Welcome
Dr. Celia S. Chari is the Beal Family Postdoctoral Fellow at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies in Harvard University
About Celia
My interests lie in material science and its applications: from aerospace engineering to art conservation. I received my MSc and PhD in Materials Science from The California Institute of Technology, where my doctoral work focused on the performance and degradation of advanced high-temperature ceramics, as well as historic ceramics. I am currently the Beal Family Postdoctoral Fellow at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums.
I work alongside materials scientists, chemists, geochemists, conservators and curators on technical and scientific examinations of works of art in the museum’s collection - from 3rd century Celtic bronze jewelry to 14th century Spanish altarpieces. I study light-induced alteration mechanisms of mineral pigments in collaboration with Harvard's Center for Nanoscale Systems and Center for Crystallographic Studies. I also use spectroscopic techniques combined with deep learning algorithms to non-invasively identify pigments in works on paper, predominantly Indian manuscripts.
Recent News
November 2024: Spent a week at the ID20 beamline at ESRF (Grenoble, France) to study low-fired pottery using X-ray Raman scattering (XRS)
October 2024: Started my Beal Family fellowship research stay at the Supramolecular and Molecular Photophysics and Photochemistry Laboratory (PPSM) in ENS Paris-Saclay, working in the group of Loïc Bertrand
September 2024: Nominated and recognized as a lifelong Professional Member of the American Institute for Conservation
August 2024: Presented at the Gordon Research Seminar on Solid State Studies in Ceramics in South Hadley, MA, with my talk titled Deciphering the Ancient Nanotechnologies of Numbered Jun Glazes
July 2024: Spent a week at the PUMA beamline at SOLEIL synchrotron (Saint-Aubin, France) to study numbered Jun ware using µ-XRF and µ-XANES
July 2024: Organized the Power Hour at the Gordon Research Conference on Scientific Methods in Cultural Heritage Research in Les Diablerets, Switzerland
July 2024: Co-chaired the Gordon Research Seminar on Scientific Methods in Cultural Heritage Research in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Details of the program can be found here
June 2024: Co-author Richard Hofer (Principal Engineer and Supervisor of Electric Propulsion Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory) presented our work at the 38th International Electric Propulsion Conference in Toulouse, France, with our talk titled Evaluation of Graphite/h-BN Bimaterials for Electric Propulsion
📌 May 2024: Imagine Me and You: Dutch and Flemish Encounters with the Islamic World, 1450-1750 made its debut at the Harvard Art Museums. Read more about my scientific research contributions to this exhibition here
📌 October 2023: Attended Rising Stars in Materials Science & Engineering Workshop, Carnegie Mellon University
My doctoral work was featured in the above video from Caltech's Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science. Watch it here!
Click below to hear my Icon Emerging Heritage Science Researcher presentation on Meissen porcelain glazes (Sep, 2022):