Mithun Madhusudhanan, a third year PhD student in Professor Peng Liu’s lab, recently received a fellowship from the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute to support his research in computational organic chemistry this spring.
“The fellowship is a big honor,” Madhusudanan said. “Pittsburgh has a lot of history with quantum mechanics, and it feels exciting to be a part of that history.”
Madhusudhanan’s research centers on carbon-hydrogen functionalization reactions using chiral dirhodium catalysts. Using quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations, he investigates how the structures of these catalysts impact their enantio- and regioselectivity. His work has resulted in several high-impact publications, including in Nature and Angewandte Chemie.
“Pitt has had a really significant impact on me,” Madhusudan says. “The research environment is fantastic. I mean I don’t think you can offer anything better than this.”
According to Madhusudanan, phenomenal mentoring is one of the greatest aspects of Pitt’s research environment.
“My mentor has been absolutely supportive,” Madhusudanan says. “Any questions I have I can ask him any time. He is always really responsive to everything.”
Madhusudhanan came to Pitt after completing his undergraduate degree at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram. He says he chose Pitt for its leading theoretical chemistry research program and its excellent faculty.
“We have one of the best theoretical chemistry faculty at one of the best R1 universities,” Madhusudhanan says. “I knew that this place could offer me what I want and what I need to learn. I felt this place could offer me the best exposure I need for computational chemistry.”
Madhusudhanan was originally interested in biology, but became interested in chemistry because of incredible mentors and chemistry’s broad importance.
“Chemistry has the ability to be silent but at the same time impact everyone’s life,” Madhusudhanan says. “I began to realize that when I was an undergrad, and that was when I realized that I wanted to go into chemistry.”
