2024 Kavli Heising-Simons Junior Fellow
Faculty Advisor: Professor Peidong Yang
Anex is a physical inorganic chemist passionate about catalysis for sustainable energy applications. Currently he is pursuing a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at Stanford University (June 2024). He previously completed a BS-MS Dual Degree in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Kolkata, honored with the Director’s gold medal (2017). He was awarded the S. Chandrasekhar Scholarship and the German Academic Exchange Program Scholarship for research internships at the University of Chicago (2016) and the University of Gottingen (2015). Attending the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Chemistry (2017) remains one of his most memorable experiences in his scientific career.
During his PhD studies, he utilized various spectroscopic techniques combined with electronic structure calculations to elucidate structure-function correlations within active sites of metalloenzymes. He focused on heme–copper oxidases, a type of enzyme serving as the terminal respiratory protein in the mitochondrial electron transport chain. He investigated how these enzymes perform oxygen reduction reaction and couples this highly exergonic reaction with proton pumping for ATP synthesis during respiration.
At ENSI, he will join Prof. Yang’s research group to work on the mechanism-guided design of novel catalysts for sustainable energy applications. Specifically, his focus will be on the electrocatalytic conversion of N2 to NH3. NH3 plays a crucial role in agriculture and holds promise as an energy carrier and storage medium. Presently, NH3 is produced via the centralized and energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. However, microbial NH3 production occurs through enzyme catalysts at complex metal sites under ambient conditions, displaying remarkable efficiencies. Nature's demonstration suggests that enhanced catalyst design could steer us beyond the limitations of the Haber-Bosch process toward new, sustainable NH3 synthesis methods. He will focus on the development of novel nanomaterials that enable this catalytic process and by tuning their electronic and geometric structures he will attempt to enhance their conversion of N2 to NH3. Structure-function correlation of these materials will be investigated by a variety of operando and in-situ spectroscopy techniques coupled with electronic structure calculations. These mechanistic insights will then serve as the foundation for the design of the next generation of materials with improved efficiency and activity.