Vadapalli Chandrasekhar, born on 6 November 1958 in
Kolkata, in the Indian state of
West Bengal, graduated in chemistry in 1975 and completed his post graduate studies in 1977 at
Osmania University before enrolling for doctoral studies at
Indian Institute of Science under the guidance of S. S. Krishnamurthy. After securing a PhD in 1982, he moved to the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1983 and completed his post-doctoral studies at the laboratory of Robert R. Holmes in 1986. He returned to India the same year and started his career as a senior research officer at
Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited but his stay there lasted only one year. In 1987, he joined
IIT Kanpur as an assistant professor to commence a service which would extend till 2012; during this period, he held various positions such as that of an associate professor (1991–1995), professor (1995–), head of the department of chemistry (2008–2010) and dean of faculty affairs (2011–2012). His next move was to
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at their
Hyderabad research station as a senior professor and dean and in 2014, he shifted to
National Institute of Science Education and Research where he served as the director until 2017 before moving to his current position at TIFR Hyderabad. He has also served as a visiting faculty or fellow at various institutions such as
University of Calgary,
University of Göttingen,
University of Tsukuba, and
University of Würzburg. == Legacy ==