Dr Suraj Soman

Dr Suraj is a Principal Scientist at the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (C-SET), CSIR-NIIST, India. A gold medalist and First Rank holder from Mahatma Gandhi University, he earned his Ph.D. from Dublin City University, Ireland, and completed postdoctoral research at Caltech and Michigan State University, USA. He has also worked with leading international industries, including SolarPrint, JCAP, and Dow Corning.

His research focuses on developing next-generation indoor photovoltaic technologies, particularly dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells, as sustainable alternatives to conventional batteries. At CSIR-NIIST, he established a state-of-the-art Molecular Photovoltaic Laboratory and has secured over ₹25 crore in research funding. Dr Suraj has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and has an h-index of 27.

He is the recipient of several prestigious national and international awards, including the French-CNRS Research Award, CSIR Young Scientist Award, INSA Medal for Young Scientist, and BRICS Young Scientist Award. He also represented India at G20 and UN Science Summit engagements.