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| Eluvathinkal D.Jemmis, Dean, School of Chemistry and Professor-in-Charge, Centre for Modelling, Simulation and Design, University of Hyderabad |
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During
his acceptance speech of the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1981, Prof.
Roald Hoffmann of Cornell University, USA acknowledged the cooperation of
a post-doctoral scholar in his research and papers. He was referring to Eluvathinkal D.Jemmis, a Malayalee
scientist, who later joined the University of Hyderabad, and is currently
the Dean, School of Chemistry and Professor-in-Charge, Centre for
Modelling, Simulation and Design there.
Born
in Chovvoor, Thrissur and educated in a village school where his father
was a teacher, Jemmis obtained B.Sc. from University of Calicut and M.Sc. from
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, before moving on to Princeton
University, New Jersy, USA in 1973. There
he met and had a fruitful collaboration with Prof. Schleyer and Pople
while obtaining a Ph.D in 1978.
Giving
vent to a desire to serve the motherland, Dr.Jemmis wrote
self-introductory letters to the Universities in Kerala during the beginning
of 1980. As no reply was forthcoming, he wrote to Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore. As per
their suggestion, he wrote to University of Hyderabad, which welcomed him
with open arms.
Author
of more than 100 papers in international journals, his special
contribution is application of quantum mechanics in Chemistry.
Honours that have come his way include Young Scientist award 1982,
Anil Kumar Bose memorial award 1988, young associate of Indian Science
Congress, 1984 and fellow of the body in 1992.
It was in 1994 that he won the biggest award given to scientists in
India, the S.S.Bhatnagar prize.
A
member of many scientific bodies and a visiting professor at many
international universities, he flits through Kerala to deliver lectures
and take part in Science meets. In
the midst of these engagements he would find time to visit Chovvoor and
meet his mother and brothers.
His
wife Alice had cast away her career in economics to be a catalyst to his
research work. Their son
Sebastian is student in USA while daughter Lilly Margaret is a 11th
standard student in Hyderabad.
Courtesy: Vinod John, Sree, Malayala Manorama, March 16, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
