Venkata Anish Chaluvadi

Materials Science and Metallurgy

Anish couldn't be here for the ceremony so his certificate was received on his behalf by his supervisor, Professor Louise Hirst.

Anish Chaluvadi is a final year PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, as part of the Space Photovoltaics Group led by Prof. Louise Hirst. His research focuses on radiation-tolerant architectures and scalable manufacturing approaches, particularly for InP-based photovoltaics. Anish is a Gates Cambridge Scholar and previously served as Co-President of the Cambridge University Energy Technology Society. He holds an MRes in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NanoDTC) from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Materials Science and Engineering from Clemson University, with prior industrial experience at 3M and GE
Vernova.

Nearly all modern satellites, from navigation and communications to climate monitoring, rely on solar power. However, conventional space solar cells are expensive, require heavy shielding against radiation, and are difficult to scale, limiting next-generation space infrastructure. Anish’s research tackles this bottleneck by re-engineering indium phosphide (InP) solar cell architectures. During his PhD, he demonstrated ultra-thin InP devices that survive extreme radiation and developed hybrid InP solar cells using scalable manufacturing techniques to reduce cost and complexity. Together, these advances enable lightweight, high-performance systems that unlock longer mission lifetimes, reduced launch costs, and more resilient power generation for the fast-growing space economy.