Scattering and Instrument Sciences

Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

Dr. P. Thiyagarajan (Thiyaga)

Materials Sciences and Engineering Division
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
SC-22.2/Germantown Building, Rm F-425
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20585-1290

E-Mail: p.thiyagarajan@science.doe.gov

Phone: (301) 903-9706
Fax: (301) 903-9513

Dr. P. Thiyagarajan (Thiyaga) joined the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences as the Program Manager for Neutron Scattering on October 27, 2008.  He received his B.Sc. in 1971, M.Sc. in 1973 and Ph.D. in Physics in 1979 from the University of Madras, India. His Post-doctoral research was in the area of experimental biophysics at the University of Illinois, Chicago during 1980-81 and 1983-85 and at Argonne National Laboratory during 1981-83. As a Staff Scientist at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source, Argonne National Laboratory during 1985-2008 he led in the pioneering development of two world-class time-of-flight Small Angle Neutron Scattering instruments, grown a vibrant user base that consistently produced high impact science, collaborated with several leading scientific groups and carried out his own research in the areas of block copolymer self assembly, polymer composites and hybrid nanostructured materials. He made strong contributions in the development of an Anomalous Small Angle X-ray Scattering instrument at the Advanced Photon Source and the Time-of-Flight Single Crystal Macromolecular Neutron Diffractometer (MaNDi) under construction at the Spallation Neutron Source. He trained 11 Post-doctoral candidates and presented numerous invited talks at major national and international conferences. He is a co-author of over 220 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals on the structure and dynamics of soft and hard condensed matter and scattering instrumentation. As a member of the International Union of Crystallography Commission for the Small Angle Scattering during 1999-2008 he made strong contribution to the expansion of the SAS to materials research as well as training younger scientists. He was also a Selection Committee Member for the prestigious Guinier, Shull, Sidhu and Warren Prizes bestowed on scientists for the excellence in the areas of neutron and x-ray scattering applications for materials research.