Dr. Vinayak Bhat
Dr. Vinayak Bhat is the Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Division of Health, Mathematics, and Sciences at Columbia College, SC. He holds a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry, which he earned under the expert mentorship of Dr. Chad Risko at the University of Kentucky, USA. His academic journey also encompasses an integrated Masters' degree from the esteemed Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Throughout his academic pursuits, Dr. Bhat has exhibited a versatile research portfolio, delving into diverse areas such as organic synthesis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, photochemistry, Cryo-electron microscopy image processing, and computational chemistry with a particular focus on molecular dynamics and density functional theory. His undergraduate research activities set the foundation for his subsequent impactful contributions.
Notably, Dr. Bhat's passion for computational chemistry led him to play a pivotal role in accelerating the development of organic electronic materials. His exceptional projects, conducted in Dr. Risko's laboratory, harnessed the power of computational chemistry techniques to advance this critical area of research. A significant highlight of his journey includes his leadership role as one of the developers behind OCELOT, an innovative infrastructure dedicated to data-driven materials discovery. His expertise spans diverse facets such as database management, automated high-throughput workflows, web app development and deployment, and integration of machine learning methodologies.
Beyond his research endeavors, Dr. Bhat is deeply committed to educational outreach. He frequently conducts workshops to introduce coding in Python for chemistry, bridging the gap between computational methodologies and practical applications. His YouTube channel ChemistryWithCode has over 1400 subscribers.