At the intersection of quantum physics and materials design, Dr Rudra Banerjee leads the Materials Advancing a Viable ENergy future (MAVENs) Group in the Department of Physics and Nanotechnology at SRMIST, Kattankulathur — using computation to answer a deceptively simple question: why do some materials behave the way they do, and how can we design better ones?

His work uses ab-initio DFT and Monte Carlo simulations to compute electronic structure, revealing how atomic-scale disorder governs magnetic, catalytic, and quantum properties in bulk systems (Heusler alloys, perovskites, Fe-based alloys), 2D materials (MXenes, TMDCs), and defect-based quantum systems — with machine learning accelerating materials discovery.

He currently leads a group of four PhD researchers and three project students, and has graduated one PhD and eight MSc/BSc project students — with work spanning Heusler alloys, 2D catalysis, and qubit materials design.

He teaches classical mechanics, mathematical physics, and computational physics at BSc/MSc level, and has developed a graduate-level monograph on Density Functional Theory for PhD coursework — covering everything from the Hohenberg–Kohn theorem to practical implementation.