Principal Investigator
Ananya leads the lab. She has never met a nanoparticle she didn’t want to image.
Ananya Rao is Professor of Materials Science at the Deccan Institute of Science, where she leads a group of twenty researchers working on nanomaterials.
Her group made the first atom-by-atom films of growing gold nanorods and discovered a family of two-dimensional oxides that conduct ions at room temperature. Before starting her lab she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, and she received her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science.
Professional & Research Experience
- 2022 – present
Professor of Materials Science, Deccan Institute of Science
- 2015 – 2022
Associate Professor, Deccan Institute of Science
- 2012 – 2015
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge
Education
- 2012
PhD in Solid State Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science
Thesis: Optical properties of semiconductor quantum dots
- 2007
MSc in Physics, University of Hyderabad
Awards & Honours
- 2026
Swarnajayanti Fellowship, National Research Foundation
- 2024
Fellow, Academy of Sciences
- 2018
Young Scientist Medal, National Science Academy
Service & Leadership
- 2023 – present
Associate Editor, Journal of Nanomaterials Research
- 2024 – present
Chair, Nanoscience Programme, Deccan Institute of Science
Invited Talks
- 2026
Watching nanocrystals grow, Gordon Research Conference on Nanomaterials
- 2025
Two-dimensional ion conductors, Materials Research Society Fall Meeting