Soumyajit Maitra

Soumyajit completed his undergrad in Chemical Engineering at the University of Calcutta in India. During his undergrad, he worked on photoelectrochemical water splitting, Dye-Sensitised solar cells, perovskite solar cells and electrocatalytic water splitting at different research institutes, namely, Bose Institute, JU, IIEST and IIT Bombay. After finishing his undergrad in 2020, he took up the role of a research assistant at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and CSIR-CSIO with an Institute Fellowship for 2 years, where he worked on 2D materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting and supercapacitors. He also worked on DFT calculations of 2D materials for photocatalysis as a collaboration project with Wuhan University of Technology, China and U-Namur, Belgium. From HT 2023, Soumyajit is pursuing a DPhil with a Clarendon and Trinity Whitehead Scholarship, supervised by Prof. Sebastian Bonilla and Prof. Robert Weatherup. His project focuses on understanding reaction mechanisms of OER catalysts using ex-situ and operando XAS for development of high performance electrodes for PV-powered alkaline electrolysers. His research interests also include electroplating contacts for silicon solar cells, buried junction monolithic PV Electrolysis  and CVD growth of 2D materials for alkaline HER.