T. R. Seshadri
Thiruvengadam Rajendram Seshadri FNA, FRS was an Indian chemist, academic, writer and the Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Delhi, known for his researches on the Indian medicinal and other plants. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, UK and an elected member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Besides several articles, he also published two books, Chemistry of Vitamins and Hormones and Advancement of Scientific and Religious Culture in India. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1963, for his contributions to Science.
Money and materials alone do not secure good research, they are only adjuncts and it is the human element behind them that matters, said T. R. Seshadri.
Seshadri was born on 3 February 1900 at Kulithalai, an ancient village with history dating back to the Cholas of the 9th century CE, in the present-day Karur district of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, in a Brahmin family, to Namagiri Ammal and Thiruvengadatha Iyengar, a school teacher, as the third of their five sons. After his primary schooling at the local school in his village, he did his high school studies at the temple town of Srirangam as well as at the National College Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirappalli and joined Presidency College, Madras in 1917 for his graduate studies (BSc honours) which was completed in 1920 with financial assistance from the Ramakrishna Mission. After graduation, he worked with the Mission for a year, but continued his studies at Presidency College for his master's degree and thereafter, for research under the renowned chemist, Biman Bihari Dey, during which period he won two research awards, the Curzon Prize and the William Wedderburn Prize, from the University of Madras. He secured a scholarship from the state government in 1927 for higher studies at University of Manchester where he did his doctoral research under the guidance of the renowned British chemist and Nobel Laureate, Robert Robinson, to secure a PhD in 1929. He was a colleague of K. Venkataraman. His researches at Manchester were focused on the development of anti-malarial drugs and synthesis of compounds. Before returning to India in 1930, he had short training stints in Austria on organic microanalysis with Fritz Pregl, a Nobel laureate, and in Edinburgh on alkaloid Retrorsine with George Barger, a Royal Society fellow.
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