page_title: Ashok M. Raichur
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Ashok M. Raichur / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: TEM (a, b, and c) images of prepared mesoporous silica nanoparticles with mean outer diameter: (a) 20nm, (b) 45nm; and (c) 80nm. SEM (d) image corresponding to (b). The insets are a high magnification of mesoporous silica particle.
context_page_description: Ashok M. Raichur is an Indian materials scientist, nanotechnologist and a professor at the Department of Materials Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science. Known for his studies on the use of nanotechnology for biomedical and environmental applications, Raichur is a former Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and a life member of the National Academy of Sciences, India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2009.
context_section_description: Raichur's research focus is on the various biomedical and environmental applications of nanotechnology and he leads a group of scientists at IISc who are involved in the development of polyelectrolyte capsules for gene and drug delivery and nanostructured multilayers for sensing applications, nanoparticle synthesis and their dispersions with the help of biosurfactants. In 2014, he led the team that developed a nanocapsule made of biopolymers which was capable of delivering drugs at specific target sites, such as cancer cells. The drug delivery system developed by them was composed of a drug molecule that resisted premature release or degradation and released the drug at target site with the help of local physiological cues. It was reported that the capsule walls had a cross-linked layer by layer assembly which enabled it to hold large quantities of drugs. He has also developed a catalytic method for cleaning water using nanoparticles which destroyed the organic contaminants in the water. His studies have been documented by way of a number of articles and ResearchGate, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 158 of them. Besides, he has contributed chapters to books edited by others and has mentored many research scholars in their post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral studies.
  Raichur is a member of the PI Committee of the National Programme on Technology Enhance Learning (NPTEL), an educational project funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India. He is a life member of the National Academy of Sciences, India, the Association of Separation Scientists and Technologists (ASSET) as well as the Materials Research Society of India and has delivered several invited speeches which include the International Conference on Membranes: Environmental and Biological Applications held at the Centre for Environment Education and Technology, Kottayam in 2011 and the International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology (ICONSAT 2016), held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.
caption: Mesoporous silica nanoparticles
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