SG Catalysis Lab
IISER Berhampur
Transition Metal Catalysis . Synergistic Catalysis . Organocatalysis . Asymmetric Synthesis
Research Interests
We are hiring! The group has two doctoral positions open from Dec. 2025. Interested candidates may directly write to the PI at sgandhi@iiserbpr.ac.in
Group News
June 2025: Congratulations to our PI on being promoted to Associate Professor!
May 2025: Chhanda's work on NHC/Pd synergistic catalysis is now out in Organic Letters. Congratulations!
April 2025: Congratulations Sibasis on successfully defending his PhD thesis! It's Dr. Sibasis Sarkar now!
Oct. 2024: Congratulations Sibasis and Suravi on their publication in The Journal of Organic Chemistry!
Aug. 2024: Our work on skipped enynes is now published in Organic Letters. Congratulations to Bhavya!
Aug. 2024: Two PhD students join the team. A warm welcome to Abinash and Sangram!
May 2024: Congratulations Chhanda and Saswat once again! NHC/Pd synergistic catalysis review has been published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry!
Dec. 2023: Congratulations Saswat and Chhanda on their publication in Chemical Communications!
Nov. 2023: Congratulations Subhamoy and Bhavya on their publication in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry!
Aug 2023: Bhavya joins the group as a Ph.D student
Jan 2023: Suravi joins the group as a Ph.D student from IIT Patna
Nov. 2022: Chhanda has been offered the prestigious Prime Minister's Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
May 2022: Bhavya joins the group for iPh.D project
July 2021: Chhanda joins the group as a Ph.D student from University of Kalyani
Sept. 2020: Abhisek joins the group as a post-doctoral fellow from IISER Bhopal
Nov. 2019: Our invited review is now online in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
Sept. 2019: Arpan joins the group as a post-doctoral fellow from the University of Tulsa
July 2019: Subhamoy joins the group as a Ph.D student from Tezpur University
March 2018: SG receives funding from SERB under the scheme 'Core Research Grant'
Nov. 2018: Shikha has been selected as one of the recipients of 'Thieme Chemistry Journal Awards 2019'
July 2018: Sibasis joins the group as a Ph.D student from VIT, Vellore
The research in my group is focused on ‘catalysis’, exploring the areas of transition metal, organocatalysis, and synergistic catalysis to contribute to the development of processes that are scalable, highly efficient from the point of view of atom economy, and environmentally benign.
​
Transition Metal Catalysis: Transition metal-catalysed propargylic C-H activation is one of the key areas in the group. Along these lines, we explore completely atom-economical allylations with alkynes. A recent expansion to skipped enynes has led to an exciting [3+3]-annulation- again 100% atom-economical!
​
Synergistic Catalysis: In this field, we delve into the relatively underexplored area of synergistic catalysis involving N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) and transition metals. Combining the umpolung reactivity of NHCs with the unmatched ability of transition metals in catalysis, this area holds great promise.
​
Organocatalysis: N-heterocyclic carbenes are also explored as organocatalysts in the team. Our keen interest also lies in exploring asymmetric catalysis with chiral NHCs, leading to enantioselective synthesis of important molecules.
CONTACT US
Dr. Shikha Gandhi
Department of Chemistry
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Berhampur
Transit Campus: Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Berhampur
Berhampur - 760 010, Ganjam District, Odisha
​
P: (+91)-680-2227-757
