The Kavli Network Effect: Archana Raja

Over the past quarter century, The Kavli Foundation has partnered with scientists at the forefront of discovery. Through 20 international Kavli Institutes — along with fellowships, funding programs and other collaborative initiatives — we see brilliant minds connect with one another, exchange ideas and explore the deepest questions about the universe, from the vastness of space to the workings of the human brain.

This series, The Kavli Network Effect, explores stories of scientific discovery, connection and collaboration by highlighting scientists who are part of the Kavli ecosystem. Each profile traces how encounters throughout this community have shaped individuals’ careers, leaving lasting impacts on their approaches to research, leadership and mentoring.

Part 2 profiles a nanoscientist’s journey into manipulating the building blocks of matter. Read part 1 of this series here.

For Archana Raja, the path to leadership in nanoscience has been marked by deliberate choices about which scientific boundaries to push. Today, as affiliated faculty at the Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (ENSI) and a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Molecular Foundry, she directs investigations at the forefront of atomically thin, two-dimensional (2D) materials, building interdisciplinary teams and advancing methods to engineer matter at the nanoscale. Her career shows what can happen when the right kind of institutional support arrives at the right moment.

Raja’s focus on nanomaterials developed during her undergraduate years, when professors introduced her to quantum dots, semiconducting crystals measuring just a few atoms across. At this scale, the particles exhibit quantum properties, meaning their electrons can occupy only certain defined energy levels. The upshot is that tweaking quantum dot properties — such as size, composition, or energy — changes the color of light that a quantum dot emits. Raja was hooked. “The idea that you could tune the size of a material and change its color was compelling,” she says. “Observing this tunability firsthand got me interested in quantum nanoscience.”

That early fascination grew into a research program focused on how matter behaves — and how to deliberately control it — across different scales and dimensions. Pursuing this focus led Raja to a Heising-Simons Junior Fellowship at the ENSI from 2017 to 2019, a joint Berkeley–Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) institute. Those years proved transformative, giving her the space to broaden her research while developing the independence and collaborative approach that now defines how she does science.

“The fellowship at ENSI was pivotal because it provided the infrastructure and intellectual freedom to establish my independent research,” Raja says. “It was a critical transition point where I developed the skills to build and lead research programs.”

Rather than staying within a single technique, Raja used her fellowship to move across characterization methods and length scales, learning how each revealed different aspects of the same materials.

Another important element of Raja’s time at ENSI was the institute’s culture of encouraging postdocs, graduate students and even undergraduate students to meet regularly and discuss their interests, promoting independence and collaboration. “This environment pushed Kavli postdocs and students to become more sophisticated researchers, actively bridging disciplines rather than remaining confined to their own research silos,” recalls Raja. “It taught me how to build the kind of collaborative research culture I now foster in my own work.”

Thanks to ENSI’s partnership with LBNL, Raja also gained access to a range of innovative tools that expanded her work from its initial focus on visible light to include X-ray-based techniques for advanced material characterization. She developed expertise in probing materials at different length scales using visible light, X-rays and electrons.

“These experiences really demonstrated the power of multimodal instrumentation,” says Raja. “I built the confidence to tackle problems at multiple length scales simultaneously, which has become a defining characteristic of my research.”

Her success during the fellowship translated into a role as a staff scientist in the Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures at the Molecular Foundry, also at LBNL. Her work advanced new methods for characterizing and manipulating nanomaterials, contributing to the field’s understanding of how to engineer materials at the atomic scale with precision.

From there, Raja made an official return to ENSI in 2024 as affiliated faculty, where she has enjoyed reconnecting with people she met during her first period at this Kavli institute.

Her current research has evolved toward investigating single-atom-thin, 2D materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers. Like the quantum dots that originally caught Raja’s eye, these materials offer unique tunability and flexibility for advanced optical and electronic applications.

Raja’s group is developing methods to understand and control the properties of 2D materials. Her interdisciplinary approach enables her team to tackle problems that single-technique approaches cannot solve. This work has implications for emerging technologies in quantum computing, optoelectronics, and energy conversion.

“The Kavli ecosystem provided the foundation for how I approach science and build research programs,” she says, “and I feel fortunate to have come back into the Kavli community with the opportunity to contribute to that same environment, supporting the next generation of researchers while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in nanoscience.”