Podila elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Ramakrishna Podila, a materials physicist in the Clemson University Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is a professional society based in the United Kingdom with over 50,000 members worldwide. The designation of Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) is given to those who have made significant contributions to the chemical sciences (including materials chemistry and physics). Fellows are nominated by other members.

Podila's research is highly interdisciplinary and combines physics, chemistry, biology and materials science.

His previous work focused on three broad areas: energy conversion and storage, nano-bio interfaces, and photonics and bioimaging. In addition to these areas, Podila's group is currently pursuing new research directions in foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum biology.

His research has received support from the highest government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, NASA and the U.S. Army, and many global companies.

Podila has authored more than 100 publications in scholarly journals, including multiple articles in Royal Society of Chemistry journals, that have been extensively cited. Web of Science, an online index that covers journal articles published in various sciences and the arts and humanities, listed one of his papers in materials chemistry in the top 1% of cited articles in the field. He also holds two U.S. patents.

"I am deeply honored to be admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of my students, collaborators and mentors who have supported me throughout my career," Podila said. "I am committed to continuing our efforts to contribute to the nanomaterials community."

During his career, Podila has graduated 10 students from master's and doctoral programs. He currently advises the research of two graduate students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Podila received his master's in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee in 2007 and his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Clemson in 2011. After graduation, he served as a postdoctoral fellow in nanomedicine at Eastern Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine.

He joined Clemson as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 2015 and was promoted to associate professor in 2020.

While at Clemson, Podila received the Roaring10 Award from the Clemson Young Alumni Council (2019) and the Rising Star in Discovery Award for the College of Science (2021).