Solar Energy Materials Research Lab

Dr. Alagarsamy Pandikumar is currently working as Senior Scientist in CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, India.. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry (2014) from the Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. He successfully completed his post-doctoral fellowship tenure (2014-2016) at the University of Malaya, Malaysia under a High Impact Research Grant. He is in the top 2% of scientists list in the world database released by Stanford University, US 2024 (based on Scopus citation records). Moreover He is recognized as the World’s Top 2% Scientists in the Single-Year Category and also in the Career Achievement Category. He has continuously achieved this record for last five years (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024). Further he has awarded “RSC Affiliate member” by Royal Society of Chemistry, UK (2021). Recently He has received the prestigious Young Scientist Award for 2023 (Saraswathy Srinivasan Prize) from ‘The Academy of Sciences, Chennai, Tamil Nadu’ for his pioneer contribution to solar energy conversion. In addition, he holds an assistant professor position at the Faculty of Chemical Sciences, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad. He is a Life Member - Society for Advancement of Electrochemical Science & Technology (SAEST). His current research involves the development of novel functional materials for photocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis, dye-sensitized solar cells, perovskite solar cells, and water-splitting applications. His results outcomes were documented in 160 peer-reviewed journals including 14 review articles, and also have 8600 citations with an h−index of 55. He secured a funded project worth of ~ 5 cores from DST, CSIR, SERB…etc. Currently, he has completed 4 Ph.D. candidates and 6 are ongoing. On the other hand, he served as Guest Editor for a special issue in the Materials Focus journal, Applied Surface Science Advances and edited 21 books. 4 Ph.D. students, 2 Post-Docs, 14 INSA summer fellows, 12 Masters, 12 B.tech students completed their tenure under his supervision. Currently, he is mentoring 6 Ph.D. students, 2 Post-Docs, 2 INSA summer fellows, 2 Masters, 7 B.Tech students, 5 Project associates in his research area. He has organized several skill development and training programmes under CSIR-Skill initiatives such as Foundation Course on Solar Energy Materials: Fundamentals to Device, High-End Faculty Development Programme on “” Advanced Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage: Text Book to Hands-on (Device Fabrication  and Testing, Solar Energy Technologies: Fundamentals to Device Fabrication, Faculty Development Programme on "Advanced Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage: Fundamentals to Device Fabrication, Karyashala High-End Workshop on Advanced Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage, Vritika Training for Expertise in Fabrication and Testing of Photoelectrochemical Device for Hydrogen Production, Skill Development and Training Programme on “Energy Materials: Fundamentals to Device Fabrication and Three days School and Hands-on Training on Photovoltaics for Solar Energy Harvesting.