Meet the Team

  • Dr. Shalini Singh

    Group Leader

    Associate Professor (Chemistry)

    Department of Chemical Sciences and The Bernal Institute

    University of Limerick

    Contact

  • Shalini received her PhD degree at the University of Limerick within INSPIRE structured PhD Programme in 2016. Her work was focused on designing multicomponent metal chalcogenide semiconductor nanocrystals using methods of colloidal chemistry.

    She subsequently joined  Ghent University, Belgium, to explore the surface chemistry of colloidal nanocrystal systems. She was awarded FWO postdoctoral grant in 2017 to work on designing novel semiconductors for photonic applications. In early 2020, she returned to the University of Limerick as a Lecturer.

Researchers

  • Dr. Nikita Chakraborty

    Postdoctoral fellow

    Nikita, born in Assam, India, obtained her Master’s degree from Cotton University and subsequently pursued her PhD from Prof. B. K. Patel’s group at IIT Guwahati, India. She completed her doctoral research in synthetic organic chemistry in 2024. Thereafter, she worked as a Research Associate in the same group for one year before joining UL. She joined Dr. Singh’s group in January 2026 and is currently working on a JnJ-SSPC Collaborative Innovative Medicine Project on Nitrosamine Assessment, and is co-supervised by Prof. Sarah Hudson.

  • Dr. Niraj Patil

    Postdoctoral fellow

    Niraj received his BS–MS dual degree in Chemistry in 2020 from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal. In mid-2025, he completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Shalini Singh and Prof. Kevin M. Ryan, where his research focused on the design of novel functional nanomaterials and the investigation of their fundamental properties. Following his doctoral studies, he joined the Singh Research Group as a Postdoctoral Fellow to broaden his expertise in chalcogen chemistry, with an emphasis on developing generalized synthetic platform for ternary alkali metal-based chalcogenides.

  • Dr. Monika Ahlawat

    Postdoctoral fellow

    Monika received her PhD in 2024 under the supervision of Prof. Vishal Govind Rao at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. During her PhD, she addressed the challenges of highly promising but unstable lead halide perovskite nanocrystals. In January 2025, she joined Singh research group as a Post-Doctoral Fellow to broaden her expertise in Chalcohalide Chemistry, exploring environmentally friendly nanomaterials for energy applications.

  • Dr. Ankita Bora

    Postdoctoral fellow

    Ankita obtained her PhD in 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Nikolai Gaponik and Dr Vladimir Lesnyak at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. She subsequently joined UL as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Kevin M. Ryan. In September 2024, she obtained an Irish Research Council postdoctoral fellowship and joined the Singh research group. Her research will focus on designing synthetic routes for alkali metal-containing copper chalcogenide nanocrystals and harnessing them in energy conversion and storage applications.

  • Dr. Suvodeep Sen

    Postdoctoral fellow

    Suvodeep obtained his Master’s in Chemistry from Sikkim University and then subsequently joined Prof. Narayan Pradhan’s group for a PhD at IACS, Kolkata, India. He received his PhD in July 2023.  He obtained a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship 2023 and joined Singh’s research group in September 2023. He is working on developing a new hybrid 2D electrocatalyst via colloidal chemistry. In 2025, he obtained a Marie Curie Postdoc Fellowship and is now working on designing high-entropy materials. 

  • Dr. Maria Zubair

    Postdoctoral fellow

    Maria received her master’s degree from Quaid-i-Azam University Pakistan in 2017. After that She worked as a research assistant on higher education commission of Pakistan (HEC) funded project entitled “Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Organic Photonic and electrochromic Materials” from 2017 to 2018. She joined the nanotechnology group at the Bernal Institute of University of Limerick as a PhD student in 2019 under SFI funded project. After finishing  her PhD in 2024, she joined the Bernal Institute as an Instrument Scientist. She is currently a SFI-RDI fellow with Analog Devices, Limerick. 

  • Angela Kadlas

    PhD Student

    Angela graduated with an Integrated BS-MS Dual Degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune with a major in Chemistry in May 2024. Her master’s thesis titled “Multi-Functional Fe3O4-Au Hybrid Nanostructures for Catalytic Studies” was done under the supervision of Dr. Pramod Pillai. She is a doctoral researcher at the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, focusing on synthesizing alkali metal-based ternary chalcogenides nanocrystals for energy storage and conversion applications.

  • Nadia Fletcher

    PhD Student

    Nadia received her BSc in Pharmaceutical and Industrial Chemistry from the University of Limerick in 2024. She is now continuing her studies at UL, joining Dr. Shalini Singh’s nanomaterial design research group. Her research focuses on the synthesis of alkali metal-based ternary chalcogenides nanocrystals for energy storage and conversion applications.

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  • Manoj Palabathuni

    PhD Student

    Manoj has a integrated BS-MS Degree in Nanotechnology from Acharya Nagarjuna university, India (2021). He pursued his MS project under guidance of Dr. Nimai Mishra on Stability of Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals at SRM University India. He is currently a doctoral researcher investigating ternary metal dichalcogenides nanocrystals for energy harvesting and storage applications.

  • Daniel Maldonado

    PhD Student

    Daniel is a doctoral researcher at the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick. He holds degrees in Chemistry BSc (Hons) and Chemical Engineering BEng (Hons) from the National University of Colombia and has over seven years of experience in analytical chemistry, metrology, and quality assurance. Previously, he worked as a metrologist at the National Institute of Metrology of Colombia and as a college chemistry teacher. His research focuses on advanced measurement methodologies and their applications in chemical analysis. 

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Past Members

  • Dr. Hannah McKeever

    Hannah has just received her PhD in Chemistry from UL.

    Currently working at Eirgrid, Ireland.

  • Mr. Davide Pratolongo

    Former visiting PhD student from the group of Prof. Federico Locardi in Genova.

  • Dr. Manh Pham

    Former co-supervised PhD student with Prof. Kevin M Ryan. 

  • Dr. Nilotpal Kapuria

    Former co-supervised PhD student and Research Associate 

    Currently a postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University in Prof Sara Skrabalak’s group.

  • Dr. Pengshang Zhou

    Former co-supervised PhD student with Prof. Zeger Hens

    Currently working at Jiangnan University, China.