Ravishankar Sundararaman

Ravishankar Sundararaman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and holds the Priti and Mukesh Chatter '82 Career Development Chair. His research focuses on bridging quantum and classical simulation techniques for materials design in electrochemical, plasmonic, and nano-electronic applications.

• Ph.D. in Physics (Cornell University, 2013)
• B.Sc. + M.Sc. in Physics (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 2007)

His group leads the development of the JDFTx open-source software and participates in the BEAST center for electrochemistry research. Key areas include hot carrier dynamics, electrocatalysis, spin relaxation, and quantum-informed material design for energy and semiconductor technologies.

Recent publications highlight advancements in Random Phase Approximation methods for catalysis, spin-phonon relaxation mechanisms, and machine-learned functional approximations for multiscale modeling. Awards include the AIME Robert Lansing Hardy Award (2020) and Rensselaer School of Engineering Research Excellence Award (2020).

He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Electronic Properties of Materials, Material Informatics, and Programming for Materials Engineers, emphasizing accessible quantum mechanics education and data science integration.