Vasanthi Sunkara, CEO & President
Ms. Vasanthi Sunkara has been leading ADEM since its inception as the CEO and President and is responsible for the overall business operations. She received an MBA from the University of Louisville in 1996 and a B.S in Accounting from St. Theresa’s College (India) in 1994. Ms. Sunkara has over 20 years of business analysis and project management experience. She has extensive knowledge of the SBIR funding process and has been involved in presenting the technology to investors and raising equity investments for the company. At ADEM, her current responsibilities include HR management, managing company’s R&D projects and reporting, contracts and strategic partnerships. Ms. Sunkara also sits on the company’s Board as a Director.
Dr. Mahendra Sunkara, CTO
Dr. Mahendra Sunkara is the Founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Advanced Energy Materials, LLC. He pioneered several technologies for producing nanowire based materials and their use in various catalysts and batteries. Dr. Sunkara received his B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Andhra University (India) in 1986, a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University in 1988, and a PhD in 1993 from Case Western Reserve University. He worked at Faraday Technology, Inc. in Dayton, OH, from 1993-1996 as a Project Engineer before joining UofL as an assistant professor in 1996. In 2013, Dr. Sunkara has been named as the Director of the Conn Center for Renewable Engineering Research. He has published over 140 articles in refereed journals, four book chapters, and was awarded over 25 U.S. patents. He co-authored a book entitled “Inorganic Nanowires: Applications, Properties and Characterization” published by CRC Press. He was awarded the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty in Engineering award in 1999 and a NSF CAREER award in 1999. In 2002, the Louisville Magazine placed him in the list of top 25 young guns in the city of Louisville. In 2009, he received the UofL President’s distinguished faculty award for research and United Phosphorus CDS Award from the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2009. He has been named as Fellow of Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation in 2017. His research work was cited about 7000 times with an h-index of 40. His work resulted in over twenty US patents. Prior to founding ADEM, he founded two other companies, Chemner Batteries, Ltd in India and Indacle Software, Inc in Dayton, Ohio.
Dr. Praveen Meduri, Research Engineer
Dr. Praveen Meduri, a Research Engineer, has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville and has over 10 years of experience in materials’ synthesis as well as characterization, plasma catalysis, the development of nanowire-based materials for energy conversion and storage applications. Previously, he was an associate professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad working on 2D metal chalcogenide materials for applications in photoelectrochemical water splitting, H2O2 production, water purification and energy storage. Specifically, he worked on the materials’ synthesis as well as their structural and electrochemical characterization. Prior to that, he spent two years at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory working on the design and development of injectable micro battery as well as the materials for the micro batteries. He also worked at Pennsylvania State University with an emphasis on silicon-polymer binding applicable as anodes in lithium ion batteries (energy storage).
Dr. Hari Reddy, Research Scientist
Dr. Hari Reddy is a Research Scientist at ADEM and is currently working on design and development of plasma catalysis modular process for ammonia synthesis and CO2 to methanol over nanowire catalysts. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, India in 2012. Dr. Reddy has over 9 years of experience in heterogeneous catalysis for green applications. His research experience includes Biomass conversion to biofuels, catalysis for green applications, hydrogen production from biomass and conversion of syngas to methnol and chemicals. His research also focuses on the development of metal oxide supported catalysts for methanol and higher alcohols from syngas. His expertise is in catalyst design, development, and catalyst characterizations for structure-activity relationships. He was awarded as senior research fellow (SRF) from CSIR, India, in 2009. He has published more than 35 peer-reviewed international journals as a lead and co-author and one Korean patent. He has attended national and international conferences to present his research findings.
Christian Aravena, Process Engineer
Christian Aravena joined ADEM as a Process Engineer and is responsible for the nanomaterials production and other production processes. Christian is originally from Chile and moved to the US a few years ago with the desire to accomplish studies in Engineering. He graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the City University of New York and an Associate of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Hostos Community College, New York. During my academic journey I got fascinated with materials science course and I decided to enroll in 2020 at the University of Louisville to pursue my Masters in Material Science and Engineering, expecting to graduate in 2024. Previously he worked as a Process Engineer at J&J Pharmaceuticals as a process and automation control specialist. Besides science, he has a passion for art. Chirstian is fluent in Spanish an dis a certified personal trainer.
Vaisakh T Veettil, Production Engineer
Vaiskh T Veettil, Production Engineer at ADEM. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Mahatma Gandhi Institute in Kerala, India. He is responsible for catalyst prepartion and the final extrusion process of catalyst products at ADEM.
Abhinav Nouduri, Associate Research Engineer
Abhinav Nouduri is an Associate Research Engineer at ADEM and is currently working on CO2 to Biofuels DOE funded Phase I project. He has a M.S in Chemical Engineering from IIT Chennai, India and is currently pursuing his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville and expected to graduate with his doctorate in 2024. Abhinav is responsible for materials characterization and sample analysis.