Alok Bharadwaj
PhD student at the Department of Bionanoscience
I started as a PhD candidate in the Electron Nanoscopy Lab in April 2020 amidst the COVID-19 lockdown.
I grew up in Bangalore, a city in southern India. I like playing cricket and badminton, and occasionally I do pencil sketching. When the weather’s good, I love taking my telescope out and peer into the universe.
I studied mechanical engineering at RV College of Engineering in Bangalore and then did a master in opto-mechatronics at TU Delft. I got introduced to Arjen’s group through my master thesis, which I did at 3ME department at TU Delft. In my thesis I demonstrated the use of Fourier Transform Interferometry to measure the profile of a suspended droplet in real time. This is important to improve the throughput of sample preparation techniques for electron cryo-microscopy. It was a collaboration between Dr Murali Ghatkesar and Dr. Lennino Cacace at 3ME, and Dr. Arjen Jakobi from Bionanoscience.
This project opened my eyes for biology at the nanoscale. I am fascinated by the molecular machines which power life on earth. I’d like to build better and precise tools to study biomolecules. I enjoy engineering and am fascinated by biology. Bringing these two worlds together would be how I’d describe my PhD program.
Outside the lab I like playing cricket and badminton, and occasionally I do pencil sketching. When the weather’s good, I love taking my telescope out and peer into the universe.
