Siva was born in 1972 in a place called Hindupur, a suburb of Bangalore, India. He graduated from SDGS college in 1992 with Bachelor of Science degree (Chemistry, Botany and Zoology). He pursued higher studies in chemistry from RIEM, (Formerly RCEM) and received a Masters in Science Education (MSc. Ed.) in Chemistry. It is here he got oriented for chemistry and Chemical education simultaneously. He then went on to obtain his second masters in education (M.Ed). In the spring of 1996, he undertook his research i.e. doctoral studies in Dr. Subhash P. Chavan's Lab (Organic Chemistry Division) at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. His research with Dr. Chavan primarily focused on the total synthesis of biologically active natural products along with the development of novel methodologies, and catalysis involving the zeolites. Soon after completion of the doctoral studies, he undertook the Welch postdoctoral fellowship at UNT with Prof. Alan P. Marchand under whose aegis he not only ventured in to supramolecular chemistry and separation science (Calixaranes, Cavitands in collaboration with Dr. Bruce Moyer at Oakridge), but also in to cage hydrocarbon chemistry. He then followed again his first love i.e. the total synthesis of natural products which led to him to pursue postdoctoral work with Dr. Carl. J. Lovely at UTA where he developed novel synthetic strategies for the complex alkaloids until 2007. He then desired to gain some experience at the interface of biology and chemistry, and Dr. Shiladit's lab at HST (Harvard-MIT) provided him an opportunity for the same before accepting an independent position at Umass Dartmouth in 2008.
With this combined back ground, his current research program plans