Exploring Laboratory Experiments in Chemistry

Dr. Gulshanara Shaikh retired as Vice-principal (Academics) and Associate Professor from the Department of Chemistry of St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Mumbai, India, after 32 years of teaching Organic Chemistry at the undergraduate as well as postgraduate level. She has been a visiting faculty at Institute of Chemical Technology. She has 4 research publications in national and international journals; and is coauthor in one book. She has accompanied the Indian team as Mentor to the International Chemistry Olympiad in 2023. She is a life member of the Association of Chemistry Teachers. She is also associated with HBCSE since 2017 to date, as a visiting faculty where she has had the opportunity to be part of the Chemistry team that is continuously striving to enhance chemistry laboratory education both with students and teachers and developing innovative instruction material.

Dr. Lakshmy Ravishankar retired as Professor from the Department of Chemistry of V.G. Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai, India, after 33 years of teaching organic chemistry including 29 years of teaching at the post graduate level. She has been a visiting faculty at Institute of Chemical Technology and the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai and at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (Dec. 2022 - March 2023). She has 24 research publications in national and international journals, and has also contributed to chapters in four edited books and is coauthor in two books. She is the recipient of several awards for teaching which includes the Inspirational Member Award from Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (2018); the INSA Best teacher Award (2013), Chemical Research Society of India Best Teacher Award (2006 and 2011) and Best Teacher Award from Mumbai University (2005), She was featured as one of the faces globally for ‘The 175 faces of Chemistry’ project of Royal Society of Chemistry, UK in April 2015, to commemorate their 175th anniversary. She has accompanied the Indian team as Mentor to the International Chemistry Olympiad in 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2018. She is a life member of the Indian Chemical Society, Chemical Research Society of India and the Association of Chemistry Teachers. In addition, she is an Associate member of Royal Society of Chemistry UK.

Dr. Savita Ladage, with a Ph.D. in Science Education (1995), is a faculty member at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE, TIFR), Mumbai, India. For more than three decades, her primary academic interest has been chemistry education at secondary, higher secondary and tertiary levels. Her research interests are learnings in chemistry laboratory education and conceptual pitfalls in chemistry. She has been involved in conducting programmes for teachers for chemistry laboratory education at tertiary level and also in development of innovative instructional material for the same. As a core member of the chemistry education group at HBCSE, she has been associated with the Indian Chemistry Olympiad programme that leads to India's participation in the International Chemistry Olympiad for more than two decades. She has been awarded Nyholm Prize for Education by Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) in 2023.