May 20, 2026 -- May 20, 2026
Our colleague’s work on nanomaterial catalysts, reactive graphene-oxide membranes, and AI-designed nanopores has been highlighted by Nature in its 2026 Chemistry Index supplement — recognition of a research program that asks how the smallest parts of a system shape the behaviour of the whole.
In a feature published in the 2026 Chemistry supplement of Nature, Prof. Ananth Govind Rajan — chemical engineer at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and a member of our faculty — was profiled alongside two international researchers as one of three scientists reshaping the direction of contemporary chemistry. The piece, written by Sandy Ong, traces the arc of his work from postdoctoral research at Princeton to his independent lab established in 2020, framing the through-line as a fascination with how the smallest components of a system contribute to the whole.
The profile begins with a memory the article attributes to him: as a child in Delhi, taking apart the family radio to study its components before reassembling it from memory. That same instinct — disassembling a problem to its atoms and rebuilding it more efficiently — runs through three distinct research threads that Nature highlights.
