Sharmila M. Mukhopadhyay

Sharmila Mitra Mukhopadhyay is a professor of materials science and Director of the Center for Nanoscale Multifunctional Materials at Wright State University. In 2016 she was elected as a Jefferson Science Fellow, working as a science advisor to the United States Department of State.

Early life and education Mukhopadhyay studied engineering at the Indian Institutes of Technology, where she earned her Bachelor's and master's degrees in 1983. Mukhopadhyay moved to Cornell University for her graduate studies. Her recent research considers nanotechnology and its applications in the biosciences. She is interested in safe and sustainable materials that can be used for energy storage, in biomedicine and to protect the environment. Her work has involved a range of graphene base structures, including carbon nanotubes for the development of biomimetic hierarchical structures. Mukhopadhyay uses precursor layers of reactive oxides that are created in a plasma, which allows nanotubes to attach onto uneven porous materials.

Mukopadhyay demonstrated that carbon nanotubes can be used to clean water, creating molecular sized brushes that contain "jellyfish-like" strands covered in nanocatalysts that can kill bacteria and remove dangerous pollutants. The strands increase the surface area of the chemical reaction, increasing the extent to which they can clean the water. To realise the invention, Mukhopadhyay worked in collaboration with Buckeye Composites and MetaMaterial Technologies. Her recent work considers the creation of high charge density capacitors, high thermal dissipation electronic materials and hand-held pathogen sensors.

Mukhopadhyay was the Founding Director of the Wright State University National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars program in 2018. The program will support scholars in becoming future leaders across four themes; sustainability, health, security and joy of living. Mukhopadhyay is incorporating the Grand Challenges into the Wright State curriculum. She serves as a Senior Scientific Advisor for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. 2016 Jefferson Science Fellow