A young Indian scientist has been awarded the prestigious “Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellowship” for his research in macromolecular chemistry, involving work on targeting cancer cells and in inflammation using ligands and hyper-branched polymers.

Dr. Jayant Khandare, who is currently working with Piramal Life Sciences Limited, has joined the galaxy of researchers ‘Humboldtians’, 44 of whom have so far received the Nobel Prize.

The Germany-based Humboldt foundation promotes academic cooperation between top scientists and scholars from within and outside that country.

Khandare has worked with Rainer Haag, an eminent Professor at Freie University, Berlin- known worldwide for designing ‘tree like’ nano sized hyper-branched polymers.

The Foundation awards post-doctoral, experienced researchers and many other prestigious fellowships every year.

Khandare is M. Pharm in Pharmaceutics from University of Mumbai, and Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He has been a Post Doctorate Research Fellow at Children’s Hospital, and Chemical Engineering Department, Detroit, and a Research Associate at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA for 4 years.

He is currently working at Piramal as a Senior Research Scientist in Polymer Chemistry Group and has published 28 high peer international papers, six approved US patent applications, and four book chapters to his credit.

He has also published two books in ‘popularisation of science’ series.