Ponisseril Somasundaran, LaVon Duddleson Krumb Professor of Mineral Engineering, has been elected as a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI).

NASI is oldest Science Academy of India, established in the year 1930 by a group of world famous scientists led by Prof. Meghnad Saha (the Founder President).The Academy (NASI) has established many fruitful collaborations with the scientific bodies of national & international repute to pursue its activities as per its mandate- 'Science & Society'; and it consists of a large base of the Fellowship & Membership (total around 3500), spread all across the country. NASI has 22 Local Chapters, 22 Tribal Centres and 25 DNA Clubs established during the last 2-3 decades, representing different regions of the country, and engaged in several scientific activities. More details about the Academy are available on the website - www.nasi.nic.in.

Professor Somasundaran received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.  After 5 years with the International Minerals and Chemical Corporation and Reynolds Industries, he joined Columbia University faculty. In 1983 he was invested as the first La von Duddleson Krumb Professor, in 1987 the first Director of the Langmuir Center for Colloids & Interfaces, and in 1998 the Founding Director of the National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Center for Advanced Studies in Novel Surfactants. He was inducted in l985 into the National Academy of Engineering, the highest professional distinction that can be conferred to an engineer at that time, and later to the National Academy of Inventors (2016), Chinese National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the Balkan Academy of Mineral Technology Sciences. More recently he was the sole Foreign Fellow elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2010  and was awarded the "Ellis Island Medal of Honor" in 1990. In March 2010, the President of India awarded him the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian honors. He was appointed to the EPA Board of Scientific Councilors in 2014 and chairman of its Chemical Safety and Sustainability committee as well as Hazardous risk committee and reappointed to the Board in December 2017.  He has been honored in many countries.  He was appointed as an Honorary Professor at the Central University of Technology of China, an Honorary Research Advisor at the Beijing Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, Beijing, visiting professor/scientist at the University of Melbourne and at the Indian Institute of Science.. His research has been concerned with a wide spectrum of environmental problems including Greener Chemistry, pollution control and remediation, controlled release in personal care, sludge treatment, waste water treatment, and nanotoxicity and now, rising quietly to the occasion  on decontamination of viruses to control CONORA He is the author/editor of 15 books and of over 700 scientific publications and patents and editor of Encyclopedia of Surface & Colloid Science and the Honorary Editor-in-chief of the international journal "Colloids and Surfaces".   He has served on many professional committees including  National Research Council Panels, National Science Foundation, Department of Interior, Department of Energy, National Institute of Dental Research and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Advisory panels. He was the Chairman of the Board of the Engineering Foundation (1993-95).