Dr Niraj (Nij) Lal is a Visiting Fellow at the ANU and current Postdoctoral Researcher in the Renewable Energy Lab at Monash University and was named as one of the ABC's Top 5 Scientists Under 40 for 2016. His interests are in nanophotonics for solar cell applications and science communication. In 2012 Niraj graduated as a Gates Scholar with a PhD in physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.