Home Page of Ranjit Koodali

Biography

Dr. Ranjit T. Koodali obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) Madras. His admission to the Ph.D. program was based on two national examinations: i.) Joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-University Grants Commission Eligibility Test for Junior Research Fellowship and Lectureship in which he was placed among the top eleven candidates in Chemistry and ii.) Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, in which he scored 99.25 percentile in Chemistry, which placed him in the top ten. After extensive Post-Doctoral experiences, he joined University of South Dakota, USD in August 2005. Dr. Koodali received the USD President’s Research Award for Excellence in the Early/Mid-Career Category in 2010. In addition, Dr. Koodali received the 2013 Cutler Award in the Natural Science and Math category for excellence in teaching and research from the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Koodali is also a recipient of the USD President's Research Award for Excellence in the Established Faculty Category in 2013, an award he received in his very first year of eligibility. His areas of research encompass synthesis of nanomaterials and their applications towards photochemical storage and conversion of solar energy and drug delivery. He has one patent and over one hundred and twenty-five peer reviewed papers. His first project in solar hydrogen production was cited by the National Science as an example of transformative work and was among the eleven projects highlighted by NSF in its budget request to Congress for FY 13. His research has been supported by grants from USD, SD Board of Regents, Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Science Foundation. Dr. Koodali serves as a regular journal reviewer for over 100 scientific journals that include: ACS Nano, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Chemical Communications, Chemistry of Materials, Energy and Environmental Science, Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of Catalysis, Journal of Materials Chemistry, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Journal of The American Chemical Society, Langmuir, Scientific Reports, Small etc. Dr. Koodali is an Associate Editor for RSC Advances and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences. He finds mention in 57th, 58th, 60th, 61st, 63rd, 65th, 67th, 68th, and 69th editions of Who’s Who in America, 6th and 7th editions of Who's Who in Science and Engineering, and the 11th and 12th editions of Who's Who among American Teachers & Educators. Dr. Koodali served as the Public Relations Chair of the Sioux Valley section and currently serves as the Membership Chair for the Energy and Fuel Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He served as the National Program Co-Chair for the fall 2013 ACS and National Program Chair for spring and fall 2014 ACS meetings. He has supervised six Doctoral Dissertations, fourteen Master’s Theses, and twelve undergraduate Honors Theses. Thirty-three undergraduates that include two Goldwater Scholars, four NSF Graduate Research Fellows, two National Defense Science and Engineering Grant Awardees, one National Health Corps scholar, one NASA National Aeronautics Scholar, and one NCAA post-graduate scholar have pursued research in his group. Graduate students from his group have been awarded nationally competitive grants and honors from the International Precious Metal Institute, Sigma-Xi Grants-in-Aid-Research Awards, C3E, and grants from USD. Dr. Koodali was a guest speaker in South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Innovation to talk about research in Chemistry. In 2016, Dr. Koodali became the first Chemist in the Dakotas to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). In 2017, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (the oldest Honor society), in recognition of high attainments in liberal scholarship. In 2023, he was selected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society for making significant contributions to chemical sciences and have provided outstanding service to ACS, the world’s largest scientific society.

Dr. Koodali served as Graduate Dean from 2016 to 2019 at USD. Dr. Koodali served as the Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education at Western Kentucky University from 2020 to 2023. He currently serves as Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for International Affairs at New Mexico State University.

Dr. Koodali also served as Chair of the Master's Advisory Committee of the Council of Graduate Schools and as Past-Chair of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools. He is a Chair for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Board and member of the Graduate Education Advisory Council (formerly known as GRE Board).