Aishwarya Menon received her B.Tech. in plastics engineering in 2013 from Central institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, India, her M.Tech. in polymer science and technology in 2015 from the Indian Institute of Technology, and her PhD in nanoscience and engineering in 2019 from the Indian Institute of Science. Since 2021, she has been a Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue, where she is developing strong wet-tissue adhesives to replace sutures, staples, and screws used in surgeries or to repair injuries. She has demonstrated that her bio-based glue can stop an actively leaking hole in less than a minute, and she is working with Purdue Veterinary Clinical Sciences to test the glue’s ability to close wounds on the backs of rats. Long-term, her research will focus on marrying tissue adhesives with nanotechnology for improved functionality. She has volunteered with Purdue’s Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day and organized two science camps for high school students from lower-income communities in India. She plans to create a highly inclusive work environment and lead a research group comprised of students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and sexes. She aspires to be a professor who prioritizes her students’ personal and professional challenges and provides them with enough flexibility and resources to succeed.

Research Interests

Surgical tissue adhesives and sealants