Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University

Prof. Manoj Kumar Mishra, a professor of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai is a scientist in the field of physical chemistry. He completed his bachelor’s degree from St. Xaviers' College, Ranchi in 1972 and masters degree from IIT Delhi in 1974. He did his Ph.D. in Quantum Theory Project, University of Florida, USA in 1981 and post doctoral work at Uppsala University, Sweden, Aarhus University, Denmark, University of Florida, USA and Princeton University, USA between 1981 and 1986.  Prof. Mishra joined IIT Mumbai as an Assistant professor in 1996 and rose from this position to Associate Professor, Professor and was Head of the Department of Chemistry from September 2002 to September 2005. He has also been a Visiting Associate Professor at Princeton University, USA. He was the Convener, Physical Chemistry Group IIT Bombay from 1999 -2002. Prof Mishra was the Chairman of GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering) IIT Bombay in 2009. He is Associate Editor of International Journal of Quantum Chemistry and a member of the editorial board of Advances in Quantum Chemistry.

One of his main areas of interest has been Laser Assisted Control of Chemical Reaction.  Here the use of Field optimized initial state (FOIST) based selective control of elementary chemical reactions using laser attributes for practical convenience has been advocated. This has provided new insight into the application of FOIST based selective control to bond breaking in IBr, HI and HOD. Another area in which Prof Mishra has worked is Electron Scattering Resonances. Here dilated electron propagator for treatment of shape resonances in electron - atom/molecule scattering has been developed. Since Electron Attachment resonances are the only rigorous probe of LUMOs this work has provided definitive characterization of LUMOs in molecules. Prof. Mishra’s work has been published in reputed national and international journals.

Prof. Mishra has been awarded the JSPS Fellowship at Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, M. N. Saha Award for Theoretical Sciences by UGC and S.C. Bhattacharya award of IIT Bombay for excellence in pure sciences. He Phi Beta Kappa, and Fellows of The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad and Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, Mumbai. He has been invited to deliver the prestigious Lowdin Memorial lecture in 2010 at Quantum Theory Project, University of Florida, USA.