S Shankara Narayanan

About

Dr. S. Shankara Narayanan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics & Environmental Sciences, Sharda School of Engineering & Science, Sharda University, Noida (U.P.). An accomplished Experimental Physicist with 17 years of progressive research and teaching experience spanning Experimental Nanoscience & Nanotechnology and Thermal Energy Storage. Career includes 3.5 years of international postdoctoral research experience followed by over 13 years of academic research and teaching, reflecting a strong foundation in both fundamental and applied nanoscience.

Research contributions are documented through ~30 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals including Journal of Physical Chemistry C/B, RSC Advances, Langmuir, Colloids & Surfaces A, Catalysts, and BioNanoScience, alongside 3 published Indian patents in carbon nanodots and antimicrobial nanoparticles, and 5 book chapters in internationally acclaimed edited volumes by Springer, CRC Press, De Gruyter, and Nova Science Publishers.

Core research interests encompass fluorescence/FRET-based nanosensors, quantum dot bioconjugates, green synthesis of carbon-based nanomaterials for their applications as sensors and biomedical applications and phase change materials for solar thermal energy storage— spanning a continuum from fundamental photophysics to translational nanotechnology.

Demonstrated strength in interdisciplinary collaboration, with contributions to biosensing, bioenergy, environmental remediation, and biomedical nanomaterials, supported by a track record of mentoring research students and securing funded projects at the institutional level.

Experience

• 18 years (Research) + 12 years (Teaching)

Qualification

• Ph.D. Physics (S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, CSIR Institute), 2009, JRF-NET qualified.
• M.Sc. Physics (Delhi University), 2004
• B.Sc. Physics (Delhi University), 2002

Award & Recognition

• Awarded Visiting Postdoc Scholarship funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Sweden from 2009-2010.
• Awarded Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) in PHYSICAL SCIENCES under the CSIR Fellowship Scheme in 2007.
• Awarded Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in PHYSICAL SCIENCES under the CSIR Fellowship Scheme in JOINT CSIR-UGC TEST FOR JUNIOR RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP (JRF) AND ELIGIBILITY FOR LECTURESHIP (NET) in 2004.

Skill Sets & Expertise

Nanostructured Materials: Synthesis and Characterizations of nanomaterials & nanobioconjugates (XRD Analysis, HR-TEM, FESEM, FTIR, DLS, Zeta Potential, UV-Vis, XPS, Steady state and time resolved fluorescence and absorption techniques, enzyme kinetic studies)

Research

PUBLICATIONS (INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS)

• Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Potential of Shorea robusta-Derived Nanoparticles for Topical Therapeutic Use (2026). Shuaib Burgee, V. Barghavi, Neha Maurya, Swati Bhati, Tulip Biswas, Sumit Sinha-Ray, S Shankara Narayanan, Soumi Sadhu. Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology, p. 104108. 
• Plant-Based Fabrication of Zinc oxide and Copper Nanoparticles Using Shorea robusta Resin: Dual Evaluation of Safety and Antimicrobial Efficacy (2026). Shuaib Burgee, V. Barghavi, Swati Bhati, S Shankara Narayanan, Soumi Sadhu. BioNanoScience 16, 397 (2026).
• Unraveling Carbon Dot-Deoxyribonucleic Acid Interactions: Binding Modes, Conjugation Strategies, and Applications in Förster Resonance Energy Transfer. Chandni, Lalit P Chandravanshi and S. Shankara Narayanan. Materials Technology (2026), 41(1), 2674215.
• Application of Kigelia africana-derived carbon dots in efficient extracellular electron transfer in microbial fuel cell (2026). Kanu Priya, Soumyajit Chandra, Shilpa Kumari, S. Shankara Narayanan, Soumya Pandit, Kuldeep Sharma, Survesh Rustogi, Nishant Ranjan, Geetha S. J. & Sanket J. Joshi. Environmental Sustainability (2026) pp.1-9.
• Synthesis of Eggshell Membrane‐Derived Carbon Dots for Enhancing Mechanical Properties of Glass Fiber Composites. Gusau, Y.M., Jaiswal, V., Verma, D.K., Paye, S., Bodduru, K. and Narayanan, S.S. In Macromolecular Symposia, 2026 (Vol. 415, No. 1, p. e70209).
• Green Plasmonic Silver Nanoparticles for Colorimetric Sensing of Hg2+ and Fe3+ Ions in Water. Abubakar Suraja Ibrahim, Noopur Srivastava and S. Shankara Narayanan. In Macromolecular Symposia, 2026 (Vol. 415, No. 1, p. e70134).
• Synthesis and Characterization of Natural Biomass-derived Carbon Dots. Shuaib Burgee, V. Barghavi, Soumi Sadhu and S Shankara Narayanan. Springer Proceedings in Physics, Recent Trends in Materials and Devices, Springer Singapore 2025.
• Facile Synthesis and adsorptive removal of Rhodamine B dye from aqueous medium using green synthesized nanocomposite. Flomo Gbawoquiya, Kumari Rachna, S. Shankara Narayanan, Pramod K. Singh, Shiv Shankar, Ikhwan Syafiq Mohd Noor and Muhd Zu Azhan Yahya. Zastita materijala, 2024 65(3):452-465.
• Application of Low-Cost Plant-Derived Carbon Dots as a Sustainable Anode Catalyst in Microbial Fuel Cells for Improved Wastewater Treatment and Power Output. Kumar, A.; Narayanan, S.S.; Thapa, B.S.; Pandit, S.; Pant, K.; Mukhopadhyay, A.K.; Peera, S.G. Catalysts. 2022 Dec 5;12(12):1580.
• Synthesis and characterization of biocompatible bimetallic-semi-aromatic polyester hybrid nanocomposite. Rohit Kumar, Piyush Kumar Gupta, Soumya Pandit, Niraj Kumar Jha, Janne Ruokolainen, Kavindra Kumar Kesari, Pravin P. Patil, S. Shankara Narayanan. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, Volume 633, Part 2, 127845 (2022).
• Assessment of Annual Effective Dose from Equilibrium Equivalent Concentration of 222RN and 220RN in Northern Zone of Punjab (India). Pargin Bangotra, Pragya Pandit, S. Shankara Narayanan, Pramod K Singh, Manish Sharma, R.M Mehra, Rohit Mehra, Meenakshi Arora. Test Engineering & Management 83, 9116-9121 (2020). 
• A concise review on performance improvement on solar stills. S Shankara Narayanan, Apurv Yadav, and Mohammad Nadeem Khaled. SN Applied Sciences, 2(3), 511 (2020).
• Thermal properties of nano-graphite-embedded magnesium chloride hexahydrate phase change composites. A Yadav, B Barman, A Kardam, S Shankara Narayanan, A Verma, VK Jain. Energy & Environment 28 (7), 2017, 651-660.
• Development of sunlight-driven eutectic phase change material nanocomposite for applications in solar water heating. S Shankara Narayanan, A Kardam, V Kumar, N Bhardwaj, D Madhwal, P Shukla, A Kumar, A Verma, VK Jain. Resource-Efficient Technologies 3 (3), 2017, 272-279.
• A Review on Thermophysical Properties of Nanoparticle-Enhanced Phase Change Materials for Thermal Energy Storage. A Yadav, B Barman, V Kumar, A Kardam, S Shankara Narayanan, A Verma, D Madhwal, P Shukla, VK Jain. Recent Trends in Materials and Devices, 37-47, 2017, Springer Cham.
• Solar thermal charging properties of graphene oxide embedded myristic acid composites phase change material. A Yadav, B Barman, V Kumar, A Kardam, S Shankara Narayanan, A Verma, D Madhwal, P Shukla, VK Jain, AIP conference proceedings 1731 (1), 2016, 030030. • Ultrafast thermal charging of inorganic nano-phase change material composites for solar thermal energy storage. A Kardam, S Shankara Narayanan, N Bhardwaj, D Madhwal, P Shukla, A Verma, VK Jain. RSC Advances 5 (70), 2015, 56541-56548.
• Selection of Arginine-Rich Anti-Gold Antibodies Engineered for Plasmonic Colloid Self-Assembly. P Jain, A Soshee, S Shankara Narayanan, J Sharma, C Girard, E Dujardin, C Nizak. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 118 (26), 2014, 14502–14510.
• Time-resolved photoluminescence decay characteristics of bovine serum albumin-conjugated semiconductor nanocrystallites. D Mohanta, S Shankara Narayanan, SK Pal, AK Raychaudhuri. Journal of Experimental Nanoscience 4(2), 2009, 177-191.
• Ultrafast energy transfer from 3-mercaptopropionic acid-capped CdSe/ZnS QDs to dye-labelled DNA, S Shankara Narayanan, SS Sinha, PK Verma, SK Pal. Chemical Physics Letters 463 (1-3), 2008, 160-165.
• Fluorescence dynamics of bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugated CdZnS nanocrystallites. D Mohanta, S Shankara Narayanan, SK Pal, AK Raychaudhuri. The European Physical Journal-Applied Physics 43 (2), 2008, 263-268.
• Sensitized Emission from a Chemotherapeutic drug Conjugated to CdSe/ZnS QDs. S Shankara Narayanan, SS Sinha, SK Pal. Journal of Physical Chemistry C 112, 2008, 12716-12720.
• Structural and Functional Characterization of Luminescent Silver-Protein Nanobioconjugates. S Shankara Narayanan, SK Pal. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 112 (13), 2008, 4874-4879. 
• Validation and divergence of the activation energy barrier crossing transition at AOT/lecithin reverse micellar interface. S Shankara Narayanan, SS Sinha, R Sarkar, SK Pal. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 112 (10), 2008, 2859-2867.
• Luminescence Depolarization Dynamics of Quantum Dots: Is it Hydrodynamic Rotation or Exciton Migration? S Shankara Narayanan, R Sarkar, SS Sinha, F Dias, A Monkman, SK Pal. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 112 (9), 2008, 3423-3428.
• Picosecond to Nanosecond reorganization of water in AOT/lecithin Mixed Reverse Micelles of different morphology. S Shankara Narayanan, SS Sinha, R Sarkar, SK Pal. Chemical Physics Letters 452 (1-3), 2008, 99-104.
• Direct Conjugation of semiconductor nanocrystals to a globular protein to study protein-folding intermediates. R Sarkar, S Shankara Narayanan, LO Pålsson, F Dias, A Monkman, SK Pal. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 111 (42), 2007, 12294-12298.
• Structural and Functional Characterization of Enzyme-Quantum Dot Conjugates: Covalent Attachment of CdS Nanocrystal to alpha-Chymotrypsin. S Shankara Narayanan, R Sarkar, SK Pal. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 111 (31), 2007, 11539-11543.
• Size and Shape-dependent Electron-Hole Relaxation Dynamics in CdS Nanocrystals. R Sarkar, AK Shaw, S Shankara Narayanan, C Rothe, S Hintschich, A Monkman, SK Pal. Optical Materials 29 (11), 2007, 1310-1320.
• Nonspecific Protein-DNA Interactions: Complexation of alpha-chymotrypsin with a Genomic DNA. S Shankara Narayanan, SK Pal. Langmuir 23 (12), 2007, 6712-6718.
• Aggregated CdS Quantum Dots: Host of Biomolecular Ligands. S Shankara Narayanan, SK Pal. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 110 (48), 2006, 24403-24409. • Direct Observation of Protein Folding in Nanoenvironments using a Molecular Ruler. R Sarkar, AK Shaw, S Shankara Narayanan, F Dias, A Monkman, SK Pal. Biophysical chemistry 123 (1), 2006, 40-48.

Certifications

• NEP-2020 Orientation & Sensitization Programme

  Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Programme (MM-TTP), UGC

  Organized by UGC-MM TTC (GAD-MM TTC), Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, University of Delhi

  Duration: 20^th May – 30^th May 2025

  Participated in UGC-recognized faculty training on NEP-2020 implementation strategies.

• Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on Quality Education and University System & Processes

  Organized by Teaching Learning Centre, Sharda University

  Duration: 4^th July – 12^th July, 2024

  Participated in an FDP aimed at enhancing teaching-learning processes and professional development in higher education.

• Promoting Innovation Amongst Students under IIC Mentor-Mentee Scheme (2023-24)

  Organized by Sharda University

  Duration: 2^nd July 2024

  Participated in a session focused on fostering innovation and creativity among students in academic environments.

• National Conference on Contemporary Advances in Interdisciplinary Sciences

  Organized by Sharda School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University
  Duration: 4^th April - 6^th April, 2024
  Participated in a national-level academic conference to enhance knowledge exchange and scholarly engagement.

Area of Interest

• Fluorescence/FRET-based nanosensors, quantum dot bioconjugates,
• green synthesis of carbon-based nanomaterials for their applications as sensors and biomedical applications. 
• Plasmonic nanoparticles for advanced sensing applications.