CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation Archives

Dr. Neha Khatri is Principal Scientist at the Department of Manufacturing Science & Instrumentation, CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh. She is a young researcher working in the area of ultra precision machining and optical metrology techniques for smart manufacturing.

Dr. Khatri earned her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 2010 from the University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kanpur and her master’s in advanced instrumentation engineering in 2012 from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Chennai. She then joined as a scientist at CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh in November, 2012. She received her Ph.D. in 2019 in opto-mechanical instrumentation from AcSIR, Chennai. She made significant contributions to advanced manufacturing techniques using ultra precision machining protocol for the development of various techniques and products for societal and strategic applications. Her research findings and investigations have received recognition through high impact publications, international collaborations, as well as transfer of technologies. Dr. Khatri’s scientific recognitions include Raman Research Fellowship 2021-22, SERB Women Excellence Award 2022, INAE Young Engineer Award 2021, and IEI Young Engineer Award 2022 for her notable contribution in the area of ultra-precision machining. She has received many best paper awards in various international conferences. She was inducted in the second BRICS Young Scientist Conclave to represent India at Hangzhou, China in 2017.

The key hurdle in high throughput precision freeform optics fabrication is quality control. As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Khatri is working at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Her research focuses on developing on-machine metrology for precision fabrication of freeform optics with fast measurements and analyses for closed loop control and optimization.

Ms. Neha Kaushal is a Ph.D. candidate at the Material Science and Sensor Application department of CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh. Her doctoral research primarily focuses on the design and characterization of nanocarbon based heterojunctions for the photocatalytic degradation of endocrine disrupting chemicals in water. She is an awardee of the prestigious DST-Inspire Fellowship since 2019.

Ms. Kaushal gained her bachelor’s degree in non-medical (2016) from Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya College, Punjab. For her bachelor’s thesis, she worked on a project titled, “Kinetics and Thermodynamic Study of Adsorption of Cr (VI) on the Low-cost Leaf Powders” under the DST-STAR grant of Department of Biotechnology. Her master’s degree is in physics (2018) from Lovely Professional University, Punjab, where she was awarded a gold medal for securing first rank in the university. Here, she explored the NIR spectroscopy and Aqua-photomics for the detection of various adulterants in milk as her master’s thesis project and gained publications in the same. Apart from research, she has a keen interest in arts and crafts.

As a Fullbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Ms. Kaushal is targeting successful development of new photocatalytic materials for the degradation of organic pollutants in water. She believes these materials could have energy harvesting applications.