International Women in Engineering Day 

Dr. Aruna Ivaturi is an EPSRC Fellow, Chancellor’s Fellow, and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde, where she leads the Smart Materials Research and Device Technology (SMaRDT) Group. She also serves as Strathclyde’s Energy Sub-Theme Coordinator for Photovoltaics and is a founding Principal Investigator of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainable Practices of Research in Energy (C-INSPRE)—the University’s first interdisciplinary Energy Centre for Doctoral Training, uniting expertise from all four faculties.

Her research is distinguished by its focus on sustainable materials and cutting-edge device technologies aimed at solving global challenges in energy, environment, and healthcare. She has made impactful contributions to the development of switchable coatings for energy-efficient windows, solar photocatalysts, dye-sensitised electrochromic devices, and novel materials for sensing and solar energy conversion. Her recent work centres on next-generation photovoltaics, including spectral conversion, dye-sensitised, and perovskite solar cells. She is currently advancing the UK's leadership in elastic perovskite photovoltaic technologies through an EPSRC Fellowship, supported by £1.1 million in funding.

Under her leadership, the SMaRDT Group is pushing the boundaries of interdisciplinary research. In the energy sector, she focuses on ultra-lightweight, flexible solar cells for indoor applications and the upcycling of biomass and plastic waste into printable, stretchable energy storage systems such as supercapacitors and photosupercapacitors—technologies critical to achieving a Net Zero future. In environmental research, she is developing electrochemical sensors for detecting heavy metals and photocatalysts that operate under visible light for water purification. In healthcare, her team is designing innovative electrochemical glucose sensors and biodegradable piezoelectric sensors for sustainable medical diagnostics.

For more details see her webpage.