Dr N Kalaiselvi — First Woman Chief Of CSIR

Dr N Kalaiselvi has been appointed as the director general (DG) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. This makes her the first woman director general of India’s premier eight-decade-old research and development (R&D) organisation.

She takes over from Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, who served a three-month term in additional charge as CSIR DG from 1 May to 7 August this year. Gokhale welcomed the new CSIR DG on 8 August.

She went over the status of ongoing research projects in cutting-edge and futuristic technologies along with the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh, today after taking office.

Previously director of CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CSIR-CECRI) in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, where, again, she was the first woman director, Dr Kalaiselvi will serve in her new role for a period of two years.

Only recently, she even briefly held the additional charge of the post of director, CSIR–National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), in June 2022.

Dr Kalaiselvi's research career spans over 25 years with a focus on electrochemical power systems. Her research interests include lithium and beyond lithium batteries, supercapacitors and waste-to-wealth driven electrodes, and electrolytes for energy storage and electrocatalytic applications.

At CSIR-CECRI, she was involved particularly in the development of practically viable sodium-ion and lithium-sulphur batteries and supercapacitors, as per her profile on CSIR-CECRI.

She also served as a nodal scientist for MULTIFUN. Short for “Multifunctional Electrodes and Electrolytes for Futuristic Technologies,” MULTIFUN was a five-year plan project, sponsored by CSIR, with CSIR-CECRI as the nodal lab and six CSIR institutes as participating labs during 2012-2017. The project was graded as “excellent” by a monitoring authority.

In addition, she worked alongside collaborators in academia and industry towards the preparation of the technical report on the National Mission for Electric Mobility. She was also a part of the Mobility Mission Concept Note initiated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Dr Kalaiselvi has more than 125 research papers and six patents to her credit. Four of her research papers were picked among the “Highest Cited Top 25 Hottest Articles” of the Netherlands-based academic publishing company Elsevier.

She has successfully supervised the work of eight research scholars who went on to receive their PhDs and is currently guiding six PhD students.

The new CSIR chief is a recipient of many prestigious awards including MRSI medal, CSIR Raman Research Fellowship, INSA-NRF Exchange award, Brain Pool Fellowship of Korea, and the Most Inspiring Women Scientist award. In 2007, she even featured in the Top 100 Scientists of the year and was the International Scientist of the Year.

Besides her scientist duties, she has even engaged in science popularisation in Tamil language as the editor of Tamil-language monthly scientific periodical Ariga Ariviyal.

Dr Kalaiselvi is from Ambasamudram in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. She attended a Tamil-medium school. She began her research career with an entry-level position at CSIR-CECRI.

CSIR is an Indian R&D organisation with a pan-India presence through a combination of national laboratories, outreach centres, innovation complexes, and more. Established in 1942, it today forms a network of 38 laboratories and over 4,500 scientists. This extensive scientific body will now be led by Dr Kalaiselvi.

Last year, India’s Department of Science and Technology also got its first woman secretary (additional charge) in Dr Renu Swarup, even if only for two months, from 1 September to 31 October.

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