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Karan Dikshit is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering Program studying under Assistant Professor Carson Bruns in the . He is also affiliated with the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering and ATLAS. He is originally from Pune, India.

What brought you to Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder?

I started graduate school in another materials science and engineering program that focused on conventional hard materials, all the way across the country on the east coast. I transferred to Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder a semester later because I missed my fun, squishy, soft materials. For those who do not know, Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder is one of the best schools for soft materials research as is evident from its focus on lithography and liquid crystals. I did not know how pretty Boulder is before coming here. I am very happy that I did.

What is the focus of your research thus far? What problems do you hope to solve?

My current research — even before graduate school — has focused on structure property relationship establishment of polymers. I synthesize my own polymers — called polyrotaxanes, which can be imagined as molecular necklaces — and characterize them using chemical and mechanical techniques.

What attracted you to the MSE Program?

I joined the MSE Program only because of the amazing soft matter research. The MSE Program allows you to choose your sub-track of interest and choose coursework accordingly which makes it a lot less stressful to get done with classes and focus on research.

How has the program benefited your research?

By virtue of being in the MSE Program I have met and collaborated with a lot of super-smart people, and I have learned many new techniques, ideas and perspectives.

What is a problem or challenge you encountered as a student here, and how did you overcome it? Who gave you a helping hand? 

I started working with a freshly minted PI so, while we were building our lab up, I needed access to a lot of different equipment that we did not have then. The MSE student community, at large, helped me find labs that had the equipment I needed. That helped get my research started very early on.

How do you strike a balance between your work as a student and your personal life?

The program not only allows but encourages students to have a good work-life balance. I try to treat my PhD as a regular 9-to-5 job and stick to those hours for work. It’s not always possible to contain all the work in those hours, but I try.

Why might you recommend MSE to students considering a graduate program in science and engineering?

People applying to graduate schools should look at MSE because it’s an amazing program to be part of. Even though it is a relatively new program, it has produced a lot of great researchers and many of them have won the prestigious NSF-GRFP fellowship. I would recommend the MSE program to students because it is a very academically rigorous program which allows for flexibility in choosing your subjects and is in Boulder, Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ. What more does one want?

Where might you want to go next (industry, academia, national lab, etc.)?

I recently completed a summer internship in a company, and I loved the work environment. I’m sure I will be going to industry after my PhD.

What do you do for fun or in your spare time (if you have any!)?

In my spare time I love spending time with my wife and cooking — or, rather, learning new recipes from my wife. I love racquetball and badminton and I try to play at least once a week. I have started learning golf and I hope to play more of it.