Vinod K. Singh

Vinod K. Singh (Hindi: विनोद कुमार सिंह; born 9 September 1959) is a Professor Emeritus at IIT Kanpur and holds an Institute Chair position. He currently serves as Chairperson of the Research Council of CSIR–AMPRI, Bhopal; Chairperson of the CSIR-RAB; and Chairperson of the Governing Council of the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati. He is also a member of the CSIR Society and provides mentorship to CSIR–AMPRI Bhopal and CSIR–IIIM, Jammu.

Singh's major research contribution is in the area of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, more specifically, asymmetric synthesis. He has been recognized with several awards and honors such as the Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1998), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2004) and the Padma Shri (2014), among others. In addition, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), The National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), and The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS).

Professor Singh is an Editor of an Elsevier journal - Tetrahedron Letters. He is a Member, Editorial Advisory Board of Org. Lett., J. Org. Chem., Asian J. Org. Chem., and Org. Chem. Frontiers.

He has made significant contributions in the management of higher educational institutes, science education, science policy, and planning. In 2020, he was awarded a TWAS-CASAREP award for building scientific institutions.

As a Founder Director of IISER Bhopal, for more than 10 years (2008-2018), Professor Singh set up the whole campus in 200 acres land from scratch. He has served as the Mentor Director of IISER Berhampur, Director of School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal (additional charge) and the Chairman of BoG, NITTTR Bhopal. He also held the additional charge of Director of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal and the Mentor Director of the Indian Institute of Information Technology Bhopal.

Professor Singh also served as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (2009–2014). Additionally, he was President of the Chemical Research Society of India (2020–2023) and Chairperson of the Governing Council of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata (2021–2024).