Good day, Dr. Madhivanan Muthuvel. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Quite excited to get this opportunity being shortlisted for this particular position. Electrochemist at Arc Center.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

I started with B.Tech and chemical and electrochemical engineering. It was in Sikri Karakudi and the degree was awarded by the Madhuri Kamracharya University. Then I went on to do my Masters in engineering and Environmental engineering especially at Anna University. Then I went on to.

United States to do my PhD in chemistry specialization on electrochemistry.

Electric deposition to be very specific.

At the University of Georgia. Then I took up the postdoc Postdoctoral Research Associate position at Ohio University under the guidance of Professor Gerardin Bote.

So what would a Ohio University? My concentration on the research was mainly to synthesize hydrogen from ammonia electrolysis process. And eventually I was also promoted to assistant research professor at Ohio University and we also as a research group developed into a center Research Center and I also given an added position as assistant. Director of Operations for the Center.

Thanks for sharing that!

Dr. Madhivanan Muthuvel, your resume indicates a strong academic background with a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Georgia, and substantial experience in electrochemical research. Additionally, the role we're discussing requires expertise in core areas of electrochemistry, teaching, mentoring, and guiding students, alongside contributing to research and publications. Let’s evaluate your alignment with these role expectations. First, with your experience as a researcher, how would you briefly explain the significance of electrochemical techniques in energy conversion and storage to a graduate-level audience?

Uh, so I'm assuming the graduate level audience will have a basic knowledge on chemistry here. So if I'm going to explain about the energy conversion process.

It is going to be.

All the electrochemical system, they have anode and a cathode 2 electrode systems and the reaction which happens could be either instigated by applying a current through those electrodes or in a reverse process. The electrolyte or the material between these electrodes will help in forming an electrochemical reaction generating a cell voltage, this particular cell voltage over a period of time.

Could be used as a power source materials. So that is the basic for energy storage. So whenever we have a free energy available or in the form of excess energy I should say, it could be used to convert the electrolyte into charges and store those in an electrochemical system.

That explanation is reasonable as a foundation. How would you further connect these principles to the technology of batteries and fuel cells, particularly when guiding students to understand practical applications?

Good question. So energy power source in general has like a 2 streams, 1 is battery the other one is a fuel cell. Fuel cell systems. So I consider batteries are mostly as a storage system in addition to being able to supply the power source. So externally if we are getting an excess energy then it could be stored inside.

Inside a as a charge.

In a battery system, whereas in a fuel cell system the fuel is supplied to the electrochemical system. As long as the fuel is supplied we are generating the cell voltage or the power output is is experienced. So the moment the fuel cell loses any kind of a fuel source then there is no power output. So for a storage system I would rely on.

Factories, but for generating power on demand, fuel cell will be much more applicable.

That distinction is clear and practical for students to grasp the differences between batteries and fuel cells—well put. Let's move to teaching methodologies. How would you design a lab session to demonstrate electrochemical sensor development, ensuring active student engagement?

Electrochemical sensor for a as a lab session for student. So to give them an idea what is a sensor, I would bring their attention to day-to-day application. For example, in India, everyone should be familiar with a lot of people having diabetic as a health issue and everybody goes through that process and they have a fair knowledge about it. So in order to test.

The sugar level in their blood.

The system or the instrument which does the testing part is mainly in the electrochemical system. So I will bring the connection between a real like application and try to demonstrate that with an artificially synthesized sample and show them how the process is taking place. So initially there will be a demo, a demonstration how to run.

In this experiment with various.

Variations in the concentration in the sugar level in the sample and the current responses as well as how the resolution of detection from the device will be demonstrated. Then the students will be allowed to test it and also make improvements and changes or give them opportunity to understand and come up with questions to suggest like what are the possible changes.

Yes, could be made to this existing device.

Engaging students through real-world connections like diabetic sensors is a thoughtful approach. Allowing hands-on experimentation followed by critical analysis fosters deeper understanding and active participation—well done. How do you evaluate students on precision and inventiveness when they're tasked with improving existing sensors or proposing modifications?

Precision. Umm.

So, uh.

Take

Go ahead, please.

To clarify, how do you ensure students demonstrate both technical accuracy and originality in their evaluations and suggested modifications to the sensor systems?

OK, so for the originality part and the technical knowledge as I describe about the whole system, lot of the students have a tendency to either use an existing knowledge and they might just like give an added information to what I have suggested. So that is not making them thinking critical about. It so if they come up with other kind of suggestions when?

I said other here, something they have observed in some other field or in some other class and they're trying to apply that principle and the concept in improving this. Even it doesn't have to be feasible, I would consider that to be an innovative approach.

I see. Encouraging interdisciplinary thinking and valuing their creative input even if it isn't immediately feasible is a commendable strategy. How do you guide them to refine these ideas further into more practical, achievable outcomes?

For the practical outcome, I would encourage them to go and look for more of.

Research into the literature which are available and there are a lot of journals and publications are being done in this particular area and if they are not familiar, I would teach them how to do a literature search and then give them an idea what is available in the current market and based on those available devices they could. See like What is the difficulty in bringing up a device?

To a commercial level. So then they would know what is the so there will be some kind of like a cost analysis what is feasible and all these thing is an extensive process. It might even I won't even ask them to do it over a particular semester itself, not like a a session of like a one month. It could take A at least like 2 to three months of work from the student. So it could be done as a groups. So I could split the group up in.

Classroom into 3 four groups, everyone to come up with different different strategies and look for research papers and come up with all the possible solutions. That would be a very good engaging discussion.

Excellent. Integrating literature reviews, cost analysis, and group collaboration ensures students grasp both theoretical and practical complexities. Encouraging team-based problem-solving also replicates real-world research dynamics well. Let’s move to a verification of your specific competencies further. Shifting focus, how does your research expertise align with the particular challenges of developing technologies related to carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction?

I have in my last few years. One of the projects which I worked on was on electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to.

Low value fuels. So in that process, in that project, I had a grad student working for me and we had engaged in using carbonate solutions and which was.

Basically carbon dioxide was reduced to a low C1C2 molecules, but not of a higher percentage or the efficiency was really really low.

The key was to use the right kind of a catalyst and the catalyst we were going for was a carbon carbon substrate but deposited with copper. Then we switched to reduced graphene oxide nano composites with copper as one of the.

Mixture and we were able to increase the percentage, but still it is rather in a lower like a 2% of CO2 carbon dioxide was converted to C1C2 and also some of like AC-3 molecules. This was in a fairly.

Low funded project, so we were not able to proceed further much on that.

Understood. Your hands-on involvement in enhancing catalyst efficiency for CO2 reduction, despite funding constraints, demonstrates valuable problem-solving experience. How do you see this research contributing to guiding student projects or advancing collaborations in an academic or industrial setting?

If I take the particular case of CO2 reduction, CO2 reduction is very highly.

Investigated over the last five years or so because of the importance it brings to the global challenges we have right now. So engaging an industrial partner or a collaborator in this particular project will be very it could be easily done. There are good amount of industry collaborations I have done.

Over at Ohio University, where they were keenly interested to convert.

Carbon fuel, CO2 to a fuel.

Material like ethanol or methanol systems. So they were ready to invest, but we had to show some kind of a proof like it is a feasible project. So that's where the student.

Engaging the student while in the academic sense, like bringing up a project to them, asking them to also be involved would be quite a good exercise and if the student is involved.

And works actively. Then they have an opportunity to do a research internship in that particular industry or the company itself.

Involving students in collaborative projects with industry, particularly within impactful fields like CO2 reduction, creates a dynamic pathway for both academic enrichment and career opportunities. It's clear that your approach integrates both scholarly advancement and practical relevance effectively. Now let's shift specifically to your ability to guide postgraduate research. Could you outline how you would mentor a graduate student designing experiments for a novel electrochemical system?

Good for a novel electrochemical system. So I'm going to take it here as an electrolysis process and initially when I start with a graduate student. So I'm expecting them to have a basic knowledge on the electrochemistry. Even if they don't, I don't have an issue in teaching them and guiding them as well. So the first and foremost is like once I know what is the system is.

Any kind of an electrolysis system initially we need to understand.

What is the kind of reactions we are going to deal with, whether it's an anode reaction or a cathode reaction, and even if it needs to be studied individually, I would encourage the student to start with encyclic voltammetry, meaning like a one single electrode, and the reaction on that particular electrode will be analyzed very well. With an electrochemical experiment starting with the cyclic altimetry to understand what are the reaction steps.

That happens. So before going into that.

And before going into that step, like we will start with an, uh, literature review on that. So we'll have a far more different idea what are the catalyst and what is the, uh, knowledge gap or where is the challenges in this particular scenario. So once we know that, then we have at least like a shortlisted the possible catalyst materials and the development of the catalyst and understanding of the mechanism of the particular reaction is key. So I will ask the student to start.

Pardon me.

The basic experiments, electrochemical experiments here then follow it with surface analysis of the catalyst and also to understand or make an hypothesis of possible mechanism and then go into the improvement stage. Once we know what are the parameters are the key then we will start improving and then scale it up to a level where we could measure.

And quantify. I would surely love to have an economic cost analysis done for this whole process as well.

So that it could be done as a proof of concept trying to attract either. If it's a novel idea in the whole process of the work, we would go for a patent.

Or surely there will be a research publication and the graduate student will be surely involved in the publication as one of the co-author and based on this we will be looking for fundings from the central government and possibly collaborations with other researchers.

Your structured mentoring strategy, from foundational understanding to high-level application and patent pursuit, is comprehensive and well-suited to fostering both academic rigor and innovation. Incorporating literature reviews, detailed experimentation, mechanism hypotheses, and cost analysis ensures students are exceptionally prepared. Let’s confirm another skill. This role emphasizes experience in student evaluation and exam duties. Could you describe your usual methods for evaluating student understanding, both in theory and practical courses?

Quite contemporary method is to give them an examination, ask them to answer either multiple choice or a detailed description which is, which is quite easy, simple or it is being done. I don't want to have like a rigorous system where people just like a kind of study before the particular exam. I want them to understand the concept. Once they understand the concept, it doesn't matter whether it is any kind of.

For the theory course.

Exams. So I would like to have like a.

Uh, could be something more like how you are doing it, like an, a based kind of an interactive questionnaire. Uh, it could be done for those individual students separately, uh, and also have them to explain it. Then in the same way there could be an, a seminar or a presentation for the student to take up a particular topic.

It could be a very rigorous I haven't fully thought.

About this whole process, it needs some improvement in there for the laboratory point of view they need to show.

At least a skill of what kind of a reaction or an experiment they are going to run and how it is being possible. So over the period of the semester they could have done many experiments and different results could have been observed. I want them to demonstrate some of.

A chosen experiment differently suggested for different student and give a little bit of like a explanation why that particular reaction. Even if it doesn't bring out the result, they if they understand the concept they should be able to explain it why it went wrong.

Combining traditional assessments with interactive questioning, presentations, and practical demonstrations reflects a balanced approach to evaluating understanding and application. Encouraging students to analyze and defend experimental outcomes, even unsuccessful ones, promotes deeper learning. Given your focus on structured teaching and research, how do you approach classroom delivery to ensure clarity and engagement, particularly when explaining complex electrochemical theories?

So for the complex electrochemical concept, I understand that most of the student who come for the ARC are going to have a mechanical engineering background or automated background. So a complex electrochemical principle I would.

First and foremost, I would like to see if there is a possibility for me to run on hand or a demonstration experiment in the classroom as I'm going to go through the experimentation. But I would easily involve them to answer. So I want to make it like more like a inquiry based learning process if that could be also supported by visual aids. Not generally with just a PowerPoint presentation, but any kind of a video to demonstrate.

For example, if there is a movement of uh, a different charged particle through a separator in battery system, it is very easily can be demonstrated with.

Uh, digital visualization and there are many videos available to demonstrate that, so I could use those, uh, edit tools to convey the concept to the student.

Using inquiry-based learning, alongside hands-on demonstrations and digital visual aids, is an effective way to convey complex concepts, especially to students from diverse academic backgrounds. Tailoring your delivery to foster both curiosity and comprehension is commendable. Lastly, to verify your publication and research engagement, can you share highlights of your recent publications in reputed journals and their impact in the field?

Yes, I had worked on ammonia electrolysis for most of my research. However, one of the paper which was published.

Was mainly on understanding the mechanism.

I have to take my resume. I have to point out exactly which particular publication I'm referring to. This was.

And the idea was to understand the ammonia Electro oxidation process as a mechanism wise what happens to the surface. And it was co-authored by a grad student and myself as well as the director of the Research Center where I worked for. And there is an another.

Published in Electrochemical Actor.

Project I worked on.

For the Bill Gates, Melinda Foundations.

Funded project It was an essential project and.

That publication or the development in that particular project was also published and it was recently in the publication was done in the very recent times.

Pardon me for taking a toy to just bring up the dialogue.

It was published in Chemical Engineering journal and the main idea of to detect E coli in water system and be used nickel based electrode and how this whole process, how the sensor was developed, what was the sensitivity and the precision. It was all discussed in this particular publication and it was an interdisciplinary work. From the chemical engineering student as well as from the.

The microbiology department at Ohio University.

Your publications, particularly in Electrochimica Acta and the Chemical Engineering Journal, underline your commitment to advancing electrochemical mechanisms and interdisciplinary sensor development. Your work on ammonia electro-oxidation and E. coli detection demonstrates noteworthy contributions to both theory and practical application, supported by collaboration across disciplines. Given your demonstrated ability in electrochemical research, teaching methodologies, student mentoring, and publications in reputed journals, I believe we have gathered comprehensive insights into your alignment with this role. Is there anything specific you would like to add or clarify before concluding?

Our scheduled time for the interview is now up. Before we conclude, do you have any questions related to the role or the company?

Yes, I do have A at least a one question. So I understand this position is looking at both teaching as well as research work. What is the distribution of research as well as teaching responsibility?

Uh, no, I'm OK with that. I was looking whether what is there is that a percentage saying like a either it's going to be still 50 percent, 50% or and this another question I do have, how is the research support for this particular position?

The role indeed combines both teaching and research responsibilities. As per the job description, the position requires comprehensive engagement in classroom teaching, laboratory sessions, mentoring students, and guiding their projects, alongside contributing to research activities and publications. Would you like me to clarify or get additional specifics related to the distribution from a formal description?

Funding wise.

OK.

Would you like to discuss any final questions or points before we wrap up?

I think I'm pretty satisfied.

Yes.

Just to confirm, Dr. Muthuvel, do you wish to formally conclude the interview now?