Education
PhD in Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Subjects
Water Treatment, Membrane Science, Sustainable Separations, Desalination, Bioinspired Membranes
Achievements
MTech from IIT Kanpur (Academic Excellence Award); BTech from NIT Warangal; Phillips 66 Fellowship at UT Austin (2021-2022); Outstanding Candidacy Exam Award at Penn State (2018); Penn State Graduate Fellowship (2017); second place in the AIChE Environmental Division Graduate Student Paper Award (2021); finalist in the UT Austin Three-Minute Thesis competition (2020); 8 first-author and 14 co-authored publications; led grant writing for two NSF awards totaling over USD 620,000
About
Charan is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, working at the intersection of water treatment, membrane science, and sustainable separations. With a PhD from UT Austin and over a decade of research and industry experience, he develops energy-efficient solutions for global water challenges, including desalination optimization, pathogen removal, and bioinspired membrane design, with publications in Nature Water, ACS Nano, and Environmental Science and Technology.
Discipline
Engineering
Academic Achievements
Earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, an M.Tech from IIT Kanpur (with an Academic Excellence Award), and a B.Tech from NIT Warangal. Recipient of the Phillips 66 Fellowship at UT Austin (2021–2022), the Outstanding Candidacy Exam Award at Penn State (2018), and the Penn State Graduate Fellowship (2017). Second place in the AIChE Environmental Division Graduate Student Paper Award (2021). Finalist in the UT Austin Three-Minute Thesis competition (2020). Author of 8 first-author publications and 14 co-authored publications in leading journals. Invited to publish a News & Views article in Nature Nanotechnology. Led grant writing for two funded NSF awards totaling over $620,000.
Teaching & Mentoring Experience
Charan has over 6 years of teaching and mentoring experience across multiple universities. He has served as a Teaching Assistant for 6 courses at IIT Kanpur, Penn State, and UT Austin, covering subjects including Fluid Mechanics, Water & Wastewater Treatment, Biomolecular Engineering, and Distillation Lab, earning a student rating of 4.81/5.0 in one role. He delivered 3 full class lectures to a cohort of ~60 students. As a research mentor, he has directly supervised 10 undergraduate and 3 graduate students, several of whom have gone on to Ph.D. programs at Princeton, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Delaware, or roles at companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly. He was recognized as an Outstanding Mentor in the NSF-funded Research Experience for Teachers program at UT Austin (2022).
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