A Stony Path Conquered through Tremendous Support

Dr. Shanmugapriya Periyannan beams as she pulls up a photo on her mobile phone. There she is among a group of young academics — and former German chancellor Angela Merkel. The photo was taken at this year’s gathering of Nobel Prize laureates in Lindau, which Periyannan attended as a representative of the University of Siegen. Alongside early-career researchers from around the world and, of course, the laureates, she also had the chance to meet Dr. Merkel and have a discussion with her and other researchers on the topic “Freedom of Research”. An event that this 38-year-old postdoc at the University of Siegen would never have dreamed possible just a few years ago.

Shanmugapriya Periyannan was the first member of her entire family to attend university. She earned her initial bachelor’s degree in her hometown in southern India, soon followed by a Master of Technology. It was during her master's studies that Periyannan discovered her passion for the nanosciences. The field would become the central focus of her work, and for the past three years she has been part of the “STAR” (Sensing & Sensibility) project at the University of Siegen, an interdisciplinary MSCA COFUND project in which she develops new approaches for sustainable energy technologies. To get to that point, however, she first had to navigate a rocky path and conquer many hurdles.

“After completing my master's degree in India, I knew that I absolutely wanted to earn a doctorate in nanotechnology,” Periyannan explains. Over the course of a year and a half, she sent out over one hundred applications. “I was completely on my own through this process, and it was hard,” she recalls. All the more joyous when that first ‘yes’ finally arrived: For an international doctoral program, financed through the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) initiative. She would spend half of her time at the University of Liège in Belgium, the remainder at the Technical University of Darmstadt. “I'd never left my home city before. I was also married at that point, with a little son. My family took a lot of convincing before I could accept the position,” Periyannan says.

And then winter 2015 arrived, and off she went: Periyannan travelled to Belgium... alone, as her husband and little son had to remain behind in her Indian homeland. “It was terrible at first.  I missed them so much and felt so alone,” Periyannan explains. But this time, it was her family that stepped up, giving words of encouragement and convincing her to see it through. Four years and many alternating visits later, she finally achieved her goal: a dual doctoral certificate in Chemistry and in Materials Science from the University of Liège and Darmstadt.

She then returned to her family in India. Just in time for the corona pandemic. Shanmugapriya Periyannan and her husband had another child, this time a little girl. The new mother-of-two accepted a postdoc position at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras. While she was happy to be back in research, she was struggling hard with work-life balance in the Indian academic setup. The twist in this story then came from an unexpected source — an unsolicited email sent proactively by Periyannan to an expert in the field, in which she described herself and the questions she was pursuing with her research. The recipient was Prof. Manuela Killian, leader of the Chemistry and Structure of novel Materials-Group at the University of Siegen. Prof. Dr. Killian wrote back to Periyannan and the two began forming strategies for how Periyannan could best search for jobs in Germany.

It would take two years for their plans to bear fruit: With support from Prof. Dr. Killian and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Butz from the University of Siegen, Periyannan was awarded a postdoc position in the interdisciplinary “STAR” program at the University of Siegen, which is intended as an international mobility and career promotion program for researchers. By design, it helps highly qualified early-career researchers implement their own innovative research projects. And so in late 2023 Shanmugapriya Periyannan boarded another airplane to Germany — this time with her two children in tow. And they have found a new home here in Siegen: Both on a private and a professional level.

At the University of Siegen, Periyannan engages in interdisciplinary research as part of the working group under Prof. Killian and in the department of mechanical engineering under Prof. Butz. She is exploring how individual atoms can be harnessed to use sunlight highly efficiently when applied atop specially developed surfaces. The goal is to make chemical processes more sustainable, such as through the degradation of contaminants or the production of clean energy carriers.

Her innovative research at the intersection of chemistry, physics, materials science and nanoscience has already earned Periyannan numerous awards: In December 2025, for example, she was named “MSCA Fellow of the Month” by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. This summer she was also selected as one of the exclusive attendees of the Nobel laureate gathering in Lindau.

“None of this would have been possible without the tremendous support that I've received here at the University of Siegen,” Periyannan says. While she's first and foremost referring to her mentors Professor Killian and Professor Butz, she also has plenty of praise for the university's International Office, which stood ready to help her at all times with both personal and professional questions. “The employees at the International Office helped me choose a school for my son and even accompanied me when I went to meetings at the school,” Periyannan reports. They also offered invaluable help in finding an apartment and dealing with the bureaucratic hurdles inherent to working in Germany.

For Periyannan, it’s essential to give back. She wants to encourage girls and young women to follow her path to independence and pursuing their own interests, especially in the STEM fields. In addition, she supports master’s students at the University of Siegen. And she regularly holds presentations at her former school and university in India. She's once again back in her home country this summer, trying to encourage young women to seize their courage. Her story, now recounted by her parents, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances in her village, is powerful proof that Indian women can make their way into science, even beyond national borders. “At the beginning, I had to do a lot of convincing. But my family is now very proud of me,” says Dr. Shanmugapriya Periyannan.

Dr. Dr. Shanmugapriya Periyannan at the University of Siegen.