Venkateshkumar Prabhakaran

Venkateshkumar (Venky) Prabhakaran received his B. Tech. in Chemical and Electrochemical Engineering from the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in India in 2009 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2014. After his postdoctoral appointment at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) (2014-2017), he became a research scientist in March 2017. In 2017, he was also awarded the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s (EMSL) M.T. Thomas Award for his outstanding postdoctoral work. Venky's research interests lie at the confluence of molecular-level understanding of ionic interactions and nanoscale phenomena at electrochemical interfaces, and the rational design of efficient and sustainable electrochemical separation and energy storage systems. His research activities at PNNL include (1) molecular-level understanding of chemical transformations occurring at well-defined electrode-electrolyte interfaces prepared using ion soft landing; (2) development of in situ and in operando techniques for studying electrochemical processes at well-defined electrode-electrolyte interfaces prepared with soft-landed ions; (3) multimodal electrochemical imaging coupled with optical spectroscopy and mass spectrometry; and (4) development of highly active and durable platinum group metal-free oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalysts for polymer electrolyte fuel cells.