JOIN US

Want to meet Santa Claus? Join the Manthiram Lab.

We are building an interdisciplinary team of engineers and scientists who are interested in using fundamental molecular-level understanding of electrocatalysts to develop practical solutions to pressing societal problems associated with chemical synthesis. We seek to work with our group members to help them develop the scientific and communication skills they need to become leaders in academia and industry. We believe that how we do our science is just as important as the science we do – to this end, we have developed a set of Core Values which sets forth our commonly held ideals.

Get in Touch

We are building an interdisciplinary team of engineers and scientists who are intersted in using fundamental molecular-level understanding of electrocatalysts to develop practical solutions to pressing societal problems associated with chemical synthesis. We seek to work with our group members to help them develop the scientific and communication skills they need to become leaders in academia and industry.

• Graduate Students: Students who have been admitted to Caltech are encouraged to reach out to our lab members, whose contact information is on the Team page (just click on any student’s profile to learn more about them and find their contact information). Spending time with our group members to hear their open reflections on their experience in the group is critical and encouraged, whether that is casually chatting with them in the office (Church B106), over coffee, or lunch. To indicate your interest in rotating, please email Karthish with CC to Martha Hepworth (mhepwort@caltech.edu) who can help schedule time to meet. For on-boarding as a rotator, please email Emma Cosner (ecosner@caltech.edu). The first meeting with Karthish will typically involve whiteboarding of your prior research undertakings, followed by a discussion of your future research interest in the context of our lab and any questions you might have about how our lab works. Following this first meeting, we encourage you to read a few papers related to your area of interest within our group. Then, the second meeting with Karthish is typically a whiteboarding discussion in which we discuss these papers, chart out the frontier of the field, and brainstorm on new areas for investigation. A large part of this process is having the opportunity to think openly in a new space, drawing upon your own creativity and giving us both a sense of how we think together and learn from each other as you propose an area for investigation.

• Postdocs: Please send Karthish an e-mail with your resume, three journal articles you have published, and what you propose to work on in the Manthiram Lab. Please include [Postdoc_Applicant] in the subject line of your e-mail.
• Undergraduates: For Caltech undergraduates, we recommend applying to the SURF program. For undergraduates from other institutions, please reach out to Karthish well in advance of the deadlines for the WAVE and Amgen programs, for which applications are due in January/February.

Applicants with backgrounds in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and related subjects are encouraged to apply.

Meetings

If you are on campus, you are welcome to attend our Group Meetings to see our group in action (please note the timezone shown at the bottom of the calendar): 

The subgroup meetings on the calendar are labeled as follows:

• Sub-B: Biological electron transfer subgroup
• Sub-C: Carbon dioxide reduction subgroup
• Sub-N: Nitrogen cycle subgroup
• Sub-O: Oxygen-transfer subgroup 

“Fundamentals Fridays” are student and postdoc led discussions of fundamentals related to research in our group.