Charusheela Ramanan - Photoconversion Materials section - Department of Physics and Astronomy

Charusheela Ramanan has a background in Physical and Materials Chemistry. After completing her B.Sc. at the University of California, Berkeley, she carried out her Ph.D. research in Chemistry at Northwestern University. Her thesis focused on the development and photophysical characterization of novel material systems for organic photovoltaic devices. She continued her research career as a postdoctoral researcher Vrije Universiteit/Laserlab Amsterdam, where she used time-resolved spectroscopy to study the biophysics of photosynthetic energy conversion. Following this, she worked as a senior researcher in photoconversion materials, developing in situ Raman characterization of organic optoelectronic devices.
In March 2017, she joined the division of Molecular Electronics at MPI-P Mainz as a group leader for Disordered Materials for Organic and Biohybrid Electronics. While there, she was awarded a grant for the project “Multi-scale design principles of polymer photocatalysts for solar fuels” (2019).

Since September 2020, she is an Assistant Professor in the Physics&Astronomy Department at the Vrije Universiteit/LaserLaB Amsterdam, where she leads the Disordered Molecular Materials group within the Photoconversion Materials Section. Charusheela was awarded a National Growth Fund (NGF) grant together with colleague Sven Askes (2024) for the project “PolyPulse” within the program CircularPlasticsNL.

Community Development

• Advanced Summer School on Photochemistry, HRSMC
• Chair, Programme Committee, NWO Physics 2025
• Programme Committee, NWO Physics 2024

The Disordered Molecular Materials group explores photoactivated processes in excitonic molecular and polymer systems for applications in optoelectronics, sensing, and light-driven chemical reactions. The DMM experimental toolkit involves synthetic chemistry and photophysical studies using advanced time-resolved spectroscopies and microscopies.

Current research focuses on stimuli-responsive photoactive materials triggered by light pulses, electrochemical bias, or pH changes. Another new research line is within the project PolyPulse, which is part of the National Growth Fund program CircularPlasticsNL. This project, in collaboration with colleague Sven Askes and consortium partners Fabian Eisenreich (TU Eindhoven) and Nigel Visser (Veridis), focuses on using programmed light pulses and photothermal materials to precisely control plastic pyrolysis reactions for polymer recycling.

Read more about DMM research projects on the group webpage.

Courses

• Physics of Sustainable Energy/Physics&Astronomy BSc
• Materials for Light-Energy Conversion/Physics&Astronomy MSc
• Science Project Course/Science, Business & Innovation MSc

Academic Management

• Examination Board, Science, Business & Innovation, VU
• Admissions Committee, Master Science, Business & Innovation, VU
• Programme Committee, Master Physics&Astronomy, VU+UvA

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