PI

Biography

Education & Training

• 2014-2015   Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interfaces Fellow (About)
•  2010-2014   Postdoctoral Associate, Dept. of Microbiology, UMass, Amherst. (Advisor: Derek Lovley)
•  2007-2010   Ph.D. in Physics, Dept. of Physics, UMass, Amherst. (Advisor: Mark Tuominen)  Thesis: Investigations of electron transport and storage mechanisms in microbial biofilms. Committee: M. Tuominen (Chair), A. Parsegian, M. Muthukumar, Jennifer Ross, Derek Lovley.
•  2004-2007   M. S. in Physics, Dept. of Physics, UMass, Amherst. (Advisor: Mark Tuominen)
•  2001-2003   M.Sc. in Physics, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India.  Thesis: Investigation of Magneto-optic Kerr Effect in magnetic thin films and multilayers.    
•  1998-2001   B.Sc. in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Mumbai, India.

HONORS AND AWARDS                      

• Climate Impact Innovation Award (About)
• Human Frontier Science Program Award  (2023-2026 )(About) (EurekAlert!) (Yale News)
• New and Notable, The Biophysical Society (2023 ) (About)(TV Interview)
• Advanced Panel Fellow, NSF Game Changer Academics Advancing Research Innovation (2022-2023) (About)
• Finalist, Burroughs Wellcome Fund – Pathogenesis of infectious disease (2022) (About)
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2021-2026) (About).  Yale Highlight
• Blavatnik Award for Innovation  (2021-2023) (About) Yale Highlight) Faculty Spotlight
• Public Voices Fellow by the OpEd project (2021-2022)  (About)
• Finalist, NSF Materials Innovation Platform (2019) (About)
• NSF CAREER Award (2018-23) (About)
• NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2017-22) (About)
• Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award (2017-20) (About)    
• Charles H. Hood Foundation Child Health Research Award (2017-19) (About)
• Helmsley Interdisciplinary Research Fellowships, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (2016-17) (About)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund – Career Award at the Scientific Interface (2014-2019)(About)
• Biophysics Scholarship, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2009) (About)                          
• Entrepreneurship Fellowship, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2008-2009) (About)
• Graduate fellowship American alumni association, India (2004-2008)
• Indo-American Society travel grant for graduate studies (2004)

External Service

Distributed strains and plasmids to researchers in developing countries.

Reviewer for Promotion and Tenure to Full Professor: Tsinghua University (2021)

Reviewer for Biochemistry Dissertation, Sapienza University of Rome (2023)

Reviewer for Funding Agencies (19):

• Panel member, National Science Foundation’s Quantum Sensing Challenges for Transformational Advances in Quantum Systems Program (2023) (About)
• NSF-Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) (2023) (About)
• Invited nominator for MacArthur Fellows Program (About)
• U. S. Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (2023)
• Cottrell Scholar Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement (About)
• Panel member, Dept. of Energy Biological & Environmental Research (2014-2015); (2019-2020).
• Panel member, National Science Foundation’s Molecular and Cellular Biosciences cluster (2021-22)
• Brookhaven National Laboratory, Center for Functional Nanomaterials (2013 –2015) (2020-present)
• National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship program (2021-present)
• National Science Foundation ad-hoc reviewer (2019-present)
• Dept. of Energy Basic Energy Sciences
• Dept. of Energy SBIR Program
• Dept. of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research program (2016)
• Keck Foundation (2021)
• The Fund for Scientific Research-FNRS (F.R.S.-FNRS) - Belgium (2021)
• The Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) - Belgium (2021, 2022)
• The Excellence of Science program for the Flemish and French speakers (2021)
• UK Research & Innovation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (2022)
• Dutch Research Council (NWO) (2022)
• European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (2022)

Reviewer for Journals (66): (in parenthesis: number of journals starting with the alphabet in order)

• Angew. Chem., Adv. Materials, App. & Environ. Micro, ACS Nano, ACS Omega, ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering., Appl. Surface Sci., Appl. Micro. & Biotech. (9)
• BBA – Bioenergetics, Biotechnology & Bioengineering, Bioelectrochemistry, Biochemical Journal, Bioorganic Chemistry, Biotechnology Adv., (6)
• Chemical Science, ChemComm, ChemElectroChem, ChemSusChem, Chem.Eng. Journal (5),
• Environmental Microbiology Energy & Environmental Science, Environmental Science & Technology, Energy & Fuels, Electroanalysis, Environmental Engineering Sciences (6).  
• Frontiers in Microbiology, FEMS: Pathogens & Disease, (2)
• Geophysical Research Letters. (1)
• Harvard Undergraduate Health Policy Review (1)
• International Society of Microbial Ecology, iScience, Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, (3)
• Joule, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Energy Chemistry, Journal of Materials Science, (6)
• Lab on a Chip, Langmuir, (2)
• mBio, Microbiology, Microbial Biotechnology, Microbiology Spectrum (4)
• Nature, Nature Chemistry, Nature Microbiology, Nature Geoscience, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Nano Letters, Nanoscale, Nanomedicine, (9)
• PNAS, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Physical Review E, PLOS One, (5)
• RSC Advances, Research in Microbiology, (2)
• Science, Science Advances, Science Partner Journal – Research, Scientific Reports, (4)
• Wiley Books (1)

Outreach

• Disseminating molecular structures through a user-friendly software FirstGlance and Proteopedia
• Presenter, Yale Parents Day. October 2019
• Participant, Pathways to Science Program, 2017. Students built a bacterial battery MudWatt
• Interviewed by New York Times, Scientific American, NBC-SYFY,
• Contributor, Yale “Humans of Academia” video series (2020)
• Judge for poster competition, Indian Biophysical Society, March 2022.
• STEM Group Quantum Photonics Club Fireside Chat in Clubhouse Audio App, May 2023.

Education

• Designed a web-based protein visualization module to teach students from diverse backgrounds.
• Developing new curricula for Microbiology Literacy Knowledge Framework
• Participated in Mentoring Catalyst program for the NSF Emerging Frontiers and Innovation program
• Mentoring 15 students from underrepresented and minority groups, including visually disabled postdoctoral researcher Matthew Guberman-Pfeffer and a transgender student.
• Mentor, First-generation undergraduate students through NSF-REU and STARS programs.
• Mentor for international students through WINstep Forward and Indo-US Science & Technology Forum
• Mentor for international students through Indian Foreign Training Program and Fulbright program.
• Mentor and thesis advisor for international students through Netherland’s Honors Academy program.
• Mentored Yale’s undergraduate-led team for International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition on synthetic biology through engineering bacteria
• Advised Maijia Liao who received Burrough Wellcome Fund Career Award at Scientific Interface.
• Mentored Vanessa Saldivar who presentated in Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS).

Public Policy

• The Public Voices Fellow by the OpEd project, 2021-22.
• Yale Statement Maker Fellow, 2017-2018.
• Climatebase Fellow, 2023-2024 (About)
• Mentored Hanwen Zhang who received President’s Public Service Fellowship
• Participant, Diversity Town Hall organized by Dept. of Mol. Biophysics and Biochemistry.
• Organized Diversity Town Hall and developed core values for the lab.
• Coordinator, Yale West Campus Junior PI Group (2015-)
• Organizer, Junior PI mentoring group with organizational scientist (2021-)
• Mentoring student who is the president of SACNAS

SERVICE  Internal Service    

Departmental Committee Work

• Graduate Admissions (2015-2017)
• Graduate Recruiting (2015-2017)
• Seminar Committee (2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2022-2023)
• Graduate Education and Advising 2015-2018, 2021-2022, 2022-2023                                  
• Junior Faculty Search Committee (2019-2020), (2021-2022, postponed). Anonymous Faculty Search
• Writing Workshop (2019-)
• Retreat co-organizer (2019-20 and 2020-21 (in-charge), Sole organizer (2021-2022, 2022-2023)

Thesis Research Committees

Current (6 total); Chair (4 total) : MB&B students (4):, Alex Calabrese (O’Hern Lab, Mech. Eng.-Chair), Luka Maisuradze (O’Hern Lab, Mech. Eng.-Chair), David Flesher (Brudvig lab, Chemistry & MB&B -Chair), Malvankar Lab Student: Joey Erwin.. MCDB Students (1):  Akira Nakamura (Isaacs Lab), External Students (1): Pilar Castillo Portela (Portugal, Co-mentor).

Past (12 total), Chair (10 total): MB&B students (10): Daniel Konstantinovsky (Hammes-Schiffer and Yan lab, Chemistry & MB&B, Clorice Reinhart (Hammes-Schiffer Lab, Chemistry & MB&B), Malvankar Lab Students: Peter Dahl, Catharine Shipps, Vishok Srikanth, Aldo Morales, Patrick O’Brien,; Gunashil Mandava, MCDB students (1): Yangqi Gu, Microbiology students (1): Cong Shen    

Qualifying Exam Committees (6 total): 2016 - Helen Su (Pollard lab, MCDB) Chair; 2017 - Kathy Amaya, (Schlieker Lab, MB&B) Chair, 2019 - Daniel Konstantinovsky (Hammes-Schiffer and Yan labs, Chemistry), 2021- Yuchen Yang (Kai Zhang Lab, MB&B), David Flesher (Brudvig lab, Chemistry & MB&B)

Undergraduate & Graduate Education

• Advisory Board Member for Undergraduate Science, Technology, & Research Scholars Program (2021-)
• Reviewer for Yale PEB NSF Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) Program (2023-)
• Undergraduate advising/ Fellow of Timothy Dwight College (2016-)
• STEM undergraduate summer research fellowship review committee (2018-)
• Organizer, BBS welcoming event (2019)

Junior Faculty Hiring and Training

• Search Committee Member, Microbial Sciences Institute, jointly with departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (2022-23)
• Search Committee Member, Microbial Sciences Institute (2019-20) (2020-21), (2021-22), jointly with departments of Microbial Pathogenesis, Genetics, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Immunobiology.  
• Search Committee Member, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (2019-20), (2021-22, postponed)
• Organizer, Junior PI mentoring group with organizational scientist (2021-) (Method)
• Coordinator, Yale West Campus Junior PI Group (2015-)
• Panel member, YSM New Faculty Orientation Program (2017)
• Panel member, FAS New Faculty Orientation Program (2020)
• Panel member, FAS Faculty development and support opportunities (2020) Yale Daily News article
• Presenter, FAS Dean’s Funding and Grantsmanship Training Program (2021-)
• Presenter, Yale Office of Sponsored Projects Grantsmanship Training Program (Video) (2021-)

Other Administration

• Organizer, External Seminar Series, Microbial Sciences Institute (2017-2022)
• Organizer, Internal Seminar Series, Microbial Sciences Institute (2017-2022)
• Revson Senior Fellowships in Biomedical Science review committee (2019-)
• Executive Board Member, Microbial Sciences Institute (2015-)
• Member, Advisory Committee, West Campus Materials Characterization Core (2020-)
• Member, Advisory Committee, Yale University Materials Characterization Core (2022-)
• Member, Yale University Cores Equipment Review Panel (2022-)

Selected Invited Talks

2024

• Symposium on Advanced Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SABIC), India. January 7 - 11, 2024
• Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA. January 30, 2024.
• Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Caltech, CA. April 18, 2024

2023

• Gordon Research Conference: Metals in Biology. Ventura, CA January 23 - 28, 2023
• New and Notable Symposium, Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, San Diego, CA Feb. 19, 2023
• International Conference on Physics and Quantum Physics, London, UK, 27-28 March. (Keynote)
• Symposium on Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change, Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Duke University, NC. April 28, 2023.
• Microbiome Symposium, Yale School of Medicine., Yale West Campus. May 9, 2023.
• Biophysics and Structural Biology Symposium, Yale University, May 19, 2023.
• NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Research Symposium, Bethesda, MD, June 8-9, 2023.
• Quantum Life Science for Medicine Symposium, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea. 6-7 July 2023
• Dept. of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. October 18, 2023.
• Biodesign Institute and Dept. of Physics, Arizona State University. 9 November 2022.
• Center for the Physics of Biological Function, Princeton University. Nov. 13, 2023. (Link)
• MRS Symposium on Advances in Biomolecular Electronics, Nov. 26-Dec. 1, 2023, Boston, MA

2022

• Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, February 7, 2022
• Connecticut Microelectronic & Optoelectronics Consortium. University of Connecticut, 9 March 2022.
• Indian Biophysical Society Meeting, Mumbai, India. 31 March 2022
• Dept. of Physics, Arizona State University. 28 April 2022.
• MRS Symposium on Genetically encoded and bioinspired materials Honolulu, Hawaii, May 2022.
• Bioderived Electronics. Ein Gedi, Israel. May 2022
• Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National lab. July 6, 2022.
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Quantum Biology workshop, July 2022
• Gordon Research Conference: Molecular Basis of Microbial Metabolism, NH Aug. 7-12, 2022.
• European Nitrogen Cycle meeting, Rome, Italy. 28-30 September 2022. (Keynote)
• Emergent Simplicity in Biophysical Dynamics, Telluride, CO. September 30, 2022.
• NSF Convergence Accelerator Workshop: Bioinspired Design. Wyss Institute, Harvard. October 4, 2022.
• Microbiology Seminar Series, Dept. of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University. November 3, 2022.
• NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering – Quantum Biology. December 7, 2022. (Video)

2021

• Dept. of Physics, Colgate University, New York. 27 April 2021.
• NanoBioelectronics symposium, IEEE NANO, Montreal Canada, 28-30 July 2021.
• Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Sacramento State University, California..  7 October 2021.

• Electromicrobiology meeting. Session: Molecules, Aarhus, Denmark, 3-5 November 2021 (Keynote)

• Semi-synthetic-biology group, Dept. of ECE and BME, Boston University. November 2021.  
• Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Canada. 26 Nov. 2021
• Intracellular organization & material synthesis Workshop, Dept. of Energy, Dec 15-16, 2021.

2020

• Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT. Fall 2020 (postponed)
• Blavatnik semifinalist to pitch at the Office of Cooperative Research’s Pitchfest, December.

2019

• Dept. of Material Science & Engineering. State University of New York, Stony Brook, 25 Oct. 2019.
• Dept. of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania. 8 Oct. 2019
• American Geophysical Union. Centennial Session - Biogeophysics San Francisco 13 December 2019

2018

• Center for Theoretical Biophysics, Rice University. 7 Feb. 2018
• American Physical Society. Focus Session: Quantum effects in biology, Los Angeles 5 March 2018
• Blavatnik semifinalist. Selected to pitch at the Office of Cooperative Research’s Pitchfest, April.
• Department of Chemistry, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. 25 April 2018.
• International Society of Electrochemistry, Bologna, Italy. 4 September 2018.
• Pittsburgh Quantum Institute, University of Pittsburgh. 20 September 2018.
• Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University. 28 September 2018.
• Beyond Center. Arizona State University. 5 November 2018.

2017

• Dept. of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, & Medicine, Duke University, September 27, 2017
• Gordon Research - Microbial Adhesion & Signal Transduction, Newport, RI. July 2017 (Keynote)

2016

• International Society for Electrochemistry, Hague, Netherlands, 25 August 2016 (Keynote)
• The Physics Club, Department of Physics, Yale University. February 1, 2016.

2015

• Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering seminar, November 13, 2015.
• Physical and Engineering Biology Program, Yale University, Sept. 18, 2015
• Microbiology Retreat, Dept. of Microbial Pathogenesis Yale University Sept. 4, 2015.
• Energy Sciences Institute, Yale University September 2, 2015
• Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena, Yale University. August 5, 2015.
• Microbiology & Immunology Dept., Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, NH. June 2015.
• Nanoscience & Nanoengineering school, Physics Dept., North Carolina A&T University. June (declined)
• Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 21 May 2015 (declined).
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, Washington, 27 April 2015.
• Department of Physics, Portland State University. 22 April 2015.
• Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University. 10 April 2015.
• Dept. of Physics, Astronomy & Material Sci., Missouri State University, Springfield. March 2015.
• Department of Physics, SUNY Buffalo, NY. 19 February 2015.
• Microbial Sciences Institute and Dept. of Mol. Biophysics & Biochem., Yale University. 9 Feb. 2015
• Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames IA 22 January 2015
• Dept. of Microbiology & Physiological Systems, University of Mass. Med School, 7 Jan. 2015.

2014

• Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 4 December 2014
• Department of Physics, University of Southern California, LA. 21 November 2014.
• Department of Physics, Union College, Schenectady, New York, October 16, 2014.
• NSF - Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Sept. 24, 2014.
• The Amherst Club, Amherst MA, August 5, 2014
• American Society of Microbiology Special session: Dispelling dogmas Boston, MA. May 18, 2014      
• Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (MPA-CINT), Los Alamos National Lab., March. 11, 2014.
• Dept. of Appl. Phys. Sci., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Feb. 24, 2014.
• Department of Physics, University of Denver. Feb. 19, 2014.

2013

• Nano Science Technology Center, University of Central Florida. Dec. 10, 2013.
• Dept. of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University. Nov. 12, 2013.
• Office of Naval Research Biosciences and Biocentric Technology annual meeting 23-25 July 2013.
• Dept. of Biosciences & Bioengineering. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, March 4, 2013.

2012

• From the Meso-to-Nanoscale with X-ray Spectromicroscopy, Brookhaven National Lab., Sept. 2012
• International Conference on Science & Technology of Synthetic Metals, Atlanta, Georgia, July 2012

2011

• American Physical Society Meeting News briefing, Boston, MA. 27 February 2011.
• Department of Physics seminar, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. November 2011
• Talent Advancement Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, September 2011.
• Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Sept. 2011.
• Conversations in Physical and Structural Biology, University of Mass., Amherst. 26 Sept. 2011.

2010

• Department of Energy Genomic Sciences meeting, February 2010, Crystal City, VA
• University of Massachusetts Microbiology departmental seminar, February 2010.