Kalyani Maitra earned her doctoral degree in Chemistry from University of Nevada,
Reno. Her first postdoctoral research work at UC Davis was in the area of bioinorganic
chemistry where she worked with fullerenes and its derivatives. Her subsequent research
at UC Irvine focused on the understanding of the structural aspects and behavior of
artificial ß-sheets in solution by NMR spectroscopy. She worked as a scientist in
the biocatalysis division in Dr. Reddy’s Lab in Hyderabad (India) – a leading pharmaceutical
company in India. Kalyani was a lecturer in the Chemistry Department at Fresno State,
until her recent appointment in the current faculty position.
Kalyani teaches undergraduate level organic lecture and laboratory courses (CHEM 128A/B,
129A/B, CHEM 8), biochemistry (CHEM 150), inorganic chemistry lab (CHEM 124), and
also general chemistry lectures courses (CHEM 1A and 1B). She has also taught inorganic
graduate courses (CHEM 220 and 222) offered by the department.
Areas of Specialty
Kalyani’s research areas primarily focus on:
1) Building peptidomimetic biomolecules (peptoids, peptomers) and investigating their
potential to function as biomaterial, therapeutics and sensors.
2) Design solid-phase bound catalysts for asymmetric allylic alkylation.
3) A two-prong approach on remediation of waste water by growing algae and subsequently
screening their oil content for biodiesel.
Designing peptides and peptidomimetics to function as therapeutics and antimicrobial
agents; Sustainable approaches toward the use of algae as a renewable resource in
carbon capture, bioenergy, biofuel, bioproduct and circular bioeconomy.
