I received my B.E. (2002) and M.E. (2004) in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from National University of Singapore, where I studied the synthesis, assembly and characterization of wide bandgap semiconductor nanostructures. Thereafter, I spent one year in Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) as a research engineer working on biomimetic synthesis of noble metal nanostructures and synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotube based nanocomposites for photocatalysis. I entered the graduate program in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota joining Prof. Aydil’s group in 2006.