Current position (June 2021 – present): MacDiarmid Institute internship at MBIE, Wellington, NZ
Previous position (Feb 2021 – June 2021): Research associate with Professors Sally Brooker (Otago) and Aaron Marshall (CAPE) on ‘Molecular electrocatalysis for hydrogen evolution’
PhD (2017-2021): University of Otago, New Zealand, with Professor Sally Brooker, ‘Spin crossover in iron(II) dinuclear helicates and tetranuclear cages’
Integrated BS-MS (2011-2016): IISER Mohali, India, MS thesis with Professor Sanjay Mandal, ‘Synthesis, structural characterization, physico-chemical properties and sensing application of lanthanides based metal organic frameworks (MOFs)’
Photo: Sandhya at Buttars Peak near Mount Cargill, with Otago Harbour and Peninsula behind her
I came to New Zealand in 2017, after completing my Master’s at the IISER Mohali in India, to pursue a PhD with Prof. Sally Brooker. I found that Dunedin is one of the best places to live “in nature”. It is peaceful, with warm-hearted people, is uncrowded, and has beautiful landscapes which include pleasant beaches, creek tracks and hills.
I am really grateful to Sally for her guidance and support in research, and with my career prospects. Working for nearly 3.5 years with her, I have assimilated quite a few good habits and skills from her, including the meticulous organisation of documents, and dissemination of written and oral work in a comprehensible way, to name a few. During my PhD I also gained a wide range of hands-on skills, from multi-step organic synthesis to complexations with 3d metal ions, and crystallisation followed by SCXRD data collection and refinement to publication standards. In addition to the usual range of characterisation techniques (NMR, IR, UV-vis, ESI-MS, CHN), I also gained experience in solution and solid state spin crossover measurements, determined ligand field stabilisation energy by making and analysing the UV-vis spectra of nickel(II) analogues, and carried out cyclic voltammetry studies. I had opportunities to attend many domestic and international conferences, including giving invited talks at a couple of them: Asian Conference on Coordination Chemistry 7 (ACCC7), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2019 and International Conference on Molecular Magnetism (ICMM21) Rising Stars Symposium, online conference hosted by University of Manchester, United Kingdom in 2021. We have published a good amount of work in strong international peer-reviewed journals Chem. Soc. Rev., Dalton Trans., Inorg. Chem., and Chem. Sci.
The best part of being part of Brookers Bunch was the friendly environment in our workspace; all of my fellow researchers have been tremendously awesome and will always remain in my most cherished memories.
Overall, it was an enriching experience, learning a new set of skills, making new friends and instilling a good research philosophy.
I am indebted to Sally and New Zealand. Thanks to both!
