Dr. Chithra Lekha Palaikkavilagathil

Senior Research Scientist

Research Area:
1- MedTech Devices
2- Thermal Management in Electronic Equipments

Dr. Chithra Lekha Palaikkavilagathil completed her Ph.D. in developing volatile organic sensors using hybrid organic-inorganic materials. After her doctoral research, she has a six-year research experience at Indian Institute of Technology Madras and teaching experience at Anna University and Pondicherry University. She was the winner of the BioMedTech Innovation Challenge 2.0, jointly conducted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and AstraZeneca in October 2020. She has also won the MEDIC Innovation Award 2019 by IIT Bombay for developing and presenting the proof-of-concept of Tumour Margin Guiding.
This award was given under the “Best Surgical Instrument – Impact” category. She was also the winner of the first edition of prestigious MaterialNext contest conducted by Tata Steel and IITM E-Cell in May 2019 for developing a sweat based flexible biosensor for dehydration detection. Her start-up Team Bion has been pre-incubated at HTIC, IIT Madras.
She is also a science diplomat and represented India at BRICS Young Scientist Forum 2019. She actively participates in policy analysis and has contributed in framing the policy documents. At VT India, she leads a team of researchers working on the unmet problems of medtech industry and thermal management in electronic equipments. Under her leadership, a centre for flexible wearables is being established at VT India.