Prashanth W. Menezes

Prashanth W. Menezes is the Head of Materials Chemistry for Thin Film Catalysis at CatLab, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), Adjunct Professor at the University of South Queensland (UniSQ) as well as leads a group for Inorganic Materials at the Institute of Chemistry, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, specialising in solid-state and materials chemistry. Subsequently, he transitioned to Technische Universität München to explore novel functional materials and then to Technische Universität Berlin to focus on energy catalysis. Menezes is dedicated to designing, developing, and comprehending the structural intricacies of novel functional catalysts for sustainable and renewable energy applications. His work involves synthesising unexplored classes of inorganic nanomaterials and studying their atomic and molecular-level interfaces. This research offers valuable insights for enhancing heterogeneous catalysts in areas such as redox oxygen catalysis, (photo)electrocatalysis, electrochemical redox reactions, batteries, and electrosynthesis of value-added chemicals. His research group is committed to unravelling the active catalyst's structure, the nature of active sites, and the surface/interface and bulk structure of catalysts. They employ advanced operando and in-situ spectroscopy techniques in conjunction with various ex-situ methods to gain mechanistic insights and pathways. Menezes has made significant contributions to the field with over 165 publications in high-impact international journals and has received multiple international/national awards and fellowships including “BEST” scientists in the field of Materials Science and Chemistry.