The Team

Abishek Kannan Iyer

Canada Research Council (Tier II)

Assistant Professor

Department of Chemistry

University of Manitoba

abishek.iyer@umanitoba.ca

After completing his master's in India, Dr. Iyer pursued Ph.D. opportunities abroad to no avail. Joining as a research assistant at JNCASR under Prof. Sebastian C. Peter, he focused on synthesizing and characterizing intermetallics and organic-inorganic materials. This research yielded several publications, securing him a position at the University of Alberta, Canada under Prof. Arthur Mar


Dr. Iyer focused on developing rational synthetic design principles for new chalcogenides to study their optical and magnetic properties. Moving to Canada, brought challenges -  cold, language, teaching.  A supportive scientific community aided his growth both personally and professionally.  


His postdoctoral research at UC Riverside under Prof. Boniface Fokwa and Northwestern University under Prof. Mercouri Kanatzidis focused on muti-group collaborations resulting in new synthetic methodologies and structural stabilization of the highest-performing nonlinear optical materials. 

CV     Google Scholar 

Dr. Vidyanshu Mishra (Postdoc) 

Dr. Vidyanshu Mishra obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He joined the group in July 2024. Before this, he served as a Research Scientist at SeeO2 Energy Inc. in Calgary while concurrently holding a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the University of Alberta. Dr. Mishra specializes in X-ray crystallography, machine learning, and quantum calculations for the design of new materials. His current research focuses on metal chalcogenides for water remediation and leveraging machine learning techniques to accelerate the discovery of materials. In addition to his professional pursuits, Dr. Mishra has a keen interest in photography.