Meet Mangalurean Prof. Anjana Devi, the new director of IFW, Germany

Mangaluru: Prof. Dr Anjana Devi, who hails from south Indian city of Mangaluru and an alumnus of Mangalore University and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has been appointed director of the Institute for Materials Chemistry at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IMF), Dresden, in Germany. 

She is the first alumnus from these institutions to be appointed to the post in Germany. She took over on January 1, 2024. She was also appointed as Chair of Materials Chemistry in the Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden. She is currently involved with Fraunhofer Institute in Duisburg.

Daughter of late K B Bhasker and Vajrakshi Bhasker couple from Kulshekar, Mangaluru, Prof Anjana Devi is married to Dr Harish Parala from Ujire, who is also a scientist based in Germany. The couple has a daughter, Anouksha who is studying in Germany.

Anjana says that Germany is becoming the next Silicon Valley, giving competition to the United States of America. 

“There is a lot of scope for students in Germany, especially Indian students. There is a big boom, with demand in the field of semiconductors for students to do their Masters and postgraduation. Many universities are also signing MoUs with Indian universities,” she said. 

Speaking of her role, she said she would encourage more independent research and draw more Indian students for higher studies and research programmes. 

Anjana said Indian students are very strong and good with theory knowledge, but have limited practical experience, and lack laboratory experience. She noted that there is a stigma among many students. “They fear their lecturers and are worried if things in the lab go wrong or break. But nowadays, young professors are different. Students need to break out of it, have an independent opinion and think out of the box. This is being encouraged in foreign universities,” she said.

Anjana (55) studied Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Materials Science at Mangalore University till 1991. She completed PhD in Materials Science at the Materials Research Centre, IISc. 

She was awarded a fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and moved to Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) as a PostDoc in 1998. She was a junior professor at RUB since 2002 and Professor of Inorganic Materials Chemistry since 2011. 

In 2020, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in science and technology by Aalto University in Finland in recognition of her contribution to the field of precursor chemistry for CVD and ALD applications. In 2021, Anjana received the Attract grant from the Fraunhofer Society for researching 2D materials for innovative sensors using ALD technology. 

Since then, she has been leading the Nanostructured Sensor Materials (NSM) research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems in Duisburg.