S. Zeena Pillai

Biography

Dr. Zeena S. Pillai came to Amrita in 2009 with several years of teaching and international research experience. She obtained her M. Sc. from Mahatma Gandhi University in 1996, then received her Ph. D. in Photochemistry at the Photonics and Photosciences division, NIIST, Thirivanathapuram (University of Kerala) in 2002. In 2001, she was awarded a post-doctoral research scholarship from Radiation Lab at the University of Notre Dame, USA, where she worked until the end of 2003. She moved to Florida State University, USA as a post-doctoral Research Scientist until 2005. She returned to India as faculty in Chemistry in R. V. Engineering College, Bangalore in 2006. She has been recognized for her research through numerous national fellowships, including a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Senior Research Fellowship from 1999 to 2001, a CSIR Junior Research Fellowship from 1997 to 1999 and a CSIR Research Fellowship through the CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) in 1997. Dr. Zeena ’s areas of interests include syntheses and photophysical studies of conformationally switchable molecular systems, metal nanoparticles and quantum dots. She has 11 publications in international journals to her credit and has presented at several international conferences.

Research Interest

Photochemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Nanomaterials