Tuticorin Raghavachari Govindachari FNA, FASc (1915–2001), popularly known as TRG, was an Indian natural product chemist, academic, institution builder and the principal of Presidency College, Chennai. He was known for his studies on the synthesis of isoquinolines and phenanthridines and his contributions in elucidating the structure of several plant constituents. He was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy and was the nominator of Robert Burns Woodward who won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1960, for his contributions to chemical sciences, making him the first recipient of the award in the chemical sciences category.
Biography Govindachari was born on 30 July 1915 to Tuticorin Raghavachari and his wife Rajalakshmi in Chennai (then known as Madras) in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Graduating from Presidency College, Chennai in chemistry, he continued at the institution for his master's degree for which he studied under B. B. Dey, his topic of research being isoquinolines. After completing his master's degree, he enrolled for PhD, again under D. D. Dey at the same institution, and secured the degree from Madras University while working as an assistant to his guide on a CSIR-funded project for the production of dye and drug intermediates by electrolytic processes. Obtaining a scholarship from the Government of Madras, he went to the US in 1946 and did his post-doctoral studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana under the guidance of Roger Adams, best known for lending his name to Adams's catalyst which was prepared for the first time by him in association with V. Voorhees. Govindachari's stay with Adams lasted three years during which time he assisted the US scientist in column chromatography, collection of fractions and their examination for the latter's investigation of the structures of alkaloids found in the various species of Senecioneae. In 1949, Govindachari returned to India and in January the next year, he joined Presidency College as an additional professor at the department of chemistry. He served the institution for the next thirteen years during which period, he became a professor in 1952 and the principal of the college in 1961. He superannuated from service in 1962, and after a year, he joined the Research Center of Ciba-Geigy in Mumbai in 1963 as its director. His association with the center continued till 1975 when he returned to Chennai to serve as a consultant to Central Leather Research Institute and after two years, Amrutanjan, a pharmaceutical company, assigned him the responsibility of setting up an R&D facility for them in Chennai. He headed the facility since its inception in 1977 till 1986 when the Science Foundation of Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation entrusted him the responsibility of establishing a research centre for them. He set up the Centre for Agrochemical Research in 1987 and held its directorship till his last. Govindachari was married to Rajamani and the couple had three children, T. G. Rajagopalan, T. G. Sundararajan and Anuradha Jagannathan. He died on 28 December 2001, aged 86, at his home town of Chennai, survived by his children; his wife had predeceased him.
Legacy
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