Member Profile
Manish Chhowalla
Energy IGERTs at Rutgers Create a New Multi-University, Interdisciplinary Course
The Nanotechnology for Clean Energy IGERT (PI – Manish Chhowalla) and the Renewable and Sustainable Fuels Solutions IGERT (PI – Eric Lam), both based at Rutgers University, have jointly created a new... More »
About Me
I am an Associate Professor and the Donald H. Jacobs Chair in Applied Physics at Rutgers University in NJ USA. Before Rutgers, I was a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge after completing my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering there. My technological interests are in the synthesis and characterization of novel carbon materials and their incorporation into energy related devices such as solar cells and thermo-electrics. Fundamentally, I am interested in understanding the role of disorder in determining the opto-electronic properties of materials and tuning the atomic and electronic structure to optimize performance of devices. My research topics presently include investigation of solution processable graphene and carbon nanotubes for photovoltaic and other energy related devices. In addition to carbon nanostructures, I also have activities related to thermal properties of boron carbide nanowires, nanostructuring in alumina/spinel nanocomposites, and deposition of carbide and nitride thin films. My research has resulted in over 100 publications with more than 4,100 citations on these topics.
In addition to research activities, I am also an active teacher who has developed several new courses to modernize the materials science and engineering curriculum at Rutgers University. I have also trained and mentored six graduate students and four postdoctoral associates so far. To complement my education and mentoring activities with undergraduate and graduate students, I have designed and actively participated in outreach activities such as Nanodays and Engineering Days that are designed to expose K – 12 students in science and engineering with specific emphasis on nanotechnology. My lab has also hosted numerous high school and undergraduate summer interns working on a variety of projects related to energy and nanotechnology.
Outside Rutgers University, I have served on organizing committees for numerous international conferences. Most recently, I am organizing Symposium L at the MRS Fall 2009 Meeting in Boston. The Symposium highlights recent advances in solution processable electronics using carbon nanomaterials.
