Sreekar Marpu is a Materials Scientist with research interests in polymers, optical materials, fiberoptics, and nanomaterials. My research focus has been in the development of multifunctional materials, specifically hybrid nanocomposites of polymers (silicones, acrylics, polysaccharides, sol-gels, hydrogels, and colloids) as hosts and filler materials (luminescent complexes, colorimetric dyes, plasmonic metal nanoparticles, and quantum dots, etc.) as guests. My expertise includes physical, chemical and analytical characterization of such materials, as well as examining their scientific and technological significance at the macro- and nano-scales. Gaining fundamental understanding from electronic, spectroscopic and morphological properties of these composite materials has been central for their utilization in the sensor, energy, environment and cancer research related applications. Achieving the above goals entailed cross-disciplinary collaborations and integration of knowledge base in chemistry, physics, biology, and materials science & engineering. Dr. Marpu has been a PI on grants from NASA, BASF, and UNT seed grant projects for the development of optical sensors and customized nanomaterials