Department of Chemistry
412-268-6177
skhetan@andrew.cmu.edu

Sushil K. Khetan

M.Sc. Organic Chemistry, St. John's College, Agra, 1963.
Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, 1968.
Post-doctoral, Aerospace Research Laboratories, Wright-Patterson Air Force base,
    Dayton, Ohio, 1969-71.

I have worked in the crop protection chemicals industry for nearly 26 years serving in positions initially as a scientist, then in management, then back into direct science for about 9 years. The areas of my research interest have included synthetic chemical pesticides, pest control product technologies and biologically-based pest control agents. I also led a UNIDO assisted program on development and introduction of user-friendly and environmentally benign pest control product technologies in India. Additionally, I provided technical support to a regional network program for Asia and Pacific on the subject that included member countries such as China and South Korea.

In January 2001, I joined the Green Chemistry group of Professor Terry Collins to pursue my interest in environmentally benign technologies. The transition to academia is requiring a lot of work and time. Nevertheless, for me it has been a challenging and rewarding period. Initially, my research interest is focused on integrated application of enzymatic delignification of pulp and paper with TAML¨ activated H2O2 bleaching. This is expected to result in enhanced value by reducing the environmental load due to oxidative agents and colored effluents, affecting energy conservation and producing a better quality paper. I am also investigating integration of TAML¨ activated H2O2 oxidation with biologically-based technologies for rapid degradation of hazardous chemicals.

I have conducted training programs in safer and user-friendly pest control product technologies that were offered to the industry in 12 Asian countries. Using this background, I shall make presentations on environmentally benign pest control technologies as a part of the 'Introduction to Green Chemistry' course offered to senior undergraduate and graduate students majoring in chemistry and biology.

 

Technical Writings

Amongst my writings, I have published two books, a number of project reports, book chapters, contributions to Encyclopedia of Agrochemicals and peer reviewed research papers. Some of my recent publications are as follows:
Author, Microbial Pest Control (2000), reviews recent developments in biologically based pest control technologies and agricultural biotechnology, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York. 
Editor and contributing author, Pesticide Formulation: Recent Developments and their Applications in Developing countries (1998), with Wade Van Valkenburg and B. Sugavanam, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Vienna through New Age, New Delhi. 

Author, Storage stability of agrochemicals in Encyclopedia of Agrochemicals (2001), Jack R. Plimmer, Ed., To be published by John Wiley, New York.

Author with Anugrah Shaw, 1997. Protective clothing for workers in pesticide manufacturing plants in India, in Performance of Protective Clothing, Vol. 6, ASTM STP 1273, J.O. Stull and A.D. Schwope, Eds., American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, pp. 326-331.

Author with P.K. Ramdas, 1990. A self-spreading formulation for the control of surface feeding/inhabiting aquatic pests, 7th International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry, Frankfurt, Germany, Vol. 2, H. Frehse, E. Kesseler-Schmitz and S. Conway, eds., pp. 39-42.

Author with M.V. George and R.K. Gupta, 1976. Synthesis of heterocycles through nucleophilic addition to acetylenic esters, in Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry, Volume 19, A.R. Katritzky and A.J. Boulton, Eds., Academic Press, New York.