Faculty members & staff
Faculty members in the Solar Research & Development Center (SRDC) are offering courses related to solar energy generation, utilization and storage; nanomaterials for energy devices, hydrogen generation and fuel cells. They are contributing to several Government funded and collaborative projects.

Head, Solar Research & Development Center
Prof. Dr. Indrajit Mukhopadhyay
With more than 25 years of research experience in the field of energy materials, he is founding faculty member of SRDC and faculty in-charge of 1MWp Solar Power Plant, and technical advisor of 45MWp Solar PV Module Manufacturing Line of PDEU. Research interest in interfacial electron transfer, thin film solar cells, next generation batteries & supercapacitors, modules & battery recycling.

Principal Investigator, Professor & Head, Department of Solar Energy
Prof. Dr. Abhijit Ray
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Post-doc & Visiting Professor, Department of Atomic Energy (India), Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan).
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PhD Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, IIT-Kharagpur.
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Masters & Bachelors (Hons) in Physics, Kalyani & Calcutta.
Founding faculty member of SRDC in joint role. Research interests: Photo- & Electro-chemical Hydrogen Generation, new thin film solar cell materials and devices using earth-abundant materials and low cost cleaner processes.

Lab and Admin Assistant
Ms. Jaimini Parmar
Ms. Jaimini is a Masters in Chemistry (major) and joined the department in 2021. She is managing administration of all 13 Labs of SRDC and academic records of the department
Graduate students & research fellows

PhD Scholar (Senior)
Alpesh Desai
Alpesh is a PhD student under supervision of Ray and he is CMD of Surajdada (a leading solar project developer) and associated to UrEnergy and Goldi Solar cos. His research interest is on hybrid solar integration and pico-grids.
Email: alpeshsolar@gmail.com

PhD Scholar (Senior) & DST Women Scientist Awardee 2022
Naznin Shaikh
Naznin joined the group in 2020 as DST project JRF and is pursuing her PhD work under the supervision of Ray in the field of electrocatalytic hydrogen generation using transition metal alloys and their chalcogenides in the bi-functional forms and under wide pH range.
Email: naaznin.shaikh7888@gmail.com

PhD Scholar & SRDC Senior Research Fellow
Devanshi Zala
Ms. Devanshi has joined the group for her PhD since 2021 under guidance of Ray. Her research interest is the development of photo-electrochemically stable spinel oxides and their heterojunction scheme for hydrogen generation in PEC mode.
Email: devanshizala1@gmail.com

PhD Scholar
Pratik Zala
Mr. Pratik joined the group in July 2023. His research interest is the development of new chalcogenide based thin film solar cells and photodetectors.
Email: pratiksinhb2000@gmail.com

PhD Scholar
Bindiya Patel
Ms. Bindiya joined the group in July 2023. Her research interest is multicomponent photocatalysts and their heterojunctions for environmental solutions. Her broader research goal is the exploration of sustainable energy solutions.
Email: bindiyapatel2000@gmail.com

SRDC Junior Research Fellow
Nikita
Ms. Nikita joined the group in July 2023. Her research interest is the development of novel Van der Waals heterostructures of hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts. Her broad interest is in Green hydrogen generation.
Email: nkthakkar88@gmail.com

PhD Alumnus, Former SRDC Fellow, Scientist at Reliance New Energies
Dr. Suresh Vemuri
Suresh Kumar Vemuri was a Senior Research Fellow at Solar Research and Development Center, currently employed in the R&D division of Reliance New Solar Energy. He joined SRDC in 2019 and pursuing his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Mukhopadhyay. His research interests include Plasmonic and Optoelectronic Devices, SPR, SERS and GERS-based bio-sensors, Graphene and bandgap engineering, Nanomaterials synthesis (0D, 1D & 2D), Computational Electromagnetics and Ab initio principles. For more details on his research, please visit www.sureshvemuri.com
Email: vemuris83@gmail.com

PhD Scholar (Senior) & Former SRDC Fellow
Atulkumar Mishra
Atul joined the group in 2019 and pursuing his PhD under supervision of Prof. Mukhopadhyay. His research interests are the development of solid electrolytes for Li-ion batteries, thin film electrodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting and plasmonics in solar photovoltaic.
Email: harry6922@gmail.com
Masters alumni

M.Tech. Energy Systems - focused on Solar - Graduated 2023
Presently, Engineer at Reliance New Energies
Vardhan Shah
Vardhan was working on developing metal chalcogenide based solution-processed thin film solar cells. His core research interest in material science is exploring and developing alternate materials for solar cells while on an application basis is to apply an integrated approach of multidisciplinary fields to enhance the performance of present devices and optimize their manufacturing through smart control systems.

M.Tech. Energy Systems - focused on Solar - Graduated 2023
Presently, Engineer at Reliance New Energies
Jyotam Suthar
Jyotal was working on thin film synthesizing by using cheap and efficient deposition techniques. His topic of interests are synthesis of thin films by using low cost techniques, Characterization of thin films, and device fabrication. His future goal is to have job experience for few years and want to startup his own business in energy field.