Ajay Virkar

Ajay oversees C3Nano’s research and new technology development, production, intellectual property, and manages several commercial and technical partnerships. He has helped C3Nano raise more than $50 Million dollars in strategic and venture capital.

Ajay has more than ninety patents (issued or pending), and has co-authored eleven technical publications in peer-reviewed journals.

He completed his BS in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (with honors) at the University of Illinois (UIUC) and his PhD in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University where he received the Melvin P. Klein Award (from SLAC), and the Springer Prize, which recognized and published his doctoral thesis as amongst the top dissertations globally. In 2010, Ajay helped C3Nano win the MIT Clean Energy Grand Prize and the NASA Game Changer Technology Award. He was an inaugural recipient of the University of Illinois Young Alumni Award (department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2019). Ajay is also an associate producer for the documentary film Infinite Potential about the life and times of physicist and philosopher David Bohm.