Prof. Dr Anjana Devi has taken over as the new Director of the Institute for Materials Chemistry (IMC) at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden, Germany since 1 January 2024
Mangaluru: Prof. Dr Anjana Devi has taken over as the new Director of the Institute for Materials Chemistry (IMC) at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden since January 1, 2024. At the same time, she was appointed as the Chair of Materials Chemistry in the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden. With her internationally recognized expertise, Ms. Devi brings a new thematic focus to the research program of IFW Dresden. The IFW Institute for Complex Materials (IKM), as it was previously called, will in the future focus on materials chemistry. This will enable the entire institute to work together on an extended interdisciplinary basis, from theoretical calculations to experimental research into new materials for effective and sustainable future technologies.
Anjana Devi has broad expertise in the field of precursor chemistry and the development of new ALD/MOCVD processes of functional materials. She employs novel precursors to synthesize nanostructured advanced functional materials for various applications ranging from micro/nano/optoelectronics to energy conversion and storage. The research activities include an interdisciplinary approach with a special focus on bridging synthetic chemistry and materials chemistry. At IFW, the research will be centred on 2D materials, in particular their scalable synthesis, heterostructures and nanostructured surfaces.
The ability to design their electronic and structural properties will significantly expand the application areas of 2D materials for industry and thus lead to sustainable research and development at IFW Dresden. Professor Devi is an active and internationally recognized collaborator undertaking joint projects with leading research groups and industries in the field of ALD and CVD.
Dr Anjana Devi seen with her Husband Dr Harish Parala & daughter, Anouksha
“With Anjana Devi, we have gained an outstanding expert in the research field of materials chemistry who has a strong international network and reputation,” emphasizes Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Bernd Büchner. “Her expertise in advanced functional materials and their development adds another fundamental pillar to our research program in the research for new materials for future technologies. On behalf of the entire institute, I would like to warmly welcome her.”
With her profound expertise in this field, Professor Devi will establish a competence centre for atomic layer deposition with the ASPIRE2D project at IFW Dresden in the coming years, which will aim to process advanced 2D functional materials on an atomic scale for future technologies. The focus is on the development of new molecular precursors and transforming them into nanostructured functional materials followed by testing the materials for device applications. In addition, a systematic understanding and evaluation of selected chemical processes will be undertaken. The new ALD competence centre will serve as an interdisciplinary platform for researchers and manufacturing institutions within the Silicon Saxony network and the Leibniz Association. A task which the new director is very pleased to fulfil.
In addition to her professional expertise, Anjana Devi has proven herself to be an internationally connected person who is committed to the urgent challenges of these times. Starting her career as a junior professor at the Ruhr University Bochum in 2002, she was the speaker of the “Global Young Faculty” organization, which dealt with the effects of climate change, and she has been supporting the “Soroptimist Club” project in Bochum since 2017, which gives women and girls the opportunity to access education.
The Administrative Director of IFW Dresden, Juliane Schmidt, also warmly welcomes Prof. Devi to the institute: “With Anjana Devi, another female scientist is taking over the directorship of one of the IFW institutes exactly one year after Yana Vaynzof, which is extremely gratifying. Both directors and their projects were recently selected for the “Leibniz Programme for Women Professors”, which supports innovative research by women in science. We are pleased to be role models for the next generations of researchers in this context.”
About Dr Anjana Devi:
Following her graduation from St Agnes College, Bendore, Mangaluru, Prof. Dr Anjana Devi studied chemistry, physics, mathematics and materials science at the University of Mangalore in India until 1991. She completed her PhD in Materials Science at the Materials Research Center of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. With a fellowship awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, she moved to Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) as a postdoc in 1998. She has been a junior professor at RUB since 2002 and Professor of Inorganic Materials Chemistry since 2011.
In 2020, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology by Aalto University in Finland in recognition of her contributions to the field of precursor chemistry for CVD and ALD applications. In 2021, Prof. Devi received the Attract grant from the Fraunhofer Society for carrying out research on 2D materials for innovative sensors using ALD technology. Since then, she has been leading the Nanostructured Sensor Materials (NSM) research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS) in Duisburg.
Prof Anjana Devi is a proud daughter of (Late) K B Bhasker and Ms Vajrakshi Bhasker, who both retired from BSNL and reside at Kulshekar, Mangaluru. Married to Dr Harish Parala, hailing from Ujire, also a scientist based in Germany, Dr Devi is blessed with a daughter, Anouksha- and they are all settled in Germany.
