Ajay Virkar
Ph.D. ’10
Chemical Engineering
Academic advisor: Professor Zhenan Bao
What have you been up to since Stanford?
I co-founded C3Nano with Professor Zhenan Bao and another lab member in 2010 (the same year I finished my PhD). C3Nano is a platform advanced materials company that has developed a novel class of conductive inks and films that are serving a variety of sectors including: consumer electronics, clean-tech, and life-sciences. In addition to having our inks and films commercialized in multiple different consumer electronics devices, we have been fortunate enough to supply our material into the world’s first foldable phone, and are doing some exciting new projects to enable new medical devices, and next generation photovoltaics and smart windows. At C3Nano I currently serve as the CTO and oversee research and new technology development, intellectual property, and manage several commercial and technical partnerships.
What’s your fondest memory about your time in Stanford?
I loved the time I spent at Stanford learning so many new and exciting things! The research is truly cutting edge and I was able to interact with, and learn from, so many gifted professors, postdocs and students. I also enjoyed many of the engineering classes I took at Stanford - especially Professor Andy Spakowitz’s Polymer Physics course (still not sure how I passed 😊) and many of the non-technical courses audited in the Philosophy and History departments. I was lucky to be part of a wonderful, intellectually and geographically diverse circle of friends with whom I have forged life-long and profound connections. I have been the best man in a wedding in Osaka, spent a day in a hammam in Turkey, and visited Einstein’s apartment in Bern all because of the treasured friendships I made at Stanford.
Can you share any advice to our current students and postdocs?
Focus and learn as much as you can about the foundational subjects like thermodynamics and kinetics. I have found solving nearly every technical problem begins with trying to understand it within the context of thermodynamics and kinetics. These are also subjects where there is always something to learn and understand more deeply.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship or commercializing a new technology as a career, be prepared to invest a significant amount of time and energy. Depending on the industry, it is not uncommon for a new chemical/material technology to take ~7-10 years to commercialize and launch a real product. Don’t be deterred though, there is a ton to learn when developing a totally novel technology that has never been done before and something very satisfying when it launches and becomes a commercial product that solves an important problem.
This article is part of the Department of Chemical Engineering Alumni Spotlight series designed to highlight the impact and trajectory of the work of our alumni. Stanford University does not endorse any non-Stanford entities, programs, products, or services listed in the article.
