Ecological and environmentally friendly battery systems provide safer solutions that can aid in the replacement of toxic and unsafe options such as existing lead-acid batteries.

Anurag Mohanty, our next pathbreaker, works as Research Manager at EasylZinc, a French material solutions company that develops and produces advanced electrode materials for zinc-based rechargeable batteries.

Anurag talks to  Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about his industrial PhD at University of Strasbourg in France, funded by the FRC-Solvay  fellowship, that shaped his career path in cleaner solutions to solve the global energy crisis.

For students, always focus on technologies that complement business in delivering a useful product to the society through greener alternatives !

Anurag, can you share your background with our young readers?

I was born and brought up in Rourkela, the steel city of Odisha, to an Odia family. At that time, my dad after finishing his graduation was working in the Rourkela Steel Plant as an operator while my mom was a teacher-turned-housewife. Their prime focus was to get their kids well-educated, no matter what. In my childhood, I was well-known for being the kid in the house who is always away for playing games till late in the evening or doing little mischiefs. I was studying all subjects as usual in an ICSE board followed by science majors during my higher secondary education. With time, my interests have evolved largely from becoming a long haul truck-driver to a white-hat hacker to a fashion photographer and  finally becoming a material scientist, I have indulged into a lot of possibilities. The only thing that has remained constant in my pursuit has been my curiosity to know everything, backed by my family’s support to give anything a shot. After my higher secondary education, I studied chemistry during my Bachelors and Masters at NIT Rourkela. Following that, I moved to France to get my PhD wherein I honed my research skills in energy storage and conversion. 

Studies and work aside, I keep myself busy in a lot of different activities. Right from my early days, I remember my dad always planning our next vacation and making sure the camera is ready for those perfect pictures. Although classical singing and guitar lessons were tried and tested, I lost interests in them pretty easy. I think my dad’s travel bug and photographer instincts got into me pretty early in life. I have done professional photography since my NIT days and have worked with quite a few TV actresses from the Ollywood industry at a certain point of life. Photography has taken a back seat for the last couple of years now. But, I make sure to travel to a new city almost every two months now. The thirst for discovering new culture and cuisines keeps me on my toes.  I picked up on cooking since my school days after watching my mom spend hours in cooking those amazing odia delicacies. Starting from cooking for school friends when my parents went out of city, to doing small workshops on Indian cuisine in France, my cooking skills have improved largely. Besides these, I love to learn new languages, currently onto my 7th language. This helped me integrate easily into the French culture and also be able to read some great Persian literature like those of Rumi and Hafez. These and a lot other poet’s works inspire me to write small couplets or poems every now and then. Living in a city surrounded by three different mountains, a bit of hiking every now and then helps me maintain a good work-life balance too. 

What did you do for graduation/post graduation?

My interests in chemistry had strengthened during my high-secondary years and significantly during the gap year that I took before doing my undergrad. The gap year improved my national ranking difference and allowed me to choose between various options from the well-known core engineering branches to dual degree B.Tech+M.Tech programs to the BS+MS program in basic sciences which I chose without flinching. It was a concern for many as I was in the third batch of such a program in Chemistry at NIT Rourkela, but I went for it as I thought it would give me  a significant advantage being early in the game. My elder brother who also went against all odds to do what he wanted, made sure he supported me and convinced my parents to allow me into this new program. Those 5 years at NIT changed my thought process largely and motivated me to work on bigger global problems using the tools of science. After finishing my masters in Chemistry, I obtained my PhD in Materials Science. It was an industrial PhD as I always wanted to work at the interface of basic science and its applications to solve real world problems. I am someone who is more interested in getting tangible results using the academic knowledge. Thus, my PhD helped me work on various aspects of solving the global energy crisis.

What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional career in Applied Research?

As I mentioned before, my career goals have evolved from becoming a truck-driver to a material scientist. I remember having plans to become a truck-driver up until my 7th grade as I was always amused to see them during our long travels to the native cities of our parents. So, a lot of things have boiled down into bringing me to the position where I am today. Having an over-achieving elder brother, who went to National Science Congress Seminars and even NASA for a space competition, in the same school always kept me in the cross-hairs of all teachers in school. So, up until finishing up my 10th grade, I just thought I will get into an engineering course and see where it goes. Even my teachers didn’t have a huge expectation from the younger kid in the family. But, things changed during my +2 days when my interest in chemistry kicked in because of two guys: Pandey Sir and KK Patra, two chemistry gurus in two different coaching classes. They made chemistry look way too easier than dealing with the x’s of maths and forces of physics. I was also tinkering with computer science like majority of students from my batch. But, as my brother was already studying it, he made me aware of the bottlenecks which I might face pursuing that, especially in maths. Thus, I went into doing what I was good at.

A little appreciation goes a long way: After much reflection, I arrived at NIT Rourkela, enrolled into the 5 years Integrated BS+MS in chemistry program. Things took an interesting turn in my life here. One of the major events which happened was at the beginning of my 2nd year. Right into couple of weeks of my 3rd semester, I remember my friends congratulating me in my class because my name was on the list of top performers who would receive a token of appreciation on 15th August, the institute foundation day. I was shushing them off as I didn’t believe them and never thought that I can ever be in the toppers list of any program. Finally, this news was confirmed on the departmental notice board and my happiness knew no bounds. This was my first taste of success which got me into what I am doing today. This event changed the entire trajectory of my life to a large extent and made me believe that even I can plan big. I kept on receiving this token of appreciation on every foundation day of NIT Rourkela till the end of my tenure.

Early support for research endeavours: After my first foundation day celebration, I never looked back and kept on marching forward and exploring the wonderful world of chemistry. Not being a fan of organic chemistry which  a lot of people consider the crown jewel of chemistry, I had planned to work on the other aspects of chemistry. Luckily, I found great mentors in the form of Prof. R. K. Patel and Prof. P. Dash. They made sure that the inhibitions people had about joining a new branch of integrated program at NITR was far from true. Prof. Patel would always discuss about the research mindset and the fact that students shouldn’t wait for a PhD to do research. He kept giving me real life unsolved environmental problems which could be solved using chemistry. One such problem of developing a cheaper and eco-friendly cleansing agent gave me my first patent on which I worked during the 2nd summer of my Bachelors tenure. When thinking about going ahead in research and preparing for a PhD, it was Prof. Dash who welcomed me into his lab seeing my enthusiasm to start early on lab skills besides the regular coursework. He made sure I worked on projects which could give relevant outputs and made me understand the art of manuscript writing at a very early stage. I was able to be part of two publications under his guidance. He helped me get both my internships which later became an important advantage in securing my PhD position in France.

Getting a Taste of Industry: I came to France for my PhD, with the idea of finishing my PhD as soon as possible and then do a couple of post-docs and head back home to work as a professor or researcher in a government institution. This remained the case almost until the middle of my PhD. As I was part of an industrial PhD project, I soon got the opportunities to present my results at the R&D departments of Solvay both in Belgium and in India. These trips were a game changer as it was the first time a researcher was exposed to a world where engineers breathed life into lab research and made real products for the market and had the potential to create an impact that one can see in their lifetime. These visits and discussions with the industrial experts as to how my lab research can be scaled up to an industrial product got me interested in moving from academia oriented research to industrial research and process development. Wrapping up my PhD, I kept looking only for industrial research positions which allowed me to work on projects with various startups and finally ending up in the current startup where I work as a Research Manager for developing materials for Zinc batteries and testing them.

How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path

My career path has been dynamic in itself and has been shaped by a plethora of events starting with my enrolment at NITR. The first year was exploratory in nature where I got to see a great mix of talents from all corners of the nation and some international too. I remember my batchmates being apprehensive of joining this new branch and some even planning to give another attempt the following year for a better college and degree. On the other hand,  I had a very positive attitude about being in the first few batches. We knew that there wasn’t a huge alumni group for this branch. But, that’s what gave opportunities for everyone to engrave their mark easier and faster in the eyes of the faculty and the department. I took it upon myself to get involved in various activities of the chemistry department including starting a chemistry society and an annual departmental magazine. This put me in the forefront of students who could be easily recognized by the faculty because of deeper interactions. I remember also being able to work as student coordinator on various verticals in a first of its kind national conference of the department,  ACBIR-2014. This allowed me to get into a lot of interesting conversations with some of the greatest minds in chemistry in India, which gave me a lot of ideas and motivation for doing research. My major takeaway was that it is essential to have a positive attitude and keep looking for opportunities to make your mark. 

During my tenure at NITR, I did two external internships, one at IITB and the other at IRCELYON, France. Both were very important. One taught me what I should not look forward to at work while the other taught me what keeps me motivated to work. Back in Mar 2014, I remember half of my friends had already secured an internship and the other half did not care, as an internship in the 3rd year of the 5 year program was not mandatory and had no extra credits. I was in a panic mode as my internship in France was cancelled because of funding issues and the national STEM internship program by IISc had rejected my application even though I was in the top three of the class and had got a publication sorted. Prof. Dash came to my rescue and had secured me an internship position at IITB seeing my interest and enthusiasm for research. Thus, I landed at IITB for my summer internship of 2014 wherein I worked on Hydrogen storage in Magnesium nanoparticles. The project was largely theoretical with around be 3-4 experiments in the lab. Even though I liked coding, I realized by the end of the internship that, simulation and theoretical chemistry is not my cup of tea. A year later, I finally got the funding for my summer internship in France. It was May of 2015 when I landed at Lyon Airport to start my dream internship only to find out that it was late at night in the city when I reached and was kinda lost in figuring out everything. The first thing that I experienced was the culture shock followed by the language shock. Going to a new country had been a dream for me, but the welcome I got wasn’t something I had dreamt about. This internship actually taught me what being independent means as I had not left home for ages. That aside, it showed me what I was missing professionally back home and how fast research can actually go. It was an experimental project to synthesize high quality graphene (a carbon material) and validate the quality. Research was fast and results were faster. This kept me motivated throughout along with the weekend trips exploring Europe.  That is when I thought I need to get back to Europe someday for work. 

It was then my final year of Masters and  I was again into a bit of panic as I had not got my path sorted. I had categorically said no to campus placements as I was sure by that time that I wanted to do a PhD. I had also not applied to any US or Canadian universities as I didn’t want to go for a 5 year PhD program with coursework, that too so far away from home. My only goal was to find a good PhD position in Europe so that I get into a 3-4 year program focused purely on research and the wish to get a Schengen Visa so that the traveler inside me would be happy as well. I had got a couple of positions in Italy and Spain by the end of my 5th year which I finally ditched because I was not convinced by the projects or the research groups. I took a gap of a year again before starting my industrial PhD at University of Strasbourg in France, funded by the FRC-Solvay  fellowship. In the year 2017, I was one of the 3 students who won this fellowship globally. This PhD changed my idea of getting into academia permanently because of the steep requirements and the lack of transparency in the hiring processes. It made sure that my next step would be towards a career in the industry. I believe the two key components of doing a PhD is motivation and direction.  Once you set your goals, you get motivated to find the way to achieve those goals. My goal during my PhD was to  help solve energy crisis. My approach was to acquire as many skills as possible and use them as tools to answer the unknown. 

Anurag, since your PhD was an Industrial PhD, can you explain the problem statement and your research?

My PhD was focused on developing a process for Graphene based materials with different morphology and characteristics, for developing electrodes to be used in supercapacitors as a candidate for energy storage and also as a catalyst for conversion of CO2 to methane as an alternative energy source. Both the projects were planned largely on real world applications as supercapacitor projects were already in pipeline in France and CO2-to-methane conversion had already started in pilot scale in Strasbourg and NRW region in  Germany. 

My guide was initially hesitant, but later impressed upon the fact that I wanted to work on completely different projects. I don’t believe in publishing lot of papers by switching some components of the key  materials, the permutation combination strategy, as I believe it is more of optimization than invention. I believe in attacking a fresh problem and trying to resolve it and thereby making a product out of it. The key driving factor has been the fact that I wanted to develop real life solutions which will be in the society during my lifetime, so that I can proudly take my last breath. This approach has kept me going from startup to startup as they are the frontliners in innovating such solutions.

After wrapping up my PhD, I moved to a contractual role; postdoc positions with different startups in collaboration with academia , which is a very common culture in France and recently started in India (as incubation centers). My first position was at Grenoble Green Graphenofluids as a research engineer where I worked on process otpimisation and quality assurance for concentrated graphene liquids. Later, I moved to a joint project with BeFC and Nawa Technologies, wherein, I worked on immobilization of enzymes on Carbon NanoTube based electrodes, sourced from Nawa, that can be used as supercapacitors in sensor assembly for BeFC.

While switching startups, I always had a clear idea of which skillset of mine is going to be most used and which growth trajectory I can look forward to. My motto was never to join a position where I was already an expert in at the early stage of your career, because that means the learning curve is very low which leads to rapid loss of motivation due to redundancy. Always plan in advance for the future and do your homework about knowing the possible growth trajectories before joining any company. 

How did you get your first break?

My current role as a Research Manager is my first industrial permanent position. All the previous startup and industrial projects that I carried out were partially in collaboration with academic or research institutions in France. The key factors that helped me land at my first industrial position were the changes in approach of presentation of my experience and through networking. PhDs in general tend to present CVs with an academic and research scope whereas industries look for key improvements and skills acquired. PhDs need to understand that their research is very specific whereas the market they are looking for is an already established one with a planned technology. It is more about their skills in technical analysis and autonomy as researcher that is valued than the publications or number of conference representations they have done. Transforming your thought process from a purely scientific and academic point-of-view to a product and market based temperament is highly essential to land such positions. Over time, I worked largely on improving my CV and making it more market oriented. At the same time, I kept myself updated on all networking spaces essentially used in France. My ex-CTO reached out to me over LinkedIn after finding my CV and profile in a site called, Association Bernard Gregory(ABG). After a first technical discussion, I was called onsite where I met the-then CEO of EasylZinc and discussed about my vision and research skills. Two days later, I got the offer and I have been here for about 2 years now. So, it is essential to know your terrain and plan for keeping all options open. 

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

Taking a path less chosen and trying to make something out of it often puts forth a lot of new obstacles. Getting a job in the technical world where the goal is to transform research into reality has made me overcome some major professional and personal challenges. 

Understanding your strengths and the market: 

It is very common for young individuals to follow their friends and take up something which they later don’t feel like continuing. Therefore, it is highly essential that students invest time in making themselves aware of various possibilities and opportunities before choosing any particular direction. Students should know their strengths and learn about what is going to dominate the market in the next decade so that they can develop their skills accordingly. Following the herd makes you part of the herd, not the leader of the herd. If you want to follow the herd, then make sure to be the best among all. 

Right around the end of my 12th grade, I had clearly thought out what I wanted to do and why I need to do such a BS+MS program from an institute like NIT Rourkela. Although there are a lot of basic science colleges in India, NITR being a well-funded national institute does help you get early access to state-of-the-art research facilities. The experiences and exposure in early career helps, because you land international summer internships too which can later convert to PhDs if one is interested.  Having such clarity at an early stage helps you define your path easier.

Not Giving Up: 

One can plan a lot, but then life happens and life is not fair. Things go out of your control. That is exactly when you don’t let life win. It is your time to hold tight and fight back. Keeping a positive attitude and never giving up is what it takes to continue going in the path and making things happen for you. People might not support your choices as they did when I chose this course over possible engineering options. I also took two gap years in my career; once for joining a national institute like NITR and once while getting my dream PhD program. People around me sometimes lost hope and got scared and advised me to take the easier way out. But, that is when I chose not to give up. NITR happened as I had promised myself and so did a PhD which allowed me to work on energy crisis issues. One can say my career got delayed because of the gap years. I believe those two years made me more patient and helped me come out stronger and better. 

Making a Home away from Home:

We plan for the goals but the path is rarely known and it often takes you to places you have never been to. Cutting edge research and innovation through disruptive technologies is often a path that makes us Indians leave the homeland. It is essential for individuals to learn adaptability to initially survive and then flourish in another country in a completely different environment. Such was the case when I moved to France, a non-English native country. It’s a European country know for its culture and gastronomy. It took me some time to overcome my homesickness and then be part of the community here. I can proudly say today that I can converse easily in French and enjoy the French way of life. I have got a good French circle too where I get to enjoy the culture like a local. 

Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?

Currently, I work at EasylZinc as a Research Manager. EasylZinc SAS is a French material solutions company, based in Savoie, created to develop, and produce advanced electrode materials for zinc-based rechargeable batteries with specific interests in zinc anodes. We are positioned as an active material supplier and technology validator for Calcium Zincate based materials in the Zinc battery value chain. Our flagship product, Calcium Zincate helps improve the performance of Zinc batteries and their lifetime usage. We aim at helping battery manufacturers make an ecological and cost-effective battery replacement for secondary storage largely targeted for the current Lead-acid industry. These batteries are currently being tested in pilot scales globally for datacenters, solar farms, and industrial backups to name a few. The idea is to aid in the replacement of the toxic and unsafe options, like Lead-oxide (known carcinogen) and Lithium based batteries (known for fires recently in the Electric Vehicles). 

What skills are needed for job? How did you acquire the skills?

Being a research manager, one is expected to actively contribute both in product development and validation. The person should be able to work autonomously and be a decision-maker for validating technical requirements as per the goals of the company. EasylZinc, being a material solutions company, requires knowledge in material development and its application validation using electrochemistry in small battery prototypes. The technical knowledge can be acquired over time with study of courses upto a minimum of Masters level followed by either exposure to academic PhDs or industrial roles. Industrial roles might take longer as the positions right after Masters are very well defined for a specific task thereby making the scope limited. Whereas, the PhD pathway is less paying though research acumen and autonomous thought process development is faster. Working in different setups and projects via internships and end-of-year projects can help develop different POVs for approaching a problem. Positions where you can lead a group of interns, technicians, engineers or researchers are essential for a managerial position so that you know how to drive the team towards a mutual goal. 

I met a large part of the requirements by virtue of the career path I chose. I had identified material science as my research focus subject early in my career which allowed me to work on various projects related to the same. An industrial PhD after my masters helped me get equipped with the required competencies. I worked not just on material development but also invested a large amount of time in studying electrochemistry and how batteries work, from a micro to a macro level. I also studied about catalysts and modification of materials that can help improve performance in the end product. Being able to handle interns, engineers and PhDs later in startup scenarios helped me build my case as a research manager. 

What’s a typical day like?

I have become an early riser after joining my current position at EasylZinc in order to develop better habits and plan my day in a way that I can have a good amount of after-work time for myself. I am one of the first few folks to reach the office and my day usually starts with spending some time updating myself about the happenings in the battery industry and zinc industry. Then the days involve meetings and result discussions with my team and the hierarchy. A large part is dedicated in research studies to keep a tab on new technologies and possible material modifications. I juggle between internal and external technical project status updates and reporting.

What is it you love about this job? 

The best part about the job is that I get to do what I have always loved to do and had dreamt of since my early career stage. Working on the forefront of developing cutting-edge solutions that challenge the market giants and having the ability to transform research ideas into real products is what makes me get up everyday for work. The thrill to be part of a team that emphasizes on driving green innovation with quality and at a speed unparalleled, is what I love about this job. 

How does your work benefit the society? 

My work focuses on developing new active materials for zinc batteries which help solving the global energy crisis. These battery systems are typically installed for storing renewable energy sources as well. Further, it helps bring into market more ecological and environmental friendly battery systems thereby providing safer solutions for the future. This technology can replace existing lead-acid battery factories which makes use of existing land and resources invested. Therefore, it is a win-win for the society.

Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!

Working as a Research Manager for a battery active material company offered me a plethora of opportunities to work on various segments of materials development and battery electrode testing. I have seen how powders can be magically converted into electrodes whose capacitance can be measured using potentiostats. Starting from a PhD where I made supercapacitors with few milligrams of powder for very small formats, the most memorable work would be when I designed and experimented the industrial format Zinc electrodes. The scale-up to real product format and actually testing it myself is definitely something that I will keep close to me forever.

Your advice to students based on your experience?

My advice to students is to enjoy your life, but make sure you plan for the future too. Keep taking baby steps to achieve your goals. Make sure your goals are based on something that makes you happy and keeps you motivated. Try to think about working for the greater good. Nothing is impossible and there is no single defined path for success. Just focus on being the best in whatever you do. Be curious in your approach because you never know when you might have a better solution than what exists. Keep working consistently taking each failure as a learning example till you reach your goal. 

Lastly, I see the majority of Indians outside India are dominated by students and individuals from certain states only. Therefore, I would encourage others to get over their homesickness and be able to spend some time experiencing the world, not as a tourist but as a professional. The growth in outlook and your thought-process is exponential and should not be skipped upon.

Future Plans?

In the future, I would like to advance my skills in different disruptive technologies so that I can provide innovative solutions. I believe technology and business need to go hand in hand to deliver a useful product to the society. Therefore, I will also work on developing my business acumen  in the energy  and climate sector and look forward to bringing greener solutions.