Dr. Rakesh Somani is Professor and Head of the Dept, Pharmaceutical Chemistry at VES College of Pharmacy, Mumbai. He has completed his PhD in Synthetic Chemistry. With the experience of 17 years in academics and research, Dr Somani has published more than 40 peer-reviewed research papers. His one of the research papers has been awarded with Best Research Paper Award by Indian Drugs Manufacturing Association in 2014. He has guided more than 40 post graduate students and 2 PhD students. He has established collaboration with CDRI, Lucknow, Rega Institute, Belgium, TAACF, USA, OIDD, USA, NCI-NIH, USA for his research endeavors. He is also working as Joint Secretary of APTI, Maharashtra State Branch and has life membership of various professional bodies like APTI, VignyanBharati, Marathi VidnyanParishad, Association of Chemistry Teachers (ACT), Indian Science Congress Association etc.He has been actively involved in accreditation, innovation-incubation and entrepreneurship development activities. He is voracious reader and an active social worker.