Pulickel Ajayan
Encyclopedia
Pulickel Madhavapanicker Ajayan , known as P. M. Ajayan, is the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering at Rice University
. His primary appointment at Rice University is in the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science department but also holds joint appointments with the department of Chemistry and department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to joining Rice, he was the Henry Burlage Professor of Material Sciences and Engineering and the director of the NYSTAR interconnect focus center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
until 2007. Known for his relaxed attitude and liberal thinking, he has broad interests ranging from science and technology to poetry. He is married to Poornima Ajayan and has two daughters, Anakha and Ahi.
, India
. Till the sixth standard, he studied in a government school in Kodungallur
, after which he moved to Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram
, India, a high school he has credited for making a strong impact on him, and for making him "realize that learning is the most exciting thing one can ever befriend". He graduated from Loyola in 1977. In 1985, Ajayan graduated at the top of his class with a B.Tech. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
, Varanasi, India. In 1989, he earned a PhD
in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University
, Evanston, Illinois. Afterwards he spent three years as a post-doc at NEC
corporation, Japan, two years as a researcher at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Orsay
, France, and one year at the Max-Planck Institute fur Metallforschung, Stuttgart
, Germany.
and Thomas Ebbesen
and published some of the early works in carbon nanotubes. During the past two decades he has published more than 350 papers on various aspects of carbon nanostructures, mostly on nanotubes and recently on graphene and other layered materials such as boron nitride. Ajayan’s research interests are broad, focusing on nanomaterials development for a variety of applications such as energy storage, composites, electronics and sensors. His publications have earned nearly 25,000 citations and a h-index of 82 until mid-2011. He has to his credit, two Guinness World Records for creating the smallest brush and the darkest material. Ajayan's team created the darkest material known to man, a carpet of carbon nanotubes, that reflects only 0.045% of the light. In August 2007, he was in the news for creating an energy storage device on a piece of paper, called the paper battery. In a brief interview with Discover Magazine, Ajayan stated he believes the paper battery will have many important future applications in industry and medicine. Most recently, the research group created materials capable of effectively removing contaminants from water by coating the sand with carbon.
Ajayan’s present research interests include nanotechnology enabled energy storage devices (battery, supercapacitor and hybrid devices), nanocomposites, layered materials, 3D nanostructured materials, and smart material systems. Apart from leading a research group (~30-35 people, including post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students, and international visiting scholars), he focuses on teaching and lecturing around the world on nanotechnology. He regularly serves on the advisory board of several materials and nanotechnology journals, nanotechnology startups and international conferences. In his role as an academic at Rice and RPI, Ajayan has been a major promoter of nanotechnology, teaching various interdisciplinary courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, emphasizing the changes occurring in the science and engineering curriculum. Constantly traveling to expand the field, Ajayan’s group has a large number of collaborators worldwide and he spends a good amount of time abroad and inside the United States. He has visiting Professor positions at various prestigious Universities around the world, such as Tsinghua University
(Beijing
, China
), Indian Institute of Science
(Bangalore
, India) and Shinshu University
(Japan
). He was a visiting Professor at ISIS, Strasbourg
, France
for several months during 2003 and a Helmoltz-Humboldt prize winner and frequent visitor at the Institute of Nanotechnology in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
, Karlsruhe
, Germany
during 2007-2010.
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
. His primary appointment at Rice University is in the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science department but also holds joint appointments with the department of Chemistry and department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Prior to joining Rice, he was the Henry Burlage Professor of Material Sciences and Engineering and the director of the NYSTAR interconnect focus center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
until 2007. Known for his relaxed attitude and liberal thinking, he has broad interests ranging from science and technology to poetry. He is married to Poornima Ajayan and has two daughters, Anakha and Ahi.
Early life and education
Ajayan's early education was in KeralaKerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Till the sixth standard, he studied in a government school in Kodungallur
Kodungallur
Kodungallur is a municipality in Thrissur District, in the state of Kerala, India on the Malabar Coast. Kodungallur is located about 29 km northwest of Kochi city and 38 km Southwest of Thrissur, on National Highway 17 . Muziris the ancient seaport at the mouth of the Periyar River was...
, after which he moved to Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
, India, a high school he has credited for making a strong impact on him, and for making him "realize that learning is the most exciting thing one can ever befriend". He graduated from Loyola in 1977. In 1985, Ajayan graduated at the top of his class with a B.Tech. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
The Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University is an engineering institute under the aegis of Banaras Hindu University , situated in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. IT-BHU has 13 departments and 3 inter-disciplinary schools, providing technical education with an emphasis on its industrial...
, Varanasi, India. In 1989, he earned a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, Evanston, Illinois. Afterwards he spent three years as a post-doc at NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
corporation, Japan, two years as a researcher at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Orsay
Orsay
Orsay is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the center of Paris.Inhabitants of Orsay are known as Orcéens.-History:...
, France, and one year at the Max-Planck Institute fur Metallforschung, Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany.
Research
Ajayan is a pioneer in the field of nanotechnology. His PhD work (1989) involved the characterization of gold nanoparticles on oxide substrates and their phase instabilities. He was involved in the early development of carbon nanotubes. From 1991 onwards, at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, he worked with Sumio IijimaSumio Iijima
Sumio Iijima is a Japanese physicist, often cited as the discoverer of carbon nanotubes. Although carbon nanotubes had been observed prior to his "discovery", Iijima's 1991 paper generated unprecedented interest in the carbon nanostructures and has since fueled intense research in the area of...
and Thomas Ebbesen
Thomas Ebbesen
Thomas Ebbesen is a Norwegian physical chemist, currently professor at the University of Strasbourg in France, known for his pioneering work in nanoscience....
and published some of the early works in carbon nanotubes. During the past two decades he has published more than 350 papers on various aspects of carbon nanostructures, mostly on nanotubes and recently on graphene and other layered materials such as boron nitride. Ajayan’s research interests are broad, focusing on nanomaterials development for a variety of applications such as energy storage, composites, electronics and sensors. His publications have earned nearly 25,000 citations and a h-index of 82 until mid-2011. He has to his credit, two Guinness World Records for creating the smallest brush and the darkest material. Ajayan's team created the darkest material known to man, a carpet of carbon nanotubes, that reflects only 0.045% of the light. In August 2007, he was in the news for creating an energy storage device on a piece of paper, called the paper battery. In a brief interview with Discover Magazine, Ajayan stated he believes the paper battery will have many important future applications in industry and medicine. Most recently, the research group created materials capable of effectively removing contaminants from water by coating the sand with carbon.
Ajayan’s present research interests include nanotechnology enabled energy storage devices (battery, supercapacitor and hybrid devices), nanocomposites, layered materials, 3D nanostructured materials, and smart material systems. Apart from leading a research group (~30-35 people, including post-docs, graduate and undergraduate students, and international visiting scholars), he focuses on teaching and lecturing around the world on nanotechnology. He regularly serves on the advisory board of several materials and nanotechnology journals, nanotechnology startups and international conferences. In his role as an academic at Rice and RPI, Ajayan has been a major promoter of nanotechnology, teaching various interdisciplinary courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, emphasizing the changes occurring in the science and engineering curriculum. Constantly traveling to expand the field, Ajayan’s group has a large number of collaborators worldwide and he spends a good amount of time abroad and inside the United States. He has visiting Professor positions at various prestigious Universities around the world, such as Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
(Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
), Indian Institute of Science
Indian Institute of Science
Indian Institute of Science is a research institution of higher learning located in Bangalore, India. It was established in 1909.-History:After a chance meeting between Jamsetji N...
(Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India) and Shinshu University
Shinshu University
is a national university in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The University has five campuses in Matsumoto, Nishi-nagano , Wakasato , Ueda and Minami-Minowa, and 8 faculties with a total of around 10,000 students....
(Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
). He was a visiting Professor at ISIS, Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for several months during 2003 and a Helmoltz-Humboldt prize winner and frequent visitor at the Institute of Nanotechnology in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is a German academic research and education institution with university status resulting from a merger of the university and the research center of the city of Karlsruhe. The university, also known as Fridericiana, was founded in 1825...
, Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
during 2007-2010.
Honors
- DST-IISC Centennial Chair Professorship, Bangalore India (2011)
- Elected Honorary Member of Materials Research Society of India (2008)
- Scientific American 50 - Research Leader in 2006
- Materials Research Society (MRS) medal, 2006
- Holder of two Guiness Book of World Records (2007, 2005)
- Helmoltz-Humboldt Prize (2007)
- Selected Nano50TM Innovator by Nanotech Briefs (2007)
- Elected Fellow of AAAS (2007)
- Distinguished Alumnus Award, Department of Metallurgy, Banaras Hindu University, India (2005)
- Kerala Center Award (2005)
- National Science Foundation CAREER early development award (1998)