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Thanks for dropping by my online research portfolio, please feel free to browse through the different sections, I can be reached directly at prognaphysics[aT] gmail.com for scientific discourse. 

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I am currently a NST core-funded postdoctoral appointee at the Centre for Nanomaterials (CNM) at the Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, USA. I earned Ph.D. (Physics with Materials Chemistry) and M.S. (Strongly Correlated Condensed Matter) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA in Dec. 2018 & 2014, respectively. Before that, I completed M.Tech. (Solid State Technology) and M.Sc. (Physics) degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Prior to starting my current position with the Argonne National Laboratory, I was an NSF MRSEC postdoc fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, USA (2020-2021) investigating light-matter interactions in bioinspired nanostructures; and an EBI-Shell ALS affiliated postdoc fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, USA (2019) in battery science.

See my scientific ancestry at Academictree.

 

At Argonne, I'm contributing in the materials chemistry and physics field with the autonomous materials discovery team comprised of researchers specializing in robotics, AI/ML and instrumentation. I am striving to realize the automated discovery of nanomaterials with the help of ion exchange at the nanoscale to realize the templated design of chalcogenides and oxides in a attempt to produce unconventional phases, compositions etc. We want to utilize these nanomaterial systems to study condensed phases using wet chemistry methods. 

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At UT, I'm led the materials subdivision team comprised of researchers from UIUC, Northwestern and UT working on the newly funded Multi-University Research Initiative "MURI" Award, performing mechanistic studies through a combination of computation and optical experiments on understanding the emergence of ultra-high-antireflectivity, and super hydrophobicity in the leafhopper-family insect derived nanostructures called 'brochosomes'. This DOD-funded research is initiated to new biomaterials and optical coatings. I was also a part of the NSF MRSEC (Centre for dynamics and control of materials) interdisciplinary research group (IRG1) on engineering and understanding the structure-property relationships in heterogeneous assemblies' made of metal oxide nanocrystals, with  superlattices and gels being a few examples. I have research interest in computational aspects of understanding the physical origin of surface, bulk and array modes in nanocrystal assemblies with EELS based experiments at the ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) complimenting these studies. 

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At Berkeley Lab, I worked on studying the Lithium ion (Li+) intercalation in transition metal oxides in a thin film solid electrochemical cell setup. The electrodes and electrolyte for these cells were fabricated using a pulsed laser deposition setup. Efforts are being made toward insitu studies of lithiation in these solid cells using synchrotron based XPS (xray photoelectron spectroscopy) at the ALS (Advanced Light Source).

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As a Ph.D. student researcher I used a template-based synthetic method termed as "cation exchange", to obtain copper chalcogenide nanocrystals from quantum dots. These nanocrystals exhibit an unusual structural arrangement under ambient conditions, which gives rise to a property called superionicity. This synthetic procedure is being extended to prepare other materials in topological insulating (TI) phase.

 

I can be best reached through my email listed here, or on Twitter (check out my feed for research updates, science feeds and mentoring advice/RTs about various opportunities).

FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS AND AWARDS

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Post-Ph.D

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  • 2022 American Chemical Society-CAS Future Leader (1/30 awardees selected globally and from a wide array of scientific disciplines)

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  • 2021-present Centre Postdoc Appointee, 1 of 8 postdocs selected at Centre for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory 

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  • 2021 American Chemical Society P2F (Postdoc to Faculty) Future Faculty Scholar

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  • 2020-21 Postdoctoral Fellow, MRSEC (Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers), UT Austin

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  • 2019-20 EBI-Shell ALS affiliated Postdoctoral Fellow, Berkeley Laboratory

 

During Ph.D

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  • 2018 Scott Anderson Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award, Physics Department, UIUC

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  • 2017 University fellowship including travel grant, Graduate College, UIUC

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  • 2017 AVS Prairie Chapter Symposium Registration Waiver for the 64 th AVS Conference

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  • 2017 First prize for poster presentation, Monsanto Research Symposium, Urbana, IL

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  • 2016 Academic Leadership for Women in Engineering, SWE-ALWE Program, Philadelphia

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  • 2016 ASSIST Travel Grant, SWE Annual National Conference, Philadelphia, USA

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M.Tech

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  • 2010-12 Govt. of India MRHM Institute Fellowship, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
     

  • 2011 S.I.P.I.S. Summer Fellowship (10 awards granted annually), NUS, Singapore

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M.Sc

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  • 2010 Indian Academy of Sciences Summer Research Fellowship

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  • 2009 Institute Summer Fellowship, S. N. Bose Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata

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  • 2010 Top 1 percentile, rank 43 in GATE Entrance (out of 8000+ applicants), all-India level

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B.Sc

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  • 2008 Top 1 percentile among JAM applicants (Joint Admission to M.Sc) at all-India level

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  • 2005–08 First Rank in Department, highest GPA among all STEM field students in College

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  • 2008 Hiron Bala Memorial Gold Medal (Highest GPA in the College), University

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News:

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November 2023: I'm attending the MRS Fall 2023 conference at Boston! I'm presenting one of my significant contributions from postdoc work on "unusual oriented attachment-induced architectures in inorganic halide perovskites induced by organic chiral ligands" on Thursday November 30, 2023 from 11:00 AM to 11:15 AM EST at the Presentation Location: Hynes, Level 2, Room 207.

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I'm also showcasing highlights of my research program and teaching philosophy at "Meet the Faculty Candidates" poster session on Wednesday, November 29
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Hynes, Level 2, Hall D
Title: Advancing Energy Storage: A Journey in Experimental Synthesis and Inclusive Leadership (board # 48). Come check out my talk and poster, and chat with me on which aspects of solid battery electrolyte design my independent laboratory will work on!

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November 2023: My first-author work from the Gigapascal high-pressure induced B1->B2 phase transformation, observed for the first time in copper selenides using Argonne's own APS GSECARS beamline is submitted!

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October 2023: My first-author work from Argonne on uncovering the mechanistic pathways of copper cation exchange in ultrathin CdSe nanoplatelets is out in Chemistry of Materials! We show valency is an important and often overlooked factor in determination of whether the chalcogenide anionic framework shall be preserved. Further, oxygen is required to move the process in forward direction with divalent copper precursors!  

 

August 2023: Off to participating at the ACS Fall 2023 at San Francisco! Several talks lined up on cation exchange induced mechanistic pathways in model superionic battery materials, unique phases uncovered through high pressure (Gigapascals) studies at the Argonne APS, and more projects from my postdoc at Argonne!

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May 2023: My first-author work with researchers from ARO-MURI team was published in Advanced Photonics Research! We look at leafhopper family insects for inspiration on the understanding and subsequent design of ultra-antireflective nanomaterials. These insects secrete buckyball shaped particles called "brochosomes" which have intrinsic antireflective properties. Through systematically studying the light-matter interaction at the nanoscale architecture in brochosomes, we unveil the design principles for mimicking the antireflective properties in synthetic materials. 

 

April 2023: Our paper on determining the layer-by-layer thickness dependent optical anisotropy in inorganic halide perovskite 2D nanoplatelets was published in Nano Convergence (DOI: 10.1186/s40580-023-00367-5)! See Argonne's highlight on our paper from the Center of Nanoscale Materials here!

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November 2022: Our recent research was selected by NatureComms editors for the Editor’s Highlights section which aims to show a snapshot of the most exciting work published in the various research areas. Check it out https://www.nature.com/collections/eecgdgijhh!

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November 2022: Our manuscript on "Symmetry-breaking in patch formation on triangular gold nanoparticles by asymmetric polymer grafting" was published in Nature Communications, 13, 1, 6774, 2022. This work was performed with University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) Materials Science & Engineering and University of Michigan Chemical Engineering groups. 

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August 2022: Come check out my talk (ID 3736712) on ultra-high resolution structural study of 2D chalcogenide nanoplatelets using aberration corrected microscopy at the 2022 ACS National Meeting. Feel free to drop by my talk next Wednesday at 8 am CT at W192c McCormick!
3736712 - Ion exchange pathways in CdSe nanoplatelets: Combined experimental and theoretical investigations 

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August 2022: Participating in the 2022 #CASFutureLeaders program organized by the ACS-CAS Scifinder as a future leader! Having a blast discussing science and hanging out with my cohort in Columbus, Ohio, before heading to the American Chemical Society meeting next week in Chicago!

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March 2022: I am delighted to be selected to the 2022 American Chemical Society-CAS #CASFutureLeaders program, and grateful for the opportunity to network with early career researchers passionate about chemical sciences from all over the world! This program will allow us to participate in a scientific leadership program at the CAS Headquarters at Columbus, Ohio, in addition to sponsoring all expense paid trip to ACS Fall 2022 National Meeting in Chicago! Our profiles will be featured in C&EN. Look out for more news from out cohort at https://www.cas.org/about/futureleaders.

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November 2021: I am presenting my lead work with UIUC & UT groups on the antireflective origin in #leafhopper insect derived #brochosomes at the #AICHE2021 polymers for energy storage session (# 642i). Please tune in next Thursday Nov 11th @ 5:45 pm est to know about the secrets of leafhoppers!

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November 2021: If you're attending #AICHE2021 in Boston, come check out my faculty candidate talk next Monday the 8th on #leafhopper #brochosomes and antireflective behavior from 10:06-10:24 in room103.  

#AIChEAnnual. 

Keywords: bioinspired, entomology, optics, physics

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June 2021: Excited to start a new chapter in my postdoctoral journey with a great Argonne NST (Nanoscience and Technology) team! Will be upgrading my expertise in materials discovery assisted by AI/ML using microfluidics. 

 

May 2021: Thrilled to present my research at the invited seminar at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at the Argonne National Laboratory. Thanks Dr. Lin for hosting and all the audience members for joining in!

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May 2021: Thrilled to be selected for the American Chemical Society's 2021 Postdoc to Faculty (P2F) Workshop!

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Mar 2021: Starting off the year's first research talk at the American Physical Society's (APS) Annual March Meeting with my lead-author work on the structure-derived anti-reflectivity in leafhopper insect derived brochosomes. Check out the session and tune in for my talk on March 19th! Meeting Link  

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Mar 2021: Excited to introduce girls from K-8 to science through the Texas Women in Engineering Program (WEP) initiated event "Girl Day"! We'll be interacting with students virtually and helping them with setting up their science projects. We'll be sharing our individual paths in science with the next generation of young scientists!

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Feb 2021: Thrilled to be selected as a professional mentor for 2021 by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs @TechWomen initiative. Will be working with my mentee #EmergingLeader soon! 

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Jan 2021: Our paper on approaching hyperspectral EELS analysis methodology using a reproducible, high quality and time reducing approach called the "pan sharpening" method on metal oxide nanoparticles is out! Collaborative work from the Milliron group and ORNL researchers from the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences/Physical Sciences. See our work featured on JCP.  

 https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0031324

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