Team

Principal Investigator

Dr. Manas Bhunia received a B.Sc. (Chemistry) from the University of Calcutta and an M.Sc. from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He obtained a Ph. D. from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (Jadavpur University), focusing on developing organic-inorganic hybrid nanoporous materials for catalytic applications. Then he joined as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, USA, where he worked on the thermochemistry of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In his second postdoc at the KAUST Catalysis Center, he developed a metal-free semiconductor for solar water splitting. After that, he worked as an assistant professor on contract at the Central University of Tamil Nadu, India. Before joining TCG-CREST RISE, he was a specially appointed assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, where his primary research was on biomass conversion.

Dr. Bhunia has more than a decade of research experience in materials science, particularly the synthesis and characterization of organic-inorganic hybrid porous nanomaterials and their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. With the understanding at the molecular or electronic level, he aims to establish the structure-function correlation for a catalyst to be efficient in a catalytic reaction. He has contributed substantially to developing robust and efficient catalysts for green energy and sustainable environments. Current research mainly focuses on the clean energy landscape, especially cost-effective generation and storage. Particular emphasis is on the development of high-performance rechargeable batteries.