Ajay Virkar

After completing his bachelor’s degree at Illinois, Dr. Virkar earned his PhD under the guidance of Professor Zhenan Bao at Stanford, where he investigated and improved the performance of thin film conductors and semiconductors. In 2010, he co-founded and launched C3Nano after winning several business plan competitions, including the MIT Clean Energy Competition. As CTO, he is responsible for technical direction and is involved in overall strategy and business development. C3Nano has become a global leader in transparent electrode materials for clean technology applications such as flexible personal electronics, solar cells, OLED lighting, and smart windows. Dr. Virkar has more than 25 patents related to materials for next-generation and progressive electronics, and has co-authored technical publications in peer-reviewed journals.