Pramod is a native of Cherthala, Kerala, India. He completed his Bachelors in Industrial Chemistry and Masters in Chemistry from Sacred Heart College, Thevara, Kochi under the affiliation of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala. After qualifying CSIR/UGC-JRF/NET (a national level examination for obtaining research fellowship), Pramod joined National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST - CSIR), Trivandrum for PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. K. George Thomas. The main focus of his Ph. D. thesis was on the optical properties of hybrid nanomaterials. In December 2008, he moved to Technical University, Dortmund, Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Christof M. Niemeyer. In Dortmund, he was working on the development of luminescent materials in the submicrometer length scale, and the highlight of the project was the encapsulation of quantum dots inside silica microspheres for cell labeling studies. After spending two years in Dortmund, Pramod went to Northwestern University to join Prof. Bartosz A. Grzybowski's group, for second postdoctoral experience. At Northwestern, he was working on multiple projects ranging from the self-assembly of nanoparticles to device fabrication to electrical measurements to nanobiotechnology. 

 

 

Professional experience

 

June 2014 to date        -   Assistant Professor, IISER Pune

 

February 2011 to          -  NERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University, IL, U. S. A.

May 2014

 

December 2008 to       -  AvH Postdoctoral Fellow, Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany

December 2010

 

 

Honors & Awards

 

• Awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt postdoctroal fellowship in November 2008.

 

•  Best poster award in February 2008 for the All India Chemistry Symposium conducted by the Chemical Research Society of India.

 

• Qualified the prestigious all India CSIR-JRF/NET exam of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India.

 

• Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in 2006.

 

• University second rank for M.Sc. Chemistry.

 

• University first rank (Topper) for B.Sc. Industrial Chemistry.

 

 

Selected conference presentations

 

• Optical Properties of Metal and Semiconductor Nanoparticles,

         In “Gordon Research Conference on Noble Metal Nanoparticles” held at South Hadley, Boston, (U. S.A.) June 20-25, 2010.

 

• Preferential End Functionalization of Au Nanorods,

         In “Indo-Japan Cooperative Science Programme” held at Trivandrum, (India) January 20-22, 2008.

 

• Exploring the Edge Effects in Au Nanorods,

         In “10th National Symposium in Chemistry” held at IISc, Bangalore, (India) February 01-03, 2008.

 

• Gold Nanoparticle Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes for Light Induced Electron Transfer Process,                                  In “JNC Research Conference on Chemistry of Materials” held at Munnar, (India) September 28-October 01, 2007.

 

• Tuning the Optical Properties of Gold Nanorods,

       In “International Winter School on the Chemistry of Materials” held at Bangalore, (India) December 12-19, 2006.

 

• Chromophore Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles: Effect of Spacer, Core Size and Redox Properties,

       In “International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology (ICONSAT)" held at New Delhi, (India) March 16-18, 2006.