Rate My Professor Sridhar Komarneni

Sridhar Komarneni is the Distinguished Professor of Clay Mineralogy in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management and the Materials Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University, where he has made significant contributions to Chemistry through his research on clay minerals and related materials. He received his B.Sc. in Agriculture from A.P. Agricultural University, Bapatla in 1968, M.S. in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from The Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1970, and Ph.D. in Soils and Geochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. Komarneni began his career at Penn State as a Project Associate in 1976, advancing through positions including Research Associate (1978-1981), Senior Research Associate (1981-1984), Associate Professor (1984-1987), Professor (1987-2006), and Distinguished Professor since 2006. He also served as Co-Director of the Consortium on Chemically Bonded Ceramics (1996-1998) and Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (2010).

His research specializations encompass fundamental cation exchange processes, kinetics, equilibria, and thermodynamics in clay minerals, zeolites, and tobermorites for separations of critical metals and hazardous radioactive species; nuclear and hazardous waste disposal via ceramic waste forms, leach testing, and ion exchange immobilization; preparation of ultrafine particles and powders using hydrothermal and sol-gel methods; sol-gel chemistry for nanocomposite materials, bulk ceramics, and thin films; and applications in remediation with clays, materials from plants and by-products, and slow-release fertilizers. Komarneni has earned major awards and fellowships including election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1991), American Ceramic Society (1993), Soil Science Society of America (1994), American Society of Agronomy (1995), and Royal Society of Chemistry (2002); the Marion L. and Christie M. Jackson Soil Science Award (1997); Alex and Jessie C. Black Award for excellence in research (2000); ISI Highly Cited Researcher (2002); Distinguished Member Award, the highest honor of the Clay Minerals Society (2011); and Environmental Quality Award, American Society of Agronomy (2011). He founded and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Porous Materials (1994) and President of the International Solvothermal and Hydrothermal Association (2010-2012). Key publications include "A Cesium Selective Ion Sieve Made by Topotactic Leaching" (Science, 1988), "Bulk Synthesis and Selective Exchange of Strontium Ions in Na4Mg6Al4Si4O20F4Mica" (Nature, 1992), "Superselective Clay for Radium Uptake" (Nature, 2001), and over 490 refereed papers with more than 50,000 citations, underscoring his profound impact on clay mineralogy, materials science, and environmental remediation.