Rate My Professor Ramakrishna Podila

Ramakrishna Podila is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University. He earned his M.S. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Physics from Clemson University in 2011. As a Faculty Scholar in the School of Health Research, Podila leads research programs in biomedical applications of nanomaterials. His work integrates principles of condensed matter physics, materials science, physiological chemistry, and toxicology to develop biosensors, imaging probes, photonic devices, and drug delivery vehicles. Podila directs the Laboratory of Nano-BioPhysics and collaborates with faculty in bioengineering and biosciences to advance nanomedicine and point-of-care biosensors, supported by NIH/NIEHS grants including R03 and R01, and a Haworth Foundation grant.

Podila's interdisciplinary research encompasses energy conversion and storage, nano-bio interfaces, photonics and bioimaging, and quantum biology. He has made seminal contributions to nanoscience and nanobiophysics, including new phenomena in low-dimensional materials for next-generation supercapacitors, batteries, and triboelectric nanogenerators. His group has authored over 70 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals such as Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nano Letters, and Nature Scientific Reports, along with three patents. Key publications include "Saturable Absorption in 2D Ti3C2 MXene Thin Films for Passive Photonic Diodes" (Advanced Materials, 2018), "Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol using Biogenic Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Derived from Breynia rhamnoides" (Langmuir, 2011), "Nanobiotechnology can boost crop production and quality" (BMC Biotechnology, 2013), and "The intrinsic thermal conductivity of SnSe" (Nature, 2016). Podila was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2024 for contributions to chemical sciences and Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) in 2025 for advancing condensed matter and applied physics. He received the Clemson University Young Alumni Council's Roaring10 award in 2019.