A Childhood Encounter with a Famous Chemist led Dr Gandhamsetty Narasimhulu on a Journey to Daejeon at IBS

Photo. Dr Gandhamsetty Narasimhulu receiving his award from the IBS President

Dr Gandhamsetty Narasimhulu was born in the sleepy south Indian town Sathupalli. As a young boy Gandhamsetty remembers a visit to his town by a famous chemist, Dr B. V. Subba Reddy. The chemist was a professor at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) in Hyderabad, a sprawling city some 500 kilometers from his hometown. “I remember vividly the day Dr Reddy came to give a talk,” says Dr Narasimhulu from the Natural Science Building in KAIST, “People crowded around to hear him, Dr Reddy is a renowned chemist and a local so he received a warm welcome. I remember thinking he was from the same town as me and went to IICT to become a chemist. I wanted to be famous and a well-respected chemist like him.” The young Gandhamsetty showed great aptitude for the sciences, but after listening to the talk by Dr Reddy he was especially drawn to chemistry. “I had more curiosity about chemical reactions. I wanted to know more about them - experimentally - like how carbon forms bonds with other atoms in chemical reactions and the nature of organic compounds.” This led the precocious student on a journey much further abroad and saw him rewarded for his efforts with a researcher of the year award at IBS.

Following in the Footsteps of his Hero

Dr Narasimhulu began his academic career at Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati, southern India. After gaining both his undergraduate and master degrees he followed in the footsteps of his boyhood hero, and in 2006, began his Ph.D. in IICT under the supervision of Dr J.S. Yadav. “Initially, I started my research career with the total synthesis of biologically active natural products in 2006 with a colleague. In addition to that, I focused on the development of new synthetic methodologies for the formation of carbon-carbon, carbon-nitrogen, and carbon-oxygen bonds and metal-catalyzed carbon-heteroatom bonds via C-H functionalization.” While studying in IICT, Gandhamsetty began to look for career opportunities in Europe and Asia. “I researched jobs in America and Japan but the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations seemed like a good fit for me, as my background was based on the development of novel synthetic methodologies.” The Center focuses on the development of new catalytic reactions and clarification of mechanistic details in the C-H bond activation of low-reacting molecules such as hydrocarbons. “I heard about Professor Chang’s excellent research in the field of C-H activation, which is also my interest. He was one of the main reasons that I chose Korea and IBS. IBS is one of the best research institutes in the world. I spoke to Professor Chang via email and after he offered me a position I decided to continue my research under the guidance of Professor Chang at KAIST and here I am.”

From India to Daejeon; Daily Life in Daejeon

In April of 2013 Dr Narasimhulu moved to Daejeon alone before his family joined him a year later. “I have two children, my son is 5 years old and my daughter, the youngest, is 2, so they only stayed in Korea for one year. Education and stability played a big part in the decision to send them back to India. If I remain in Korea I will bring them here and we can live together. My family really liked it here, the food and culture is so different but enjoyable to live in.” When he first arrived in Daejeon in April 2013, Dr Narasimhulu commuted to work every day from a friend’s house for two weeks before finding a place of his own nearby the campus. “It was tough in the beginning,” admits Dr Narasimhulu, “I was a little uncomfortable with the language, but in my lab everyone speaks English so it was almost like I wasn’t in Korea at all. I work long hours; Monday to Friday from 9 in the morning until 10 at night, on Saturdays I only work until 5PM then cook with friends and spend time praying. I am Hindu, so it is important to pray on Saturday and take a day off on Sunday to rest. In my lab we all work very hard; I found Koreans to be extremely hard working, sometimes working more than 12 hours a day. They are highly disciplined and helpful.”

Researcher of the Year

Diligence and long hours spent in the lab have paid remarkable dividends for Dr Narasimhulu, with his work already published in the Journal of American Chemical Society (JACS). “My research area is silylative reduction of unsaturated nitrogen compounds. Initially I started borane catalyzed reduction of quinolines with hydrosilane to generate the sp3 C-Si bond at beta to the nitrogen atom to C-3 silylated tetrahydroquinolines. These results were published in JACS in 2014 and highlighted in JACS Spotlights; this paper helped me to write a number of other papers and gave me inspiration to work on different projects with the same concept.” The success of Dr Narasimhulu’s papers, as well as his dedication to the institute, culminated in IBS naming him ‘Researcher of the Year’ this January. “As a foreign researcher, I feel very happy and fortunate for getting this award from IBS. While working with Professor Chang, I learned many aspects of research from him. He is a great scientist, philosopher and adviser. We always discuss chemistry, new projects, and challenges in the future. I feel very lucky to be a member of Professor Chang’s group.”