Azrieli Postdoctoral Fellow (June 2021 - Dec. 2022) Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Visiting Scientist (March 2022) Argonne National Lab, Chicago, USA

GTEP Postdoctoral Fellow (Oct. 2020 - May 2021) Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Scientific Employee (Oct. 2018 - Sept. 2020) Institute of Membrane Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany 

Ph.D. Scholar (April 2015 - Sept.2019) Institute of Membrane Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany 

M.Sc. Project at MNIT Jaipur

M.Sc. Summer Intern at Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Jodhpur

Dr. Kirti Sankhala is an experimental researcher working on water treatment, mainly membrane-based separations. Her research lies in the area of polymer chemistry, polymer physics and polymer processing.

Kirti conducted her postdoctoral researcher at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology under the guidance of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tamar Segal-Peretz. For her research at the Technion, she was awarded two prestigious fellowships, GTEP and the Azrieli postdoctoral fellowships. Her research focused on developing hybrid organic-inorganic membranes for water treatment, in particular nanofiltration (NF) for water softening. The work included atomic layer deposition (ALD) and sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS) to fabricate hybrid nanostructures with sub-nm precision. Her work on understanding the impact of metal oxide ALD on the surface of NF membranes, answers the key question on water and ion transport in ALD-coated NF membranes. In addition, she investigated ALD and SIS in polyurethane foams and studied the vapor-based crystalline ZnO growth in a pre-existing macroscopic polymer matrix. She learned the art of preparing TEM samples of macroscopic polymeric substrates, using an ultramicrotome, and performed high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. 

Kirti received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Hamburg, Germany under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Volker Abetz.  Her doctoral research invented a way to achieve the self-assembly of block copolymers via gas flow, which lead to a new membrane design of an inside-out isoporous hollow fiber membrane. Further, she developed the membrane fabrication processes and tools to achieve controlled evaporation-induced self-assembly in flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes via casting, spinning and coating methods, respectively. Following her Physicist insights, she studied the first in situ experiments during the spinning of block copolymer hollow fiber membranes, at synchrotron beamline, PETRA 3, at DESY. She dedicated her Ph.D. thesis to her late grandfather, Shri Jagdish Singh Arya who was a school teacher and a social activist. 

During her postdoc at Technion, she was part of the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation project (grant number EC-2019-09-15), and during her PhD, she was part of a collaborative research project of Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and BASF SE. Both the projects had different aspects of membrane advancements.

Kirti received her M.Sc. in Physics from MNIT Jaipur, where she got the confidence to pursue her Ph.D. dream. She did her M.Sc. project under the supervision of Prof. Suman Kumar Sharma at MNIT Jaipur and did her M.Sc. Summer internship project at DRDO, Jodhpur. Kirti holds a B.Sc. in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics from JNVU Jodhpur. 

Kirti was born and raised in Jodhpur. She is proud of being the first (but not last :)) girl in her family, who studied science in high school and pursued it at higher levels. By being at IIT Jodhpur, she hopes to make an impact by empowering women in the neighbourhoods and beyond, and works towards fixing the leaky pipeline of Women in STEM. 

• DST Inspire Faculty Fellow 2022 

• Travel support from American Physical Society (APS) 2022

• Azrieli Postdoctoral Fellow 2021

• Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) postdoctoral fellow at Technion

• Guest Editor for a special issue “Block Copolymer Membranes: Progress and Challenges” in MDPI journal Membranes

• Summa Cum Laude for Ph.D. thesis

• Got selected as Mars fellow for ‘Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2019, dedicated to Physics’

• Nature Nanotechnology poster prize in Dead Sea Water 2019 Workshop, Ein Gedi, Israel

• Travel award from European Membrane Society to participate in Dead Sea Water 2019 Workshop

• Student presentation award by ICSM 2016 for oral talk

• For membrane development, funded by DST India, Project cost: 35 Lakhs (PI: Dr. Kirti Sankhala)

• Nanofiltration membranes for energy-efficient water treatment. funded by IIT Jodhpur, Project cost: 25 Lakhs (PI: Dr. Kirti Sankhala)

• Transport mechanism in plants, Industry-sponsored research project, Project cost: 47 Lakhs (PIs: Dr. Ayan Sadhukhan and Dr. Kirti Sankhala)

• Water treatment using char from waste, funded by Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Project cost: 1 Lakh (PI: Dr. Kirti Sankhala) 

Designed new courses:

• Water sustainability (ETL7050; 3-0-0; 700 level) 

• Principles of Membrane Fabrications (ETL70X0; 3-0-0; 700 level) 

Teaching in AY 2023-24 Semester 2:

• Water-Energy Nexus (MEL7170; 3-0-0; 700 level) 

• Processing of Polymer Matrix Composites (MTL7480; 2-0-0; 700 level) 

Teaching in AY 2024-25 Semester 2:

• Water sustainability (ETL7050; 3-0-0; 700 level, Slot J) 

• Foundations of Sustainability (LAL4040; 3-0-0; 400 level, Slot C) 

Teaching in AY 2025-26 Semester 1:

• Water sustainability (ETL7050; 3-0-0; 700 level, Slot J) 

• Polymeric materials and processing (MTL4350; 3-0-0; 400 level, Slot N)