I was born in the suburbs of the southern region of India in Madurai city, Tamil Nadu. Madurai, being popular for its vibrant culture and secular background, invites all classes and customs of people to appreciate its rich heritage dating back to 300 BCE. I was raised by experiencing diverse religious and cultural festivals and utilizing the Tamil Nadu state's dedicated education system. After completing my elementary education in the local state board school, I joined a matriculation school, which taught me a lot of new skills, including English language proficiency. I was surrounded by encouraging teachers and cheerful parents since my childhood. The gift of curiosity stemmed from my schooling days, where I was encouraged to ask any question to transgress beyond mere pedantic understanding. The time arrived for me to choose my undergraduate major when I had completed my higher secondary examinations, ranking 1st in the school as a valedictorian.
Although my parents are pharmacists in the profession, I wanted to break the tradition to become an engineer. The love for chemistry and its colorful experiments, like for many high school students, was attractive enough to me to pursue my career in chemical engineering. I knew that my dreams would be realized one day when I landed at CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI), one of the 38 laboratories under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and a premier R&D institute dedicated solely to electrochemistry. I joined the B.Tech (Chemical and Electrochemical Engineering), a competitive course accepting just 35 students in each intake. I found CECRI a very motivating campus for anyone to learn beyond the bounds of knowledge. I was lucky to have taken classes from experienced chemical and electrochemical engineering research scientists. The uniqueness of CECRI is that B.Tech students get to work with scientists on their research projects.
I worked with multiple branches of electrochemistry, such as supercapacitors, electrocatalysis, Li-ion, and lead acid batteries. By working on these projects, I developed a good amount of knowledge in many analytical instrumentation techniques (XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-VIS, FT-IR). I realized my passion when I began working under the guidance of Dr. Subrata Kundu at the Electrochemical Process Engineering division of CECRI for the creation of novel non-precious metal electrodes for electrochemical water splitting. I co-authored two publications in the Inorganic Chemistry journal reporting the materials chemistry. Apart from the research experience, I learned about organizing skills, leadership, and teamwork when I organized the intercollegiate symposium named 'Intersect' in 2018 and 2019, which was a massive success with the attendance of collectively 1,100 delegates from around the nation.
A precious opportunity during my stint at CECRI came when I was selected for the prestigious 'Science Academies Summer Research Fellowship Programme' organized by three science academies of India (IASc, INSA, NASI), which facilitated me to participate in a fully funded summer internship at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India. I was inducted into the BARC's Chemistry division. I worked on the Polyaniline-Prussian blue supercapacitors and researched their redox chemistry. Moreover, presenting my findings at multiple national and international conferences (India International Science Festival, Alchemy, International Symposium on Advances in Electrochemical Science & Technology) in the presence of erudite delegates enhanced my confidence and motivated me further to pursue independent research as a career.
After graduating from B.Tech., I moved to the USA to start my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering to expand my research knowledge in Fall 2019. My research in Dr. Xiaowei Teng’s research group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) focused on understanding the structural chemistry of iron oxides and their relation to the performance of their applications in alkaline iron batteries. Being the fourth most abundant element on the earth’s crust makes iron a suitable candidate for utilization as anode material for grid storage devices. As a galvanized researcher, I learned multiple technical/software skills that helped me advance my critical understanding of many research fields outside my arena. In addition, I utilized the synchrotron source from the Brookhaven National Laboratory whenever our research group got the opportunity to conduct on-site experiments. I frequently used beamlines 28-ID-1 for operando XRD and 6-BM for X-ray absorption measurements, which helped us understand the fundamental mechanisms of our system. I worked with our group members to design and modify the upscaled electrochemical cell for the operando experiments to obtain the optimum capacity replicating the lab-scale setup in near-equilibrium conditions. I had published my research outcomes in high-impact journals like the Journal of American Chemical Society and Chemistry of Materials. I contributed to two US patents (one provisional) reporting on iron anode battery chemistry. I have presented my findings through talks and posters at the Materials Research Society and American Chemical Society conferences. I have successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis and graduated from WPI in May 2024.
The most significant opportunity during my Ph.D. came when I attended the prestigious 24th National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering, organized by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, among 60 students from all the North American colleges. I attended lectures presented by researchers from academia, industries, and national laboratories. Moreover, I gained engaged experience using synchrotron and neutron sources by conducting short experiments at both national laboratories.
Motivated to continue in academia and expand my research scope, I joined Stanford University as a postdoctoral scholar at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, with joint appointments in the Applied Energy Division at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. My postdoctoral research centers on earth-abundant and non-critical battery chemistries, including sodium-sulfur, sodium-ion, and aqueous battery systems, with an emphasis on understanding interfacial chemistry, redox heterogeneity, and degradation mechanisms.
A significant component of my work involves the use of multimodal synchrotron techniques such as transmission X-ray microscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction to probe batteries under operando and spatially resolved conditions. I regularly conduct experiments at multiple national user facilities, including the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), and the Advanced Light Source (ALS). These studies aim to establish structure-chemistry-performance relationships that govern long-term stability and scalability of sodium-based energy storage technologies.
In parallel, I am engaged in data-driven and machine learning-guided approaches for electrolyte and materials design, bridging experimental insights with predictive frameworks. Collectively, my postdoctoral work seeks to advance battery technologies built from widely available elements, supporting energy security and scalable storage solutions for modern electric grids.
Cognate in College Teaching
I obtained the Certificate in College Teaching from the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CEITL) at the University of New Hampshire, which offers multiple courses to prepare individuals to teach at academic institutions. The learning experience from this program made me confident to prepare myself for future careers in academia. The courses that I completed are as follows:
Course Design
Cognition, Teaching, and Learning
Classroom Research and Assessment Methods
Teaching and Learning with Multimedia
Teaching with Writing
Issues in College Teaching
Communicating Science Beyond the Lab
I have been actively engaged in communicating complex energy-storage research to broad, non-specialist audiences through competitive science communication platforms. In 2022, I won the People’s Choice Award at the Regional Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition organized by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS). My winning presentation, titled “Storing Green Energy in Rust,” distilled my doctoral research on iron-based batteries into a clear and engaging three-minute narrative. Developed by The University of Queensland, the 3MT competition emphasizes concise, accessible scientific communication, and the NAGS regional final brought together finalists from 31 American and Canadian institutions. As part of the Research Communications Academy cohort, I received professional training focused on explaining technically rigorous research without oversimplification, strengthening my ability to connect with diverse audiences.
Building on this foundation, in 2025, I won Second Prize at SLAC SLAM, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s science communication competition, which challenges researchers to present their work in a compelling, story-driven format for a general audience. This recognition advanced me to the Bay Area Research Slam, where I represented SLAC alongside finalists from other national laboratories and research institutions across the Bay Area. These experiences have reinforced my commitment to public-facing science communication and to articulating the societal relevance of energy-storage research, particularly in the context of scalable, non-critical-material solutions for modern electric grids.
I believe that individual achievement is inseparable from the environments and communities that make it possible, and that meaningful success carries a responsibility to give back. Guided by this principle, I served as a Senator in the Graduate Student Senate (GSS) for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, where GSS functions as the official representative body for the graduate student community. In this role, I represented graduate housing and campus life, contributing to initiatives aimed at improving student well-being and access to shared resources. During my tenure, we worked toward establishing a new graduate student housing facility to help mitigate the local housing shortage and introduced a collaborative bike-share program to promote affordable and sustainable transportation on campus.
At Stanford, I am also a member of the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities liaison community, including the nano@stanford Lab Member Collaborative (LMC), which supports safe, collaborative, and responsible use of shared nanofabrication and characterization resources. Earlier in my academic career, I additionally served as a regular voluntary blood donor for public healthcare institutions during my undergraduate studies, reflecting my long-standing commitment to public service both within and beyond academia.
Beyond institutional service, I actively contribute to the broader scientific community through peer review, serving as a reviewer for more than ten international journals, including Advanced Materials Interfaces, RSC Advances, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, and related venues. I view peer review as an essential component of maintaining rigor, fairness, and clarity in scientific publishing, and as a responsibility shared by all active researchers.
