About Me

Research Interests: Catalysis for sustainable energy (experimental catalysis)– catalyst design, synthesis and testing. Spectroscopic methods for catalyst characterization. Computational catalysis– molecular simulations, microkinetic modelling, and studying the reaction intermidiates.

I am a Chemical Engineering Ph.D. Candidate at University of California, Davis co-advised by Dr. Ambarish Kulkarni and Dr. Simon Bare. My current research focuses on implementing Quantum chemistry methods to understad the nature of catalytic sites in combination with X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). My major project involves development of the automated workflow QuantEXAFS that uses high-throughput atomistic simulations to fit XAS data. The catalyst system I work on is atomically dispsered catalyst. While my project focuses on computaional catalysis where calculating phase diagrams and reaction barriers is essential; I also conducts beamline experiments at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource and take interest in synthesis. My prior experience as an experimentalist in a catalysis laboratory and the current computational catalysis training, motivates me to combine the two powerful techniques towards the development and enhanced fundamental understanding of efficient catalytic systems.

I obtained my MS degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Saskatchewan under the supervision of Dr. Ajay K. Dalai and a Bachelors degree from India. My Masters research was focused on understanding the deactivation trends of catalyst during hydrotreating of gas oil. Here, I gained experience of working on continuous and batch reactors and using various catalyst characterization techniques. I conducted experiments at Canadian Light Source that inspired me to do a Ph.D. on a related project.

My motivation towards research comes from the forever existing quest to explore new opportunities to make catalysts that can be energy efficient and environment-friendly.