Akanksha Menon is an ITRI-Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her current research is focused on developing a hybrid membrane-thermal desalination technology for produced water treatment using thermally-responsive materials and photonic heaters.
Akanksha received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2018, where she synthesized polymer thermoelectric materials and designed devices for energy harvesting. Akanksha is a recipient of the 2019 Sigma Xi Dissertation Award and 2017 MRS Graduate Student Award, and she has served as the Co-President of the Energy Club @ Georgia Tech. Most recently, Akanksha was a finalist in the Berkeley Lab Research SLAM, where she presented her work on desalination using solar energy.
Research Interests are Thermal technologies and functional materials for the energy-water nexus including: thermoelectric energy conversion, thermochemical energy storage, solar desalination and zero liquid discharge using stimuli-responsive materials, energy-efficient buildings