Arvind Ravikumar

Arvind is a postdoctoral fellow working at the intersection of energy, climate change and policy in the Energy Resources Engineering department with Prof. Adam Brandt. He is studying fugitive methane leaks from the nations natural-gas infrastructure and assessing various technologies to implement cost-effective leak detection and repair programs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. His Ph.D. dissertation, titled High performance II-VI based intersubband infrared devices, presents research on the development infrared lasers and detectors used in environmental sensor systems for pollution monitoring and health analysis.

Arvind has been actively involved in various science outreach and extracurricular activities. He served on the Executive Committee of the Council of Princeton University Community (CPUC) to advise the President on various matters of university policy. During his tenure, major changes were enacted to Princetons sexual harassment policies and new initiatives were started to improve diversity and inclusion on campus. He was also part of Princeton Energy and Climate Scholars (PECS), where he worked on an energy distillate on the prospects of nuclear fusion as a renewable energy source for the Andlinger Center for the Energy and Environment these distillates serve as high-level introduction to various energy topics for business leaders, students and policy makers. In addition, he served on the Graduate Student Council of the Electrical Engineering department, was a senior fellow at the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, a member of Princetons PRISM cleanroom user-committee, and co-founder of Highwire Earth, a student-led sustainability journal at Princeton.

Arvind received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, along with a minor in energy and climate policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was awarded the Newport graduate award in Photonics for his work in the field of infrared optics, and an outstanding teaching award from the Electrical Engineering department. He also led a 5-member interdisciplinary and multi-university team to win an NSF student-led Independent Project (SLIP) grant of $50,000 to develop the next generation state-of-the-art infrared detectors used in sensor networks. Prior to Princeton, he double majored in Physics and Electrical Engineering.