Research

The mission of the Varanasi group is to bring about transformational efficiency enhancements in various industries including energy (power generation to oil & gas to renewables), water, agriculture, transportation and electronics cooling by fundamentally altering thermal-fluid-surface interactions across multiple length and time scales. We are enabling this approach via highly interdisciplinary research focused on nanoengineered surfaces and interfaces, thermal-fluid science and new materials discovery combined with scalable nanomanufacturing for significant efficiency gains, reduction in CO2 emissions, and prevention of catastrophic failures in real industrial applications. Our work spans various thermal-fluid and interfacial phenomena including phase transitions (condensation, boiling, freezing), nanoscale thermal transport, separation, wetting, catalysis, flow assurance in oil and gas, nanofabrication, and synthesis of inorganic bulk and nanoscale materials guided via computational materials design. We invite you to explore our research activities.