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SKM Research Group

Meet The Team

Principal Investigator

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Principal Investigator

Prof. Sukhendu Mandal, FRSC

Sukhendu Mandal completed his Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. After completing his Ph.D., he held the postdoctoral fellow position at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. Currently, he is a professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER-TVM). His research interests cover new developments in the synthesis of 2D sheet materials, metal–organic frameworks, and metal nanoclusters for photophysical and energy-related applications.

Post-doctoral Fellows

Sayani Mukherjee

Post-doctoral researcher (since March 2023)

Dr. Noohul Alam

Noohul joined as an Post-doctoral researcher in March, 2023. He completed his doctoral program in metal-organic hybrid materials from Indian Institute of Technology, Patna. His research focuses mainly on the synthesis of noble metal nanoclusters, structure-property correlation, and its applications. He enjoys reading books, traveling, and Urdu poetry

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Graduate Students

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Nandana V

Nandana. V, our latest Ph.D. student in the School of Chemistry at the IISER Thiruvananthapuram, starting her journey in 2024. Nandana completed her BSc in Chemistry from Devamatha College, Kottayam and her MSc from St. Berchmans College, Kottayam .In her doctoral research, Nandana is focused on designing ligands to synthesize cluster assemblies aimed at modulating photoluminescence studies. Beyond her academic pursuits, Nandana enjoys reading books and watching movies.

Rakendu Vinod M

Rakendu Vinod M, our newest Ph.D. student in the School of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Nirmalagiri College, Kannur University. Rakendu's doctoral research centers on synthesizing and characterizing alkynyl protected copper and silver nanoclusters. Her interests span experimental characterization and theoretical modeling of materials. Beyond academia, Rakendu enjoys reading and listening to music.

Glory James (PMRF)

Glory joined as a Ph.D. student in 2023. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. Afterward, she pursued her Master's degree at IISERTVM in 2021. Her research primarily focuses on developing nanocomposites by incorporating metal nanoclusters into MOFs (Metal-Organic Frameworks). When she's not in front of the fume hood or computer, she enjoys listening to music, reading novels, and travelling .

Aparna R K

Aparna R. K. is interested in defect engineering and post-synthetic modifications of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). She is currently working on the incorporation of various metal nanoparticles in MOFs to give composites that find application in catalysis. She completed her B.Sc. at the University of Calicut and joined IISER-TVM as an integrated Ph.D. student. She enjoys reading literature and watching movies in her free time

Saniya Gratious

Saniya's PhD focuses on the understanding of structure-property evolution patterns in atomically precise noble metal nanoclusters by studying the intra-series nanocluster transformations with no co-reagents. This transformation is proven to be entirely unique from the conventional methods of transformation. She also has past working experience in synthesis and applications of nanoclusters as a major student during her BS-MS program at IISER Thiruvananthapuram. In her spare time, she likes listening to music, watching movies.

Priyanka C

Priyanka C is a Doctoral candidate, she joined the group as a Junior Research Fellow funded by CSIR in the year 2021. She holds a Master degree in Inorganic Chemistry from Bangalore University. With her research experience from IITM and JNCASR she is all set to work on Metal Nanoclusters, her interest in specific is “Cluster Assembled Materials”. A fitness freak, at times off her work she loves to play and dance.

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Nida Nahan E K

Nida is currently doing ligand exchange on gold nanoclusters and evaluating the mechanism of transformation. Afterwards, she is planning to work on the synthesis of bimetallic nanoclusters. Listening to music and reading literature makes her happy.

Undergraduate Major Students

BS MS student( since August 2023)

Jibin Thomas

Jibin Thomas joined IISER Thiruvananthapuram in 2019 as a BS-MS student. His current research focuses on the ligand exchange-induced size transition of noble metal nanoclusters. This involves organic synthesis of ligands, characterizing their properties, and studying their role in the size transition of nanoclusters. Additionally, he is a member of the campus cricket team and previously served as the head of the Music club at IISERTVM.

BS MS student ( since August 2023)

Priyadarshini Baidya

Priyadarshini joined IISERTVM in 2019 as a BSMS student .Her current research focuses on transformation in alkynylate protected silver polymers and their conductivities . She was a former member of iGEM IISERTVM 2021,DAAD-WISE 2023 scholar and a Member of Sopanam college magazine.Additionally she enjoys painting in her leisure time.

BS-MS Student ( since August 2023)

Rajannya Adhikary

Rajannya joined IISER TVM as a BS-MS student in 2019. Her current research work focuses on synthesis, characterization and applications of copper nanoclusters. Apart from that she's the finance secretary and the social media head of Karuna-the animal welfare society of IISER TVM. In her leisure time she loves to sing, exercise, and experiment with her cooking skills.

Msc Student ( since August 2023)

Kritika Sharma

Irin is a BS-MS student who joined IISER in 2018 and is currently involved in the synthesis, characterisation, and crystallization of silver and copper nanoclusters. In her free time, she loves listening to music, reading Malayalam and Indian-English fiction, playing badminton, strolling around, and above all that sleeping.

Integrated PhD Minor Student (since January 2023)

Teena Thomas

Teena is an iPhD student in the group, and her area of interest lies in ligand-induced structural transformation in atom-precise metal nanoclusters, She completed her B.Sc. from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi.

Minor Project Students (2022-23)

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Sona V Suresh

Sona is a 2019 enrolled BSMS student in IISER-TVM and is currently working on a minor project on the Synthesis of Silver Cluster Assembled Materials. She enjoys singing, dancing, and exploring varieties of food.

Gayathri V

Gayathri is a BSMS student who joined IISER-TVM in 2019 and is currently doing minor project involving ligand exchange reaction on thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters. She loves to dance and sing; hanging out with friends and watching movies makes her happy.

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Gaurav Bolegave

Gaurav is currently working on defect-engineering of MOFs for his minor project.

Akshaya Jayan

For her minor project, Devi is currently working on conductive MOFs. Her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, reading books, collecting stickers and miniatures.

Devi R

Devi joined IISER-TVM in 2019 as a BS-MS student. She's currently pursuing her major in Biology. Her minor project in Chemistry is on the doping of heterometal atoms in homo-gold nanoclusters. In her leisure time, she loves to watch films, listen to music and sleep.

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