Thirumalai Venky Venkatesan is the inventor of the pulsed laser deposition process and is a pioneer in its application to thin films of complex oxides and related multi-component materials, which has transformed research on films/ heterostructures globally. Starting with high-quality films of high-temperature cuprate superconductors, he used this for magneto-resistive manganites, ferroelectrics, dilute magnetic oxides, oxide-photocatalysts, bioactive substrates and multiferroic heterostructures that can be integrated with silicon electronics. More recently, his work has extended to ultra-low energy memories and brain-like electronics based on organic molecular systems.