Akshitha Selvaraj

Akshitha Selvaraj is a postdoctoral researcher at the Namur Institute of Structured Matter (NISM), within the Laboratory of Reactivity and Organic Catalysis (RCO) team.

She received her master's degree in chemistry at the Bishop Heber College, India. Later, she moved to the University of Rennes, France to pursue a second master's degree specialized in Catalysis and Green chemistry. During her master internship, she worked on the synthesis of photochromic phosphines under the guidance of Dr. Marc Devillard and Dr. Gilles Alcaraz. Then, she pursued Ph.D. in the same group at the Rennes Institute of Chemical Science (ISCR). Her Ph.D. is focused on exploring the reactivity of silacyclopropenes that are highly constrained silicon analogues of cyclopropenes and valuable precursors for complex heterocyclic molecules. 

In 2025, she joined the group of Prof. Guillaume Berionni at the University of Namur, Belgium as a postdoctoral researcher to work on the BatFactory project funded by the Walloon region. Her current research is focused on the development of new non-coordinating aluminum anions for Lithium ion batteries. Alongside, she is studying the reactivity of silatriptycenes to generate a highly pyramidalized silylium ion Lewis superacid.