Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Chemistry
Education
- 2015, Doctoral Degree, Chemical Engineering, University of California - Berkeley
- Master's Degree, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
- Bachelor's Degree, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Biography
Shaama Mallikarjun Sharada is an Associate Professor in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Shaama received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, where she also served as a software developer for Q-Chem, a quantum chemistry package. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University prior to joining USC in Fall 2017.
Research Summary
Shaama's research focuses on developing catalysts and photocatalysts to meet energy-efficiency and sustainability goals. Her group utilizes quantum chemistry to find active, selective, and stable catalytic materials for efficient valorization of CH bonds and green conversion of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Shaama is also keen on making quantum chemical predictions more reliable. She is developing algorithms inspired from signal processing to make otherwise prohibitive but accurate kinetics theories more tractable for routine studies.
Awards
- 2023 Sloan Foundation Sloan Research Fellowship
- 2022 USC Viterbi Chevron Research Innovation Award
- 2020 ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award
- 2020 Scialog Fellow, Negative Emissions Science
- 2020 Orange County Engineering Council Outstanding Young Engineer Award
- 2019 USC Zumberge Individual Award
- 2015 Kokes Award, North American Catalysis Society
- 2008 Institute Gold Medal, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
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