Biography
Vijay K. Ramani is the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and International Affairs at Washington University in St. Louis. He holds the Roma B. and Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished University Professorship and serves as a Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering. His prior roles at the University include serving as the Chair of WashU’s Faculty Senate Council and as Faculty Fellow for Entrepreneurship for the Danforth Campus.
Vijay oversees Washington University’s graduate enterprise comprising ca. 9,000 graduate and professional students. He serves as a key member of the provost’s core leadership team, advises the provost on graduate education trends, programming, strategic planning and policy, and works closely with school deans and vice-deans to advance graduate and professional education across the university. He is responsible for administering several university-level fellowships and overseeing The Graduate Center.
On the international affairs front, Vijay supports international research and education across all schools and facilitates global partnerships and programs. He serves as executive director of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, leading efforts to recruit top scholars from around the globe to pursue graduate and professional degrees at WashU in preparation for careers as future global leaders.
Vijay’s research interests lie at the confluence of electrochemical engineering, materials science, and renewable energy technologies, with a focus on electrochemical energy conversion and storage (low temperature fuel cells, electrolyzers and redox-flow batteries). NSF, ONR, DOE, ARPA-E, and industry currently fund/have funded his research. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (ECS, 2022) and is a past Chair of both the IE&EE Division of ECS and of Area 1E of AIChE. Vijay has a PhD from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and a BE from Annamalai University, India, both in Chemical Engineering. He has held an Extraordinary Professorship in Chemical Resource Beneficiation at North West University, South Africa, and visiting professorships at Tsinghua University and IIT Delhi.