Student Spotlight: Suraj Panicker

Suraj Panicker received the 2026 - 2027 TEX-E Fellowship.   Read further to learn more about his motivation for research and his advice to current graduate students. 

What motivates you about research?

Research gives me the chance to explore ideas that are still open and to add a small new piece of information to what we know. It's a great opportunity to examine something closely and then tell that story in a way that reflects my own perspective.

What is your favourite aspect about the PhD experience so far?

My favorite aspect of the PhD experience so far is how much it has reshaped the way I think. I’ve been lucky to work with mentors and colleagues who approach research problems in very thoughtful and creative ways, and I’ve tried to learn as much as I can from them. When I started, I felt like I had twenty scattered ideas with no clear structure or execution plan. That number may be down to ten now since I have got better at organizing my thoughts and turning them into something useful. To be honest I’m still learning, but that ongoing process of refining how I think and work is what I enjoy the most.

What advice do you have for current graduate students?

Take an hour every week to reflect on where you are going with your research and life in general. As long as your actions align with your professional and personal goals, you should be on the right track. Research is not about being right everyday, more about being less wrong than what you were yesterday.

What excites you most about TEX-E

TEX-E is an innovation program that connects university students with people in the energy and climate entrepreneurship ecosystem. It provides me a chance to connect with people who are actually building things in the climate tech space and hear directly what problems they are trying to solve. TEX-E brings people from many different backgrounds into the same room, and I’m especially interested in learning how engineers, scientists, policy experts, and entrepreneurs all look at the same challenge from different angles. I’m excited by the idea of testing my own ideas in that environment and hopefully contributing something useful to this community.