In
2015, Venkata Gadhamshetty, Ph.D., achieved a level of success known by a
relatively small number of researchers when he landed a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER
award. Five years
later, the hard work of Gadhamshetty and his collaborators is paying off with
about $34 million in funded research across multiple fields.
The
goal of the NSF CAREER program is to empower early career scientists to open
doors to entirely new directions of research. Gadhamshetty’s work involves emerging
classes of materials that can aid in everything from building ultralight vehicles,
to protective coatings for metals, to new ways to harness and store
energy from the natural world and more. His research on generating electricity from defective tomatoes brought acclaim from the History Channel
and worldwide media attention.
One
of his main goals is to better understand how microbes interact with matter on the atomic level and how this understanding could aid
engineering applications. “These are questions that could engage thousands of
people in this research for years to come,” he says. As in all scientific
research, the hardest part isn’t necessarily finding answers; it’s about
finding the right questions. “But to even build the proper question can take years
of research and will require a lot of patience,” says Gadhamshetty.
That
patience is yielding results. Gadhamshetty credits the success of the multiple
areas of research evolving from his original CAREER award, including a microbial power system for space missions and two dimensional materials for biofilm engineering,
science and technology,
to a team of graduate students including Namita Shrestha, Ph.D., and Govinda
Chilkoor, Ph.D., as well as fellow research scientists who contributed to its
success.
Gadhamshetty
also emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence in individual team
members that contributes to the success of any effort.
“Success
in science is about the hard work of many people who are often not properly
recognized. I want to thank previous graduate students for playing pivotal
roles in building the success of research at South Dakota Mines. It’s really a
collaborative effort,” he says.
Gadhamshetty
is one of the leading researchers contributing to the new South Dakota Biofilm Science and
Engineering Center at Mines.
In the years to come, this center is likely to produce research that leads to startup
companies and additional high-tech jobs in the area.