THE HANDA RESEARCH GROUP
DR. SACHIN HANDA, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Education and Training
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Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2013 – 2016 -
Ph.D. Chemistry
Oklahoma State University, 2013
Service to Profession
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Early-Career Board, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
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Editorial Board, Green Chemistry Letters & Reviews
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Editorial Board, Green Chemistry Section, Molecules
Recent External Awards
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2021 NSF CAREER Award
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2018 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award in Physical Sciences by ORAU
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2018 ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry and Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Background
Sachin Handa hails originally from Patti, Amritsar, the "City of the Golden Temple" in Punjab, India, and more recently from Santa Barbara in the "Golden State" of California where he worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar for Prof. Bruce H. Lipshutz. In between, he continued his association with gold during his Ph.D. studies at Oklahoma State University where his dissertation title was "design and synthesis of novel ligands for tuning of selectivity and reaction pathway in gold catalysis." His main fascination is not with gold, however, but rather with green, as is evinced by his ongoing research focus on environmentally friendly synthetic methodologies.
Dr. Mohit Kumar
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Raki Madal
Postdoctoral Fellow
Deborah Ogulu, Graduate Student
Deborah is a University Fellow and a fifth-year graduate student. She officially joined the Handa Group in 2019. She was a research chemist at ThermoFisher before joining UofL. She has a great passion for research and humanity. Her current research interests are the development of sustainable catalysts and technologies useful to the pharmaceutical industry.
Gaganpreet Kaur, Graduate Student
Gagan was a senior research chemist in the pharmaceutical industry before joining the University of Louisville in Spring 2020 and later Mizzou in 2023. She officially joined the Handa research group in Summer 2020. She has a great passion for catalyst development. Her current research interests are the development of reagents that eliminate reliance on toxic dipolar-aprotic solvents.
Robert Gardner
Karanjeet Kaur, Graduate Student
Karan completed her master's at Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab, in 2018. She worked as a Research Associate at Jubilant Biosys Ltd., India. She joined the Handa research group in Spring 2022. Her research interests are asymmetric catalysis, electrochemistry, and chemistry in water. She likes to do cartooning and calligraphy.
Jagdeep Virdi, Graduate Student
Jagdeep has completed her M.S. from Chandigarh University, India. She was also an intern at IISER Mohali, working on Metal-Organic Frameworks. She also learned computational chemistry through a collaborative project with NIPER, Mohali, India. She joined the Handa research group in Summer 2022. Her research interests include chemistry in water, hydrogenation reactions, asymmetric catalysis, drug discovery, etc. She loves writing and traveling.
Ashish Dusunge, Graduate Student
Ashish completed his M.S. in Organic Chemistry in 2021 from Savitribai Phule Pune University in India. Subsequently, he joined Jubilant Biosys's synthesis division at Greater Noida. In Fall 2022, he joined Handa's research group at the University of Louisville, KY. Then he moved to Mizzou along with the group. Currently, he is a graduate student at the University of Missouri, MO, under the supervision of Dr. Sachin Handa. His research interests are asymmetric synthesis, developing sustainable catalysts and technologies pertinent to the pharmaceutical industry. He firmly believes there is no substitute for hard work. He loves cooking and eating.
Ramesh Choudhary, Graduate Student
Ramesh completed his M.S. (pharm) from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Ahmedabad, India. He was a research assistant at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), India. In the spring of 2023, he started his Ph.D. studies and joined the Handa research group. His research interests are asymmetric synthesis, chemistry in water, ligand synthesis, and sustainable drug discovery. He firmly believes that focus and consistency are the keys to success. He loves cooking spicy potatoes and is fond of eating good food.
Dhanush Pradeep, Graduate Student
Dhanush completed his Integrated Interdisciplinary M.S. degree from the Institute for Intensive Research in Basic Sciences (IIRBS) at Mahatma Gandhi University in India. His M.S. dissertation work was conducted at CSIR Central Drug Research Institute in India. Later, in the fall of 2023, he joined the Handa research group at the University of Missouri, Columbia. His research interests include chemistry in water, visible light-mediated reactions, and developing technologies useful for organic synthesis. In his free time, he enjoys pencil sketching and painting.
Dr. Tharique Ansari (Senior R&D Scientist, MilliporeSigma)
Dr. Sudript Sharma (Advanced R&D Professional, Milliken)
Dr. Susanta Hazra (Faculty at IISc Bangalore, https://ipc.iisc.ac.in/~sh/)
Dr. Gaspard Hedouin (Scientist, NuChem Sciences)
Dr. UYEN DUONG (Process Engineer, GlobalFoundries)
Dr. Justin Smith, Ph.D. 2020
Dr. Pranjal Bora, Postdoc 2019 (Team leader, Jubilant Biosys)
Dr. Amol Gade (Scientist, CSIR-IIM Jammu)
Dr. Manisha Bihani (Team leader, Jubilant Biosys)
Jeremy Brals (Ph.D. student, chez University)
Armand Taussat (Ph.D. student, ENSEM)
Lucie Finck (Ph.D. student, Berlin Institute of Technology)
Alexis Lamotte (Ph.D. student in France)
Nick Buchbinder (Ph.D. Student, Virginia Tech)
Jackson Mulkins (Undergrad student, UofL)
Behrad Bakhtiari (Medical School, UofL)
Kyla Mitchell (B.S. UofL)
John Liu (Undergrad student, UofL)
Bhavana Pavuluri (Undergrad student, Emory University)
Josh Portillo
Rachel Armstrong (Medical School, UofL)
Jasse Klus (Pharmacy School, UNC Chapel Hill )
David Kline (Medical School, UC)
Graham Reynolds
Jobi Jose (Undergrad Student, Rochester)
Jacob Coates
Megan George
Robert Garner
Tim Trieu (High School)
PAST GROUP MEMBERS
