Sashank Shivakumar
PhD Candidate at UC San Diego
San Diego, California
Overview
Work Experience
Research Aide Technical - PhD
2025 - Current
Applied materials division (AMD), materials for harsh environments (MHE) dept. Continuing PhD thesis work on ceramic-ceramic joining for advanced energy.
PhD Candidate
2020
Novel joining schemes for SiC subassemblies in concentrating solar power. Synthesis, consolidation, processing and characterization of advanced high temperature materials - bulk nanocrystalline/UFG/FG refractory multicomponent alloys, oxides, silicides, and borides. Extensive experience with: sintering techniques (FAST-SPS, tube, vacuum, and controlled atmosphere furnaces), custom processing equipment design, fast heating ( > 100 C.s), powder metallurgy, air sensitive materials handling etc. Characterization techniques: XRD, SEM, EDS, EBSD, FIB-SEM.
Senior Analyst: VC Investment
2022 - 2022
Portfolio support and sourcing for/of companies deploying breakthrough materials science and manufacturing technologies, with a focus on semiconductor, LDES (Thermal/Geothermal), DER, and battery verticals.
Anzu Partners is an investment firm that invests in industrial and life science technology companies.
Shah Fellow: Technology Program Management
2021 - 2022
Engineer: Materials Science & Technology Development
2018 - 2020
Core technology validation for Brain Computer Interfaces.
Volunteer Researcher and Graduate Teaching Assistant
2017 - 2018
Nanocomposite Carbon Nanotube paints and coatings for non-invasive structural health monitoring of concrete via tomographic approaches. (ARMOR Lab, Prof. Kenneth Loh) TA for PHY2CL (Aug '17 - June '18) - Physics Lab: Electricity and Magnetism
Consultant
2015 - 2016