Prof. P. Balaya, an alumnus of School of Physics has been inducted as a member of Board of Directors of the American Ceramic Society. Since 1898, the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) has been the hub of the global ceramics community and one of the most trusted sources of knowledge for ceramic materials and applications. The induction took place during the ACerS Annual Meeting held on September 29, 2025, at the MS&T 2025 Conference in Columbus, Ohio, USA. This is a significant achievement since only 3 members of the Board of Directors are elected out of 6000+ members of the ACerS, annually.
Prof. Balaya received his PhD in Physics under the supervision of Prof. C.S. Sunandana in 1993. He worked in IISc, Bangalore as a Research Associate followed by a stint at the Inter University Consortium Mumbai, as a Scientist before moving to Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart as a Guest Scientist. Dr. Balaya joined the Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS) as an Assistant Professor in January 2007 and is currently Associate Professor in the same University. His research areas include energy conversion and storage. Specifically he works on fast chargeable lithium-ion battery for EV applications, sodium-ion battery for micro-grid and solar housing applications. He is one of the founding members of Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore in NUS. He served as a Topical (Battery, Fuel Cell, Capacitor) Editor for the Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry (2013-2017) and currently serves as the Editor of the Journal of Power Sources. He is an elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS, 2019) and elected Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics (2022). He was also recognized by the Society as an ACerS Global Ambassador (2016), recipient of Global Star Award (2015) from ACerS, Late Shri Har Mahandar Singh Chhatwal Memorial Award (2015) from Indian Ceramic Society, and the Max Planck Fellowship (2001 – 2006). He has served in Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a Co-ordinating Lead Author for the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (2009-2011). He has published over 100 journal papers, filed 15 patents and delivered more than 100 Invited/Keynote/Plenary talks.
Prof. Balaya takes this opportunity to thank the School of Physics faculty for their excellent guidance and mentorship during his stay at University of Hyderabad.
The School of Physics, University of Hyderabad takes pride in congratulating Prof. Balaya on his achievements.