Dr Deepak Venkateshvaran
Royal Society University Research Fellow
Biography
Deepak Venkateshvaran holds a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory, where he leads a research group on the nanomechanics of soft electronic materials. He is a Fellow and Director of Studies in Physics at Selwyn College, and teaches master’s-level courses on energy harvesting and energy generation technologies. In 2024 he worked part-time at the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on policy relating to energy and low-dimensional materials, leading an internal report on the UK’s investment in graphene research and development. He received a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Research
His research develops and applies force mapping techniques to measure mechanics at the nanoscale, across multifunctional soft systems such as organic and hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors. A central aim is to connect the nanomechanical properties of these materials to their electronic, thermal, and optical function. This work is sustained by a network of global collaborations spanning Belgium, Sweden, Canada, and Japan.
Key publications
- K.-H. Hwang et al., Measuring the molecular origins of stiffness in organic semiconductors, Nature Communications 17, 1621 (2026)
- S. Cristofaro et al., Assessing the influence of nanoscale morphology on the mechanical properties of semiconducting polymers, J. Mater. Chem. C13, 15506 (2025)
- I. Dobryden et al., Dynamic self-stabilization in the electronic and nanomechanical properties of an organic polymer semiconductor, Nature Communications13, 3076 (2022)
Website link
