Dr. Shefali Arora

Dr. Shefali completed her Ph.D. from IIT, Roorkee (India) and has been actively engaged in research work since July 1999. With a prolific research background, she has authored 65 research papers in international journals and presented 15 papers at various national and international conferences. Additionally, Dr. Arora has published five books and 1 manual. She also holds one patent. In addition to this, she serves as a reviewer for more than 5 journals. Dr. Arora's scholarly impact is evident from her notable Citations-1320, h-index-17, and i10-index-19.

Dr. Shefali Arora has around 20 years of experience in both teaching and research. Prior to joining UPES, she held the position of Reader and Head in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Dolphin (PG) Institute of Biomedical & Natural Sciences, Dehradun, from July 2006 to July 2012. She also worked as a Senior Research Fellow from August 2002 to July 2004 during her Ph.D. at IIT Roorkee.

Dr. Arora's research interests encompass various areas such as Ion Selective Electrodes, Natural Product Chemistry, and the Synthesis of Heterocyclic Compounds and their Biological Activity.

Dr. Shefali Arora's teaching philosophy centres on creating a supportive and encouraging learning environment for her students. She devises a “flipped classroom active learning” technique which is structured on the premise that traditional lectures or direct instruction may not optimize class time effectively. Instead, students are exposed to information prior to the class, allowing in-class time to be dedicated to activities that foster higher-order thinking. Her in-class assignments are based on real data and situations, enabling students to develop expert thinking skills by solving authentic problems.

Dr. Arora is well-versed in teaching various topics related to Organic Chemistry. She specializes in Natural Product Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and imparts her expertise to B.Tech, B.Sc., and M.Sc. students with a specialization in Organic Chemistry. Additionally, she is interested in teaching environment-related science courses and actively supervises B.Sc., M.Sc. dissertations, and Ph.D. students.

Dr. Shefali Arora's contributions have been recognized through numerous awards and grants. She received Project Fellowship from May 1999 to May 2001 from UP Council of Science and Technology, Lucknow (UP) and a Senior Research Fellowship from July 2001 to 2003 from CSIR, New Delhi. She earned the First Prize in the Poster Presentation at the 88th Session of the Indian Science Congress, New Delhi. She was awarded a Gold Medal for achieving the highest marks in Intermediate and B.Sc. Additionally, she also received the R&D Award for good publications from UPES six times between 2014 and 2019. In the year 2019, she was honoured by LIC of India on Teacher's Day.

She is a life member of the Indian Chemical Society and the International Association of Engineers. She was interviewed by International French Magazine “Society” on environmental issues for the project called Big Bang for the theme 'The World Without Mankind' in the year 2021. She has completed Seed Money Project: UPES, R&D Internal Research Grant titled “Effective Augmentation of Extraction of Essential Oils” and RISE Project (Under the SEED program for research) entitled “Development of Omni-Phobic Coating to Reduce the Wax Deposition and Corrosion in Oil Pipelines During the Transportation of Crude Oil”, “ Biogas Purification System through Rice Husk”, “Preparation of Low-Cost Ceramic Membrane for Clean Drinking Water” and RISE Project (Under the SEED program for research) titled “Producing Commercial Products From stevia Leaves”. She is consistently inclined towards enhancing and refining research methodologies to contribute to a more positive society. This always compels her to develop new tools for the development of new drugs with fewer side effects and low cost.

shefali.arora@ddn.upes.ac.in