Balawant Shankar Joshi obtained his PhD degree from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. He was awarded second PhD from the Cambridge University, Cambridge. He worked on aphid pigment -protoaphin, chrysoaphin and erythroaphin. He studied the reactions of 2,6-ditert-butyl phenol which led to the isolation of the stable free radical galvinoxyl (Gox). His studies with curcumin showed that Gox molecule has a high steric hindrance that prevent chemical reactions with curcumin. He collected over 1000 plant species and investigated their chemical and biological constituents. The study of phenoilc constituents of Semecarpus anacardium led to interesting findings including Anticancer property of the plant. He isolated more than 80 new naturally occurring compounds, determined their structures and synthesized several natural products. Dr. Joshi was Member of the Executive Council of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (1979), member of the National Committee for IUPAC. He played a significant role in the Indo-Soviet scientific exchange programme.

Sarvagya Singh Katiyar obtained his PhD in 1962 from National Sugar Institute, Kanpur. He did his post doctoral research at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was successful in determining the kinetic mechanism of the enzyme fatty acid synthetase complex. He did extensive research on enzymes and their architecture which helped in understanding the catalytic domain of kinases and dehydrogenases. Dr. Katiyar was vice chancellor of Kanpur University. He was an elected fellow of The world Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences. He was the recipient of Padma Shri award in 2003, Gold medal for Excellence in Science in 2006, and Padma Bhushan in 2009.