Somdev Banerjee was born in the eastern part of India, in the city of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). He graduated with a B. Sc. degree in Chemistry from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, affiliated with the University of Calcutta, in 2008. He joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, in the same year to pursue an M. Sc. degree in Chemistry. Somdev worked as a summer intern at IIT Guwahati in 2009 under the guidance of Prof. T. Punniyamurthy on the development of new methodology for the synthesis of substituted indoles via C-C and C-N cross-coupling reactions. He later conducted M. Sc. thesis project work on novel microwave mediated methods for the synthesis of peptides under the supervision of Prof. Bhubaneswar Mondal. After obtaining his M. Sc. degree in 2010 from IIT Guwahati, Somdev moved to Corvallis, Oregon, to pursue PhD track graduate work at Oregon State University. His work within the Blakemore Research Group was focused on novel and potentially enantioselective synthetic approaches to multifunctional axially chiral molecules based on 8,8'-biquinolyl and 8-naphth-1-yl-quinoline frameworks and investigation of the physical properties of these interesting molecules. Before joining the BRG, Somdev worked for a short time in the Carter Research Group also at OSU.

"Synthesis, Properties, and Enantiomerization Behavior of Axially Chiral Phenolic Derivatives of 8-(Naphth-1-yl)quinoline and Comparison to 7,7´-Dihydroxy-8,8´-biquinolyl and 1,1´-Bi-2-naphthol," Banerjee, S.; Riggs, B. E.; Zakharov, L. N.; Blakemore,* P. R. Synthesis 2015, 47, 4008-4016. [LINK][abstract][SI]

"Proline Sulphonamide-Catalysed Yamada-Otani Condensation: Reaction Development, Substrate Scope and Scaffold Reactivity," Yang, H.; Banerjee, S.; Carter,* R. G. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2012, 10, 4851-4863. [LINK][abstract]