Welcome
Dr. Celia S. Chari is the Beal Family Postdoctoral Fellow in art conservation science at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at 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 in Art Conservation Science 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
June 2024: Presented Gallery Talk on The Importance of Color—Insights into the Pigments Featured in Imagine Me and You, more information can be found here
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
May 2024: Presented at the American Institute for Conservation’s 52nd Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, UT, with my talk titled Evaluating the Light-stability of Roasted Arsenic Sulfide Pigments.
April 2024: Co-chaired Lightning Round Session at the Annual Meeting of the Association of North American Programs in Conservation.
January 2024: Proposal accepted for PUMA beamline at SOLEIL synchrotron to study Jun ware using µ-XRF and XANES
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):