Raj received his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from A. C. Tech, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai, India. He has previously worked as a summer research intern at Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai (India) on extraction of polyphenols from tea particles. His work "A New Test System for Distillation Efficiency Experiments at Elevated Liquid Viscosities: Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium and Liquid Viscosity Data for Cyclopentanol + Cyclohexanol" was published in the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data. He also received the 2019 AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award which recognizes outstanding graduate students in the areas of distillation and adsorption; crystallization and evaporation; extraction; membrane-based separations; adsorption and ion exchange; fluid-particle separations; and bioseparations.