Dr Ajay Beniwal, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL, has been awarded the prestigious DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.
The INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship supports outstanding early-career researchers in science and engineering, providing resources to establish independent research careers. The fellowship offers five years of support, including a monthly stipend and annual research funding.
Dr Beniwal is in the team led by Professor Izzat Darwazeh and Dr Temitope Odedeyi working on the development of agricultural sensor technologies within the EU/ UKRI funded NESTLER project. Before joining UCL, he held a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (UKRI-funded). He earned his PhD from IIIT-Allahabad in 2021, where he received the Emerging Researcher Award. His academic background includes more than 33 publications across leading journals, with research interests spanning flexible, printed and wearable electronics, smart sensing for healthcare and agriculture, and sustainable technologies.
At UCL, Dr Beniwal's research has focused on developing advanced sensors for precision agriculture. His contributions include the fabrication of flexible, low-cost sensors to monitor key environmental factors, as well as work on biodegradable materials aligned with green electronics principles.
The INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship will enable Dr Beniwal to pursue a project titled Flexible and Printed Electronics Based Smart Sensing System for Sustainable Digital Agriculture. The project aims to develop scalable, eco-friendly sensor systems for real-time monitoring of soil nutrients, pH, temperature, humidity, and greenhouse gases, advancing the goal of sustainable and digital agriculture.
Dr Beniwal described the fellowship as both a personal milestone and a transformative professional opportunity. It will allow him to build a research group, deepen international collaborations, and continue creating practical technologies with meaningful societal impact.
