Introducing… Sarah & Manjunath

A quick introduction to two of the many members that make up ACES – Sarah Mann and Manjunath Chatti. Both currently based at Monash University in Melbounre, these students are working on ACES projects under Prof Doug MacFarlane. 

Sarah Mann
Sarah is a Geelong born, Melbourne educated solid state NMR specialist studying her PhD in physics at Warwick University in the United Kingdom. For the past 3 months Sarah has been visiting the MacFarlane research team in search of ionic liquids with low conductivity. Low conductivity is not a concept that electrochemists are used to associating with ionic liquids which are typically valued for their high ionicity. However, liquids that conduct poorly have the ability to easily pass through cell membranes, due to ion-pairing making them highly valuable in the field of pharmacology. Sarah was able to synthesise and characterize a range of promising ionic liquids during her stay.

Upon her return to the National Solid State NMR facility in the UK, she aims to unlock further structural detail that will explain the observed characteristics of her materials.

Manjunath Chatti
Manjunath has been a member of the ACES group since the beginning of his PhD in 2015. Before coming to Australia he completed his BS-MS Dual degree at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Kolkata. During this time Manjunath was employed as a research intern at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and the International Centre for materials science, JNCASR, Bengaluru. During this period he was introduced to the field of energy storage and conversion and this in turn motivated him to pursue PhD in renewable energy.

Now Manjunath is focused primarily on developing new materials for electrocatalytic water splitting. Much of his work has involved the development of synthesis techniques capable of producing fine nano-structured chalcogenides with highest possible catalytically active sites. When he is not in lab he enjoys playing cricket and badminton.