Shaama Mallikarjun Sharada

Shaama Mallikarjun Sharada’s research interests span the development of algorithms to enhance reliability of quantum chemistry-based reaction-rate predictions and their application towards the design of viable catalysts for sustainable chemistry. She received her Bachelors and Masters from IIT Bombay, where she was awarded the Institute Gold Medal. She received her PhD from UC Berkeley in 2015 for her work on development of efficient reaction path search algorithms for catalysis applications. As a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, her work spanned the development of machine learning density functionals, construction of databases for benchmarking functional accuracies for surface chemistry, and design of electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis catalysts. Since 2017, she is the WiSE Gabilan Assistant Professor in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. She is a recipient of the 2020 ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Award the 2020 Scialog Fellowship.