Sharani Roy grew up in Delhi, India. She graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Hansraj College at the University of Delhi, and a M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi. During the latter, she simulated the melting of rare-gas clusters in the group of Prof. Charusita Chakravarty. Then she joined the Ph.D. program in Chemistry at Yale University, where she studied nonadiabatic gas-surface scattering in the group of Prof. John Tully. After completing her Ph.D., she joined the group of Prof. Mark Ratner at Northwestern University as a postdoctoral research associate and modeled STM-induced molecular dissociation on metal surfaces and heterogeneous catalysis by metal-organic frameworks. She joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and has since been promoted to Associate Professor.
Sharani Roy
UT Knoxville
Associate Professor of ChemistryTalk: "Understanding Surface Chemistry at the Atomic Level using Theory and Computation"
Surface chemistry is everywhere! We observe it in the weathering of rocks, the discoloring of fruit, the rusting of iron, the writing of chalk or marker on a board, the melting of an ice cube… the list is endless! It also underpins technologies that are critical for the functioning of modern society, such as heterogeneous catalysis and nanotechnology. My research program aims to understand these chemical processes at the atomic level using theory, modeling, and simulations.
To unravel complex surface phenomena, we distill them into their elementary steps. For example, we develop models to answer questions such as: How does an atom or molecule bind (adsorb) to a solid surface? Once bound, how does an adsorbate move (diffuse) on the surface? How does one adsorbate interact with another adsorbate? How does the surface catalyze a reaction between two adsorbed species? How are energy and charge exchanged between an atom/molecule and the surface? We assemble our knowledge of these conceptual building blocks to advance the fundamental understanding of areas such as adsorption, catalysis, and molecular electronics. I will present our recent progress towards unraveling how oxygen atoms adsorb in different ways on a silver surface and how the resulting O/Ag material catalyzes the formation of ethylene oxide. I will also show our exploration of conductance and chemical dynamics of single-molecule junctions, prototypical quantum devices comprised of electrode-molecule-electrode systems in which the molecule-metal interface drives a current across the junction under an applied voltage.
sharani.roy@utk.edu