Dr. Thiyagarajan also made strong contributions in the development of an Anomalous Small Angle X-ray Scattering instrument and a strong user program at the Advanced Photon Source as well as a conceptual design of a versatile Time-of-Flight Single Crystal Macromolecular Neutron Diffractometer (MaNDi) under construction at the Spallation Neutron Source.

He is a co-author of over 220 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals on the structure and dynamics of soft and hard condensed matter and scattering instrumentation. He presented numerous invited talks at major national and international conferences.

He served as a member of the International Union of Crystallography Commission for the Small Angle Scattering during 1999-2008, promoting small angle scattering techniques to younger scientists for materials research. He was a Selection Committee member for the prestigious Guinier and Shull Prizes bestowed on scientists for the excellence in neutron and x-ray scattering applications for materials research.

He was elected fellow of the American Physical Society in 2009 for his leadership in developing neutron and synchrotron x-ray scattering instrumentation and techniques and high impact science in the areas of block copolymers, biopolymers and polymer nanocomposites.