The Scientific Giant: T.R. Seshadri

The Scientific Giant: T.R. Seshadri

Born: 3 February 1900
Died: 27 September 1975

Shri Thiruvenkata Rajendra Seshadri was born on 3 February 1900 in a small town near Trichy named Kulitaiai located in the erstwhile Presidency of Madras. Seshadri completed his schooling from the temple towns of Srirangam and Trichy and the National College Higher Secondary School. Later he joined Presidency College, Madras in 1917 and pursued his bachelor’s degree in B.Sc.(H) Chemistry which completed in 1920 with financial assistance from the Ramakrishna Mission, and worked with the Mission for a year by continuing his M.Sc at the University of Madras. His interest in research arose early, as is evident from the fact that instead of searching for a job, he worked in the laboratory of his teacher right away finishing his Masters.

In 1927, Seshadri won an overseas scholarship to research with Sir Robert Robinson’s group at the University of Manchester and obtained a doctorate degree there. In 1930, Seshadri returned to India and started studies on plant chemistry at Coimbatore where he stayed for four years. In 1934, he joined Andhra University and served the university for 15 years during his tenure there, he established several laboratories and a school on flavonoids, which was internationally reputed research, and continued his own research. He also established two new departments in the university, i.e. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Department of Chemical Technology.

Being invited by the visionary Sir Maurice Gwyer, Seshadri joined the University of Delhi as the HOD of chemistry. Taking the least time and minimum resources, he created a research school on natural products, having noteworthy attention to Secondary metabolites (terpenoids, alkaloids, quinonoid). The University’s first retired Professor, Seshadri continued active research even after his retirement for seven years till 1972, in spite of suffering a heart attack. These all are some of the notable contributions of Seshadri on the academic administration front. For the next three years of his life, Seshadri confronted heart problems and insignificant politics. Later he founded another research school “The Centre for Advanced Study for the Chemistry of Natural Products” at Delhi University and that soon became a center of excellence in chemical research, where he worked as the head during 1949-1975.

 

Having a special interest in flower pigments, one of his papers studied red sandalwood obtained from Burma and having a clear sense of nomenclature, he named a brownish-red, crystalline pigment in the flowers of Butea frondosa as Palasitrin (Indian name of the tree, Palas).

His research and work experiences have been documented in over 1000 articles and two books, ‘Chemistry of Vitamins and Hormones’ & ‘Advancement of Scientific and Religious Culture in India’. He guided 160 students in their doctoral studies and, on his retirement, donated all the books in his personal library to the Chemistry department of the Delhi University.

Encountering several issues such as the stoppage of research grants, took him to an end to his active career. He lived for a few more years, mainly battling ill health, allegedly in poverty, and died on 27 September 1975, at the age of 75. The story of his life has been published, a journal of IAS titled, “Professor T.R Seshadri — An Acharaya par excellence”.

As an Inspiring Personality, we look back at a scientific giant who contributed tremendously to the field of natural products chemistry.

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