical organic chemistry to synthetic chemistry and supramolecular polymer chemistry for applications in materials and biomedicine.

Awards 2010 – Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2014 – Chancellor’s Medal, UMass 2016 – Chemical Research Society of India Medal 2019 – Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award 2019 – Mahoney Life Sciences Prize

Selected publications Ambade, Ashootosh V.; Savariar, Elamprakash N.; Thayumanavan, S. (2005). "Dendrimeric Micelles for Controlled Drug Release and Targeted Delivery". Molecular Pharmaceutics. 2 (4): 264–272. doi:10.1021/mp050020d. ISSN 1543-8384. PMC 2580075. PMID 16053329. Savariar, Elamprakash N.; Aathimanikandan, Sivakumar V.; Thayumanavan, S. (2006). "Supramolecular Assemblies from Amphiphilic Homopolymers: Testing the Scope". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128 (50): 16224–16230. doi:10.1021/ja065213o. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 2526122. PMID 17165775. Klaikherd, Akamol; Nagamani, Chikkannagari; Thayumanavan, S. (2009). "Multi-Stimuli Sensitive Amphiphilic Block Copolymer Assemblies". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 131 (13): 4830–4838. doi:10.1021/ja809475a. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 2693022. PMID 19290632. Chacko, Reuben T.; Ventura, Judy; Zhuang, Jiaming; Thayumanavan, S. (2012). "Polymer nanogels: A versatile nanoscopic drug delivery platform". Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews. 64 (9): 836–851. doi:10.1016/j.addr.2012.02.002. ISSN 0169-409X. PMC 3359494. PMID 22342438. Zhuang, Jiaming; Gordon, Mallory R.; Ventura, Judy; Li, Longyu; Thayumanavan, S. (2013). "Multi-stimuli responsive macromolecules and their assemblies". Chemical Society Reviews. 42 (17): 7421–7435. doi:10.1039/c3cs60094g. ISSN 0306-0012. PMC 3740153. PMID 23765263. Li, Longyu; Raghupathi, Kishore; Song, Cunfeng; Prasad, Priyaa; Thayumanavan, S. (2014). "Self-assembly of random copolymers". Chemical Communications. 50 (88): 13417–13432. doi:10.1039/C4CC03688C. ISSN 1359-7345. PMC 4192032. PMID 25036552.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sankaran Thayumanavan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan

In research: Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan 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: Sankaran Thayumanavan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century Indian chemists, 21st-century American chemists, American people of Indian Tamil descent, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sankaran Thayumanavan in simple terms?

Why does Sankaran Thayumanavan 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 Sankaran Thayumanavan?

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 Sankaran Thayumanavan.