Indian chemist Gautam Desiraju, elected a TWAS Fellow in 2002, is the recipient of the 14th Ewald Prize of the International Union of Crystallography. The award is presented every three years and was announced in April 2026.
A leading figure in solid state and structural chemistry, Desiraju is being honoured for his pioneering studies of crystal engineering, and for showing that even very weak chemical hydrogen bonds among atoms play an important role in crystal formation.
The Ewald Prize, established in 1986, celebrates outstanding contributions to crystallography, and commemorates Professor Paul Ewald's seminal contributions to the discipline, and to the founding of the International Union of Crystallography.
Desiraju earned his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, in 1976. After conducting research at the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester (United States of America), he returned to India in 1978, where he became a distinguished academician working at the University of Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Science.
Today, he is professor emeritus in the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and serves as a distinguished professor at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, India.
He also teaches at the School of Technology at Rishihood University, Sonipat, and holds a distinguished professorship in the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems and Mental Health Applications at the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi.
His 1989 book, Crystal Engineering: The Design of Organic Solids, is still a landmark text for clarity and overview of the major topics in this field.
Cristina Serra