Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Dr. Apurba Bhattacharya appointed to National Research Council Roundtable

KINGSVILLE - March 30, 2006

Contact: Jason Marton
jason.marton@tamuk.edu or 361-593-4143

Dr. Apurba Bhattacharya, associate professor of chemistry for Texas A&M University-Kingsville, has been appointed to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable of the National Research Council.

The Chemical Sciences Roundtable (CSR) was established in 1996 by the National Research Council (NRC) and its Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology (BCST). The CSR is a unique science-oriented, apolitical forum of leaders of the chemical enterprise.

Its objectives are to facilitate enhanced understanding of issues in the chemical sciences and technologies that affect government, industry, academic, national laboratory, and nonprofit sectors, and the interactions among them; and to furnish a vehicle for education, exchange of information and discussion of issues and trends that affect the chemical sciences.

M embership to the CSR is by invitation only. The members include people like Environmental Protection Agency director Paul Anastas, and representatives from groups such as the National Science Foundation, the Naval Research Laboratory and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

According to Bhattacharya, the CSR will meet four times a year in Washington D.C. to discuss what the direction of U.S. science is going to be and offer recommendations to the U.S. Congress, the President and the public.

Currently, Bhattacharya is on a leave of absence, serving as a v ice president of research and development for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, an international pharmaceutical corporation based in Hyderabad, India.

Bhattacharya has taught at A&M-Kingsville since 1999. Prior to that, he worked for 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, where he developed the synthesis of the drugs Propecia and Proscar. Bhattacharya holds 26 patents.

While at A&M-Kingsville, Bhattacharya and his group of researchers developed and patented the shortest (one step), most environmentally friendly and most economic synthesis of acetaminophen, which is the bulk active for the drug Tylenol, the largest volume-drug prescribed in the world market.


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