The results of long lab hours can be difficult to pare down to the length of a research paper, let alone a two-minute, single-slide presentation. But that’s exactly what Sivanujan Suthaharan, a master’s student in computational chemistry, was asked to do at the 2023 Royal Society of Chemistry Dalton Division Meeting in England.
Suthaharan’s presentation “Cooperativity on Surfaces: Do molecules have ‘feelings’?” won Outstanding Flash presentation at the conference, hosted by the oldest society of chemistry in the world, for his succinct explanation of how molecules settle on surfaces, the subject of his research at Illinois State.
Appears InThis wasn’t the first time Suthaharan has worked with a major scientific organization. He spent the summer of 2023 at Cornell University as part of the National Science Foundation Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials (PARADIM) fellowship. There, he worked in cutting-edge research labs designed to create new materials not found in nature. That research has fed into his current studies.
At Illinois State Suthaharan uses the University’s High Performance Computing cluster to conduct quantum mechanical simulations, predict how molecules land on surfaces, and see what’s happening with them on the atomic level.
“Mother Nature is the best chemist ever because she designs and has everything perfect and everything for a reason. It’s really beautiful.”
Sivanujan Suthaharan
“This is a collaborative project. People at Washington State University synthesize these molecules, then we put them on surfaces, like gold or graphite. We visualize them through atomic-level imaging techniques,” said Suthaharan. “Based on those things, we try to simulate them in our computers to actually see what is happening.”
To Suthaharan, chemistry means something far more than a formula for success; it’s an opportunity to learn the secrets of the natural world. “Mother Nature is the best chemist ever because she designs and has everything perfect and everything for a reason. It’s really beautiful.”
Suthaharan anticipates his research could be applied to sensor technology. Molecules could potentially bind to toxic metals and be used to detect pollutants in water.
“In terms of efficiency, we want very effective sensors, which can be used for environmental or energy applications,” said Suthaharan. “You can find the mechanism behind why these molecules perfectly lay on surfaces. What happens if I change the parameters, or when there are molecules on the surface and I add another molecule? Eventually, when there is a chemically induced change, it becomes a sensor.”
Dr. Bhaskar Chilukuri, assistant professor of physical chemistry, saw Suthaharan’s potential from the moment he stepped into his lab.
“He’s a hard worker. He gives me consistent updates on the project and keeps track of everything he does in his lab,” said Chilukuri. “He’s a quick learner, too. Some of the programs and the techniques that were introduced to him were all completely new when he came here. He was able to pick it up quickly, in a few months, and then start working on it.”
Suthaharan views conferences as valuable opportunities for professional and personal growth.
“A conference is a valid way to establish your network. You learn a lot from others when they talk, when they deliver, when they discuss,” he said. “It may not even be science. It might be how they present and manage time, how they make science fun when it comes to a big audience, that sort of thing.”
Chilukuri sees the Dalton Division Meeting conference as another step toward a bright future for one of his brightest students.
“I think this is going to do wonders to build his confidence as a chemist. It also opens a lot more avenues because he met new people at the conference. He needed to travel the world,” said Chilukuri. “This definitely helps him for things he wants to do in the future.”
Last spring Suthaharan co-authored with Chilukuri and other researchers a paper titled “Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition,” which was published in the Journal of Molecular Liquids. This new research hasn’t quite pulled him away from his biggest question:
“One thing I’ve always been curious about is how my results from the findings of the simulations agree with the experiments,” said Suthaharan, who is scheduled to graduate next May. “I’m in the process of figuring out what the gap is between theory and experiments. Maybe by the end of graduation, I’ll answer that question.”
