I am a scientist working in the area of semiconductor optoelectronics in the Dept. of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, and also the Centre Director of the TIFR’s Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE).

After obtaining a B.Tech degree from IIT-Bombay and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I worked on an Alexander-von-Humboldt fellowship at the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Berlin, before setting up a research group in TIFR for novel semiconductor materials and devices.

Apart from semiconductors, I am passionate about science outreach, and getting science out of the lab and into the public domain. I enjoy talking about science and demonstrating science experiments to all audiences, particularly school/college students. I pioneered “Chai and Why?” Mumbai’s popular science café, and received the 2010 Homi-Bhabha-Award in Science Education, the 2012 Chevening Rolls-Royce Fellowship for Science and Innovation Leadership, and the 2017 INSA Indira Gandhi Prize for the Popularization of Science.

I also have a whole bunch of eclectic interests – including music, cooking, hiking, photography, and marathon running.