Ipe Mavunkal’s expertise is in the area of synthetic organometallic chemistry.  His research spanned diverse areas of metal carbonyl compounds, boranes, carboranes, metallaboranes and dendrimers.  In addition to his experience as a researcher at various institutions including Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, he lectured at the University of Botswana for nearly a decade.  Prior to joining BITRI he served as a manager of a pharmaceutical contract research organization in Canada. His current research interest is in developing diagnostic tools to address some of the issues in water, food and health sectors incorporating primarily nanotechnology.