Education:

• Ph.D. (2000) in Chemistry from Andhra University (Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. U. Murali Krishna.

• M.Sc. Applied Chemistry (1994) – A.U. College of Engineering, Andhra University Campus, Visakhapatnam.

• B.Sc. - Maths, Physics and Chemistry – S. R. A. & S College, Kothagudem, Khammam District, Affiliated to Kakatiya University, Telangana

Professional Activity:

• Currently working as Professor (from September 2012 to till date) in Department of Chemistry at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore

• Currently guiding the young students as a Faculty Coordinator from (2016–till date) for Sigma Xi –Chapter (VIT) - The Scientific Research Society to promote Science and Technology

• Served as Program Chair for M.Sc. Chemistry Program and Division Chair for Organic Chemistry Division at VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu from July, 2014 to January 2016.

• Post-doctoral Fellow with Prof. F. Gordon A. Stone (Organoborane Chemistry), Baylor University, Waco, Texas

• Post-doctoral Fellow with Prof. John R. Moss (Organometallic Chemistry), University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

• Post-doctoral Fellow with Prof. Daniel Kost (Organosilicon Chemistry), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

• Research Associate with Prof. M. N. Sudheendra Rao (Main Group Chemistry), IIT Madras, Chennai, India

Research Interests:

The major research efforts of the Akella's research group are focused on designing and synthesis of new ligands for organometallics and polymers (including metal-alkyls, hydrides, carbonyls, carbenes, clusters, carboranes and metallocenes), and applications in catalysis, fabrication of advanced materials and bioactivity studies.

In addition, the Akella's research group has extensively been engaged with the development of more selective and efficient catalysts with particular relevance to industrially important catalytic reactions including ethylene oligomerization and polymerization reactions.