Balawant Shankar Joshi

Biography

Balawant Shankar Joshi obtained his BSc (Hons) degree (1945) from the University of Bombay. He earned the BSc (Tech) degree in 1947 and the PhD (1951) at the Department of Chemical Technology (now UICT, Mumbai), Bombay University, where he worked with Professor K Venkataraman. He went to King's College, Cambridge University, and worked under the supervision of Sir Alexander R Todd (later Lord) where he again obtained a PhD degree (1955). Subsequently he joined the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chicago, USA as Research Associate and did post-doctoral work with Professor Morris S Kharasch. On returning to India, Joshi joined the National Chemical Laboratory as Senior Scientific Officer in-charge of K Venkataraman's research laboratory (1958-61). In 1962 Joshi joined the newly started CIBA Research Centre, Mumbai in the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and after retirement from CIBA-Geigy Research Centre, Joshi worked as Research Scientist at the Institute for Natural Products Research, University of Georgia, Athens, USA (1982-2000). In 2015 he has written his memoirs titled "A Life to Remember" and published by Xlibris Publishing.

Research Interest

Organic Chemistry, Chemistry of Natural Products