Sathvik Ajay Iyengar is a materials engineer and PhD fellow in Prof. Pulickel Ajayan’s lab at Rice University. His research focuses on electronic interfaces between atomically thin heterostructures and has led to the discovery of glaphene (patent pending)—a 2D hybrid of silica glass and graphene. In 2024, he earned a Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning at Rice, where he emphasized approaches for making thermodynamics and quantum science more accessible to students of diverse backgrounds. He is a 2024–25 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, where he integrated into a multicultural research group while pursuing fundamental physics. In 2023, he was named an inaugural Quad Fellow at the White House as part of a flagship initiative promoting scientific exchange and collaboration among the United States, Japan, India, and Australia. He was also a Rice–National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NSF-RT) Fellow in Bioelectronics. Before beginning his PhD, he trained across SRM Institute of Science and Technology, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his bachelor’s degree in nanotechnology in 2020. His goal is to one day lead a research team that thrives on confidence and creativity, bridging diverse disciplines and cultures.

Research Interests

Atomically-thin Nanomaterials