Curriculum Vitae

Neel Sarovar Bhavesh
Born 24^th May 1975, Patna, India

Education

• Ph.D. (Physical Chemistry) from Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai 1998-2003. Thesis title: Biophysical investigations on complex protein and nucleic acid systems.
  Supervisor: Prof. R. V. Hosur, FNA
• M.Sc. in Biotechnology (Marine) from Department of Marine Biotechnology, Goa University, Goa 1996-1998.
  Dissertation tile: Risk assessment and effectiveness of a biosurfactant produced by an oil degrading marine bacterium using Perna viridis L. maintained in marine microcosms
  Supervisor: Prof. U. M. X. Sangodkar and Dr. C. U. Rivonkar
• B.Sc. in Chemistry (Hons.) with Physics and Mathematics from Science College, Patna University, Patna 1993-1996. Rank 2^nd in the University.

Experience

• Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gruppe Allain, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zürich. (May 2007 to present).
• Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gruppe Wüthrich, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zürich. (Jan 2004 to April 2007).
• Visiting Fellow (postdoctoral fellow) at the Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. (Aug 2003 to Jan 2004).

Awards and Recognitions

• Honorable Mention award for the 2004 IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists
• TAA-Zita Lobo Memorial Award for the Best Ph. D. Thesis in Biological and Chemical Sciences for the year 2003-2004.
• Student travel award from the organizers to attend the 2^nd International Conference on Structural Biology and Functional Genomics at Singapore from Dec 2-4, 2002
• Student travel award from the organizers to attend the XX^th International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological System (ICMRBS) at Toronto, Canada from Aug 25-30, 2002
• Student travel award from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) COSTED to attend the XX^th International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological System (ICMRBS) at Toronto, Canada from Aug 25-30, 2002
• Award from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India to represent India at the 52^nd meeting of Nobel laureates with students at Lindau, Germany and visit to premier German research institutions from July 01-15, 2002.
• TIFR Alumni Association Scholarship for career development supported by TIFR endowment fund in 2002.
• Best poster award at ‘College on Biophysics: From Molecular Genetics to Structural Biology’ At the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Trieste, Italy, Oct 1-12, 2001
• Full travel grant from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India for attending XIX^th International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological System (ICMRBS) at Florence, Italy from Aug 20-25, 2000.
• Young scientist fellowship from National Magnetic Resonance Society of India for attending XIX^th International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological System (ICMRBS) at Florence, Italy from Aug 20-25, 2000.
• Qualified Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-University Grant Commission (UGC) National Eligibility Test (NET) in Life Science of December 1997.
• Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) ’98 in Life Sciences with a score of 92.76 percentile (All India Rank 85).
• Fellowship from Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India during 1998-2003 for pursuing Ph.D.
• Merit scholarship from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India during 1996-1998.
• Merit scholarship from Ministry of Higher Education, Government of Bihar during 1991-1996.

Membership

• Life member of Indian Biophysical Society.
• Life member of National Magnetic Resonance Society of India.

Technical expertise

Structural Biology

• Solution NMR spectroscopy of soluble and membrane proteins in their different folded and unfolded states and Nucleic Acids.
• Analysis of multi-dimensional NMR spectra, development of multi-dimensional NMR methodology.
• Pulse programming in Varian and Bruker systems.
• Well versed with software packages like CARA, XEASY, PROSA, Felix, NMRPipe, NMRView, DYANA, CYANA, AtnosCandid, INSIGHT, DISCOVER, IRMA, MolMol.

Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

• Long experience in molecular biology like cloning, site directed mutagenesis, blotting-hybridization, gene transfer in bacteria, yeast and plants.
• Over-expression of uniformly and selective ²H, ¹⁵N, ¹³C labeled soluble and membrane proteins in E. coli.
• Cell-free expression of soluble and membrane proteins
• Protein purification and analysis techniques like chromatography, gel and capillary electrophoresis, blotting.
• Solid phase chemical synthesis of DNA
• Working experience in plant tissue culture and aquaculture.
• Operations of industrial fermenter.

Computational

• Operating systems: OS X, Linux-Debian and Redhat, Unix, Windows
• Programming languages: FORTRAN, Lua, Awk
• System administrator of the SGI Octane system and Windows and Linux based computing system at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research during 2001-2004.
• Well versed with Bioinformatics tools.