Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow
Dr. Vijay Rana is a Marie-Curie postdoc fellow at the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis in the University of Cambridge.
Vijay received his doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in May 2016 from ETH-Zurich, Switzerland, (Gruetzmacher group). His main research work was to synthesise and modify the activated carbon filters for the adsorption of persistent organic pollutants from water. Cyclodextrin-based host-guest complexation technique was investigated as well in order to remove chlordecone from water. Moreover, several biowastes were used to develop sustainable carbon filters for the same cause. After completing his Ph.D., he received Swiss National Science Postdoc Fellowship (SNSF, P2EZP2_168784) to join Scherman’s group at the University of Cambridge.
Between May 2008 and March 2012, Vijay was a senior project assistant at several national laboratories (N.C.L. and I.I.S.E.R. Pune) in India. Meanwhile, he received an Exchange-student fellowship (world-class university project, S. Korea) to conduct research at the Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea (Ha’s group). He worked on the development of biopolymer nanocomposites, modification of graphene and CNTs, and the synthesis of periodic mesoporous organosilica for drug delivery, sensing, and waste-water treatment applications, etc.
In November 2016, Vijay joined Scherman’s research group as an SNSF-postdoc (P2EZP2_168784) fellow for one and a half years. During this period, he synthesised several photoactive molecules and use them to obtain duel-network hydrogels. Another project was the development of various positively-charged colloids for photonic and colloidal-gel applications. Later, in June 2018, he was awarded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, P.ID: 797106) to continue his postdoctoral studies in the same lab. His research area is to develop carbon materials-based dynamic supramolecular hybrid structures (hydrogels and fibers) using cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) as a macrocycle host. He is also working on the development of rough-surfaced monodisperse colloids for gas-separation applications, etc.
For more information see his google scholar and LinkedIn profile.