Darshan Ranganathan

Darshan Ranganathan (4 June 1941 to 4 June 2001) was an organic chemist from India known for her work in bio-organic chemistry, including pioneering work in protein folding, and for work on supramolecular assemblies, molecular design, synthesis of functional hybrid peptides and nanotubes. Born Darshan Markan in Delhi, she took a Ph.D. in chemistry at Delhi University in 1967, became head of the chemistry department at Miranda College, and held a Royal Commission 1851 Research Fellowship for postdoctoral work at Imperial College London with D. H. R. Barton. From 1970 she researched at IIT Kanpur, where with her husband Subramania Ranganathan she wrote books on organic reaction mechanisms, and she later worked at the Regional Research Laboratory in Trivandrum and at IICT in Hyderabad, where she became Deputy Director. She was a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and won the Third World Academy of Sciences Award in Chemistry in 1999.