Dr. Rajashree Newar is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Netaji Subhas University of Technology (formerly Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology), New Delhi, India, since September 2025. She completed her B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry from North Lakhimpur College, Dibrugarh University in 2014, and her M.Sc. Chemistry (Inorganic Chemistry specialization) from the Department of Chemistry, NIT Silchar, in 2016. She was awarded the CSIR-JRF (AIR 60), which was further promoted to SRF. Dr. Newar pursued her Ph.D. in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Kuntal Manna at the Department of Chemistry, IIT Delhi, and was awarded the degree in December 2025. Following this, she pursued postdoctoral research at IRCELYON-CNRS, France, from February 2023 to August 2023, under the supervision of Dr. Jerome Canivet. Right after, she worked as a postdoctoral employee at the University of California, San Diego, USA, under Prof. Seth Cohen, where she explored a new type of MOF-materials known as Low-valent MOFs (September 2023 – August 2025).
Her research work is focused on synthesizing different kinds of Porous-Organic Polymer (POP) or Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) materials, which are highly active and selective for different organic transformation reactions. MOFs are an exciting class of porous material constructed by linking metal centers using multifunctional organic ligands (linkers) that combine the advantages of traditional homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. Dr. Newar has published 14 research papers in reputed international journals, which have collectively received over 400 citations. Additionally, she has 3 patents, 4 book chapters, and served as an editor for a national book publication.
Areas of Interest: Synthesis of new materials, Materials chemistry, Metal-Organic Frameworks, Porous-Organic Polymers, Catalysis.
Web-page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ZVWXvX8AAAAJ
Selected Publications:
1. Newar, R.; Begum, W.; Antil, N.; Shukla, S.; Kumar, A.; Akhtar, N.; Balendra; Manna K., Single-Site Cobalt-Catalyst Ligated with Pyridylimine-Functionalized Metal–Organic Frameworks for Arene and Benzylic Borylation. Inorganic Chemistry, 2020, 59 (15), 10473-10481.
2. Newar, R.; Akhtar, N.; Antil, N.; Kumar, A.; Shukla, S.; Begum, W.; Manna, K., Amino Acid- Functionalized Metal-Organic Frameworks for Asymmetric Base–Metal Catalysis. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2021, 60 (19), 10964-10970.
3. Newar, R., Ghosh A. C., Kumari, R., Rajapaksha R, Samanta. P., Wisser, F. M., Canivet J., Molecular rhodium complexes within N-rich porous macroligands as heterogeneous catalyst for the visible-light driven CO2 photoreduction. Advanced energy and sustainability research, 2023, 2300209.
4. Esposito, M.; Newar, R.; Kim, M.; Cohen. M. S., Recent trends in Low-Valent Metal-organic Frameworks. Coordination Chemistry Review, 2025, 531, 216491.