Dr Krishna Sharma

Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education
Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry

Lecturer

Email:: [email protected]

ORCID

About

Dr Krishna Sharma is a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry with research specialising in sustainable and green chemistry. He completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, where he developed novel reagents for biocompatible click chemistry to generate stapled peptide inhibitors of oncogenic protein–protein interactions.

Prior to this, Krishna obtained an MSc (by Research) in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, where he developed a highly selective method for synthesising pharmaceutically important indolines, significantly improving reaction efficiency and sustainability. This research earned him the University of Oxford Thesis Commendation Award for exceptional performance across departments.

Before joining Kingston University, Krishna held postdoctoral research positions at the University of York and the University of Leeds. At York’s Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, he led projects on replacing fossil-derived chemicals with renewable and environmentally-benign alternatives, collaborating with industry partners to advance scalable sustainable solutions. At Leeds, his work pioneered water-based and surfactant-catalysed reactions, combining computational chemistry and experimental innovation to reduce chemical waste and environmental impact. He has also worked as a research visitor at Imperial College London on continuous flow chemistry and high-throughput platforms.

Krishna was invited to present his research at the UK Parliament (House of Commons, as a STEM for BRITAIN finalist), sharing insights from cutting-edge green chemistry with policymakers. His outreach contributions and research journey have been featured in news articles, including The Mancunion (the UK’s largest student newspaper), University of Leeds Research Journey Feature, and the University of York’s Knowledge Exchange Newsletter.

Alongside research, Krishna is committed to mentoring, science outreach and sustainability initiatives. He has trained school teachers and students across India on green chemistry, delivered public science lectures internationally, and actively supported sustainability programmes within universities, including award-winning Green Impact initiatives. He also serves as a mentor for the Cambridge Climate Society, guiding the next generation of climate leaders. His contributions have been recognised internationally, including selection to the CAS Future Leaders Top 100 (2025), the American Chemical Society’s LEADS cohort (2024), and appointment as an official nominator for the global VinFuture Prize.

Qualifications

PhD in Chemistry, University of Cambridge
MSc (by Research) in Organic Chemistry, University of Oxford
BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, St Stephen's College, University of Delhi

Domains

Awards and honours

Official Nominator, VinFuture Prize (2025–present). Recognised for expertise in science and technology; invited to nominate breakthrough researchers and innovators aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Selected as one of the Top 100 for the 2025 CAS Future Leaders program.
Selected as one of the 40 researchers worldwide to participate at the 2024 American Chemical Society LEADS (Lasting Encounters between Aspiring & Distinguished Scientists) Conference. This event brought together highly esteemed chemistry researchers and Nobel Laureates in Washington DC USA during 7-9th November.
American Chemical Society Organic Division Travel Award 2023 ($600) to represent University of Leeds at the 2023 ACS Fall Meeting, San Francisco USA.
Royal Society of Chemistry Researcher Development Grant 2023 (£500) to participate and present postdoctoral research work at the 2023 ACS Fall Meeting, San Francisco USA.
Poster Award Gordon Research Conference in Green Chemistry 2022 ($920) for best poster and flash talk presentation on my postdoctoral research work involving development of sustainable fluorination chemistry.
American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable Travel Award 2022 ($1,200) to present postdoctoral research work at a special “Sustainability in Organic Chemistry” session at the 26th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Reston, Virginia, USA.
First Prize (£100) for Research Poster Presentation at the Society of Chemical Industry Challenges in Catalysis VII Conference 2022, Royal Society of Chemistry, London.
Selected as young researcher representative to present research poster at the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Industrial Roundtable poster event 2022 in Reston Virginia USA.
STEM for BRITAIN Chemistry Finalist 2022 to give an insight of the outstanding research work being undertaken as an early-career researcher to the members of both Houses of the UK Parliament, House of Commons, UK.
International Achiever Award for distinguished work in the field of Green Chemistry, by STE (Save The Environment - a society for research, awareness and social development based in India).
Royal Society of Chemistry Researcher Development Grant 2022 (£500) to participate and present postdoctoral research work at the 9th IUPAC International Conference on Green Chemistry, Athens, Greece.
Royal Society of Chemistry early career scientist grant 2019 (£1,200) to present PhD research work at the 47th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, Paris, France and participate in the IUPAC 50th General Assembly.
Young Scientist Award 2019, 6th World Congress on Nanomedical Sciences/Chemistry-Biology Interface Synergistic New Frontiers, India.
American Chemical Society Organic Division Travel Award 2018 ($600) to represent University of Cambridge at the 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, USA.
Trinity College Rouse-Ball and Eddington Research Fund Award 2018 (£1600) to present PhD research work at the 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, USA.
Cambridge Philosophical Society Research Studentship Award 2018 (£2000) to complete an exceptionally promising piece of research work during PhD studies at the University of Cambridge.
Best Oral Presentation Prize 2018 at the international conference on Emerging Trends in Drugs Development and Natural-Products, India.
Infosys 35 under 35 UK India Young Leader Award 2018, 5th UK-India Conclave.
Scholarships awarded in 2014 by Trinity College Cambridge (Tuition Fee £34,341 x 3), University of Cambridge Trust (Maintenance fee £8,000 x 4) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Cambridge Trust (Maintenance fee £4,500.0 x 3) to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge.
MSc Thesis Commendation Award 2014, University of Oxford for producing an excellent thesis and receiving exceptional comments from the examiners, across disciplines and departments university wide.
Commendation Award 2012, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford for the high standard of experimental work, written submission and viva voce at the first-year transfer interviews.

Publications

Articles

Sharma, K.; et al. Activation of fluoride anion as nucleophile in water with data-guided surfactant selection. Chem. Sci. 2024, 15, 5764-5774. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC06311A
Sharma, K.; et al. Cation-controlled enantioselective and diastereoselective synthesis of indolines: An autoinductive phase-transfer initiated 5-endo-trig process. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137 (41), 13414-13424. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5b08834
Sharma, K.; et al. Water-soluble, stable and azide-reactive strained dialkynes for biocompatible double strain-promoted click chemistry. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2019, 17, 8014-8018. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9OB01745C
Sharma, K.; et al. Functionalized double strain-promoted stapled peptides for inhibiting the p53-MDM2 interaction. ACS Omega 2020, 5 (2), 1157-1169. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03459
Maltby, K. A.; Sharma, K.; et al. Rationalizing and adapting water-accelerated reactions for sustainable flow organic processes. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 2023, 11 (23), 8675-8684. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c02164
Knighton, R. C.; Sharma, K.; et al. Synthesis and reactivity of a bis-strained alkyne derived from 1,1‚Ä≤-biphenyl-2,2‚Ä≤,6,6‚Ä≤-tetrol. ACS Omega 2019, 4 (1), 2160-2167. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.8b03634
Strizhak, A. V.; Sharma, K.; et al. Highly reactive bis-cyclooctyne-modified diarylethene for SPAAC-mediated cross-linking. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2018, 16 (44), 8559-8564. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8OB02428F (Highlighted in Synfacts 2019.)
Strizhak, A. V.; Babii, O.; Afonin, S.; Bakanovich, I.; Pantelejevs, T.; Xu, W.; Fowler, E.; Eapen, R.; Sharma, K.; et al. Diarylethene moiety as an enthalpy-entropy switch: Photoisomerizable stapled peptides for modulating p53/MDM2 interaction. Org. Biomol. Chem. 2020, 18, 5359-5369. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0OB00831A
Boobier, S.; Liu, Y.; Sharma, K.; et al. Predicting solvent-dependent nucleophilicity parameter with a causal structure property relationship. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 2021, 61 (10), 4890-4899. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.1c00610

Book chapters

Sharma, K.; et al. (2018): CHAPTER 8, in Cyclic Peptides: From Bioorganic Synthesis to Applications, The Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 164-187.

Conference publications

Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2023): “Sustainable synthesis of sulfonyl fluorides in water”, ACS GCI 27th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Long Beach, California. (Invited)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2023): “Enabling Nucleophilic Fluorination in Water”, ACS Fall 2023 Meeting, San Francisco, California. (Oral)
Sharma, K. (2023): “Water as a Sustainable Solvent: Transforming Organic Chemistry for a Greener Future”, International Conference on “Designing a Sustainable Future: Advances and Opportunities in Green Chemistry”, University of Ladakh India. (Invited Speaker)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2022): “Enabling Nucleophilic Fluorination in Water”, Green Chemistry Gordon Research Seminar, Castelldefels, Spain. (Invited Speaker)
Sharma, K. (2022): “Going Green with Organic Chemistry”, RSC International Workshop & Symposium on Green Chemistry & Technology, Bikaner India. (Invited Speaker)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2022): “Enabling Nucleophilic Fluorination in Water”, Green Chemistry Gordon Research Conference, Castelldefels, Spain. (Poster Awardee Invited Speaker)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2022): “Enabling Nucleophilic Fluorination in Water”, 9th IUPAC International Conference on Green Chemistry, Athens, Greece. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2022): “Enabling Nucleophilic Fluorination in Water”, ACS GCI Industrial Roundtable Event, 26th Annual GC&E Conference, Reston, Virginia. (Invited Poster)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2022): “Enabling Nucleophilic Fluorination in Water”, ACS GCI 26th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Reston, Virginia. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2021): “Identifying On-water Reactions: Computational Methods and Experimental Investigations”, ACS GCI 25th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, virtual. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Nguyen, B. N.; Blacker, J. B.; Kapur, N. K. (2021): “Computationally-driven Discovery of On-water Reactions”, 6th Green & Sustainable Chemistry Conference, virtual. (Poster)
Sharma, K.; Spring, D. R. (2019): “Strain-promoted Stapled Peptides for Inhibiting Protein-protein Interactions”, 47th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, Paris, France. (Oral)
Sharma, K. (2019): “Efficient strained dialkynes for biocompatible double strain-promoted click chemistry”, 6th World Congress on Nanomedical Sciences / Chemical-Biology Interface Synergistic New Frontiers, India. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Spring, D. R. (2018): “Strain-promoted Double-click Functionalised Stapled Peptides for Inhibiting Protein-protein Interactions”, 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, USA. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Spring, D. R. (2018): “Strain-promoted Double-click Functionalised Stapled Peptides for Inhibiting Protein-protein Interactions”, International conference on Emerging Trends in Drugs Development and Natural-Products, India. (Oral)
Sharma K.; Spring, D. R. (2017): “Strain-promoted Double-click Stapled Peptides for Inhibiting Protein-protein Interactions”, Chemistry Showcase Symposia, University of Cambridge. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Smith, M. D. (2013): “Diastereo- and Enantioselective Synthesis of Functionalized Indolines via Chiral Counterion Catalysis”, 245th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, USA. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; Smith, M. D. (2013): “Diastereo- and Enantioselective Synthesis of Functionalized Indolines via Chiral Counterion Catalysis”, AstraZeneca D.Phil. Symposium, University of Oxford. (Oral)
Sharma, K.; et al. (2017): “Strain-promoted double-click functionalised stapled peptides for inhibiting protein-protein interactions”, RSC-NOST Symposium on Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Leeds, UK. (Poster)
Sharma, K.; et al. (2017): “Strain-promoted Double-click Functionalised Stapled Peptides for Inhibiting Protein-protein Interactions”, RSC Chemical Biology Symposium. (Poster)
Sharma, K.; et al. (2017): “Synthesis of Functionalised Strained Dialkyne Linkers for Metal-free Peptide Stapling”, RSC 25th International Symposium: Synthesis in Organic Chemistry, Oxford. (Poster)
Sharma, K.; Smith, M. D. (2013): “Diastereo- and Enantioselective Synthesis of Functionalized Indolines via Chiral Counterion Catalysis”, RSC 23rd International Symposium: Synthesis in Organic Chemistry, Oxford. (Poster)
Sharma, K.; Smith, M. D. (2012): “Diastereo- and Enantioselective Synthesis of Functionalized Indolines via Chiral Counterion Catalysis”, Pfizer Neusentis Symposium, University of Oxford. (Poster)

Invited talks

Invited to present my postdoctoral research work in Green Chemistry to 60 external partners and stakeholders of the University of York at the Business Engagement Forum Meeting (3rd December 2024).
Invited talk on “Clean & Green: Rethinking Chemistry” at Kishinchand Chellaram College Mumbai, India (20th September 2024).
Guest lecture on “Sustainable Chemistry and Bioanalysis” at GN Khalsa College, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India (19th September 2024).
Invited talk on Green Chemistry at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India (19th September 2024).
Distinguished Speaker at the International Conference on “Recent Advances on Green Catalysis and Drug Discovery” (ICRAGCDD 2024), Bathinda, India (5th September 2024).
Invited to present my postdoctoral research work to the Vice Chancellor, Pro-Chancellors and other council members at the University Council meeting held at the Church Lane Building, University of York (23rd July 2024).
International Conference on “Green Chemistry & Intellectual Property for United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, College and Research Centre (DMC), Assagao, Goa India (22nd-23rd March 2024).
Workshop on "Green Chemistry" for school students, Akal University, Talwandi Sabo, India (8th January 2024).
5th RSC-CRSI UK-India Joint Symposium in Chemical Sciences, University of York UK (12th September 2023).
International Conference on “Designing a Sustainable Future: Advances and Opportunities in Green Chemistry”, University of Ladakh India (4th July 2023).
ACS 27th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, Long Beach CA (15th June 2023).
Gordon Research Conference in Green Chemistry, Castelldefels, Spain (Best Poster Award Talk, 28th July 2022).
Gordon Research Seminar in Green Chemistry, Castelldefels, Spain (24th July 2022).
RSC International Workshop & Symposium on Green Chemistry & Technology, Bikaner India (24th December 2022).
Sharma, K. (2019): “Strain-promoted Stapled Peptides for Inhibiting Protein-protein Interactions”, University of Cambridge. (Doctoral thesis) https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.35884
Sharma, K. (2014): “Cation-controlled diastereo- and enantioselective synthesis of indolines: an autocatalytic process”, University of Oxford. (Master’s by Research thesis) https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.627880

Outreach activities

Trained over 850 teachers across four Indian cities in four months on Green Chemistry and Sustainability to drive innovation and inspire transformative engagement with STEM education in India; this effort was featured in the UK’s largest university campus newspaper, Mancunion (18 November 2024).
Featured in the University of York Knowledge Exchange Newsletter with an article on my research journey towards Green Chemistry and my current postdoctoral research work at York (21 October 2024).
Delivered Popular Science Lecture on "Green Chemistry for a Sustainable Future" at the Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai, India, where over 300 school students attended (20th September 2024).
Interacted with over 300 children in Baddi Himachal Pradesh in India (Asia’s largest pharmaceutical hub) on Green Chemistry and its importance (10 September 2024).
Selected among 16 early career researchers throughout the University of York to share my research journey at the inaugural Celebrating Spaces event (27 June 2024).
Organised the York Pint of Science Festival (Theme: Planet Earth) which explored critical environmental challenges and potential solutions, engaging both the academic community and the general public in meaningful discussions about sustainability (13 May 2024).
Trained 100 school students in Green Chemistry at the Green Chemistry workshop held at Akal University, Punjab, India 2023.
Featured for my Research Journey in Sustainable Chemistry by the University of Leeds 2023.
Trained 21 young leaders selected from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka on “Sustainable Practices: An urgent need of the hour” as part of Young Leaders Neighbourhood Fellowship Programme in India 2022.
Organised National RSC Conference in India "Inauguration of the International Year of Chemistry 2011”.

Mentoring

Mentor for Cambridge Climate Society (“A University of Cambridge society dedicated to connecting, educating and empowering people on the most important issue of our time”).
Mentor for Trinity College University of Cambridge.
Mentor for the University of York PGR mentoring scheme (mentoring programme for postgraduate researchers at the University to create a positive research culture and promote their professional development).

Academic service

Actively contributed to the Green Impact Team which won a triple platinum award for its sustainability efforts (Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning programme designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practices in the Green Chemistry Centre University of York) 2024.
Session Chair “Green & Sustainable Chemistry” at the Chem@York Conference University of York (19 June 2024).
Judge at the annual poster competition for 3rd Year Chemistry PhD students at the University of York, sponsored by Johnson Matthey (18 April 2024).
Selected for Primary Science Researchers, a nine-month Royal Society-funded project, to share my research practices with primary children and their teachers 2024.
Advisory Panel Member for International Conference on “Advances in Pharmaceutical Sciences: Bridging Academia and Industry”, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, India (5-6 March 2024).

Dr Krishna Sharma

Faculties, departments and locations