Research Interests

• Thin film mechanics and micromechanics
• Multi principal element alloy / high entropy alloy thin films
• Structural ceramics,Experimental mesoscale mechanics
• Materials characterization

Education

• Ph.D., Materials Engineering, IISc, 2017
• M.E., Materials Engineering, IISc, 2009
• B.Tech., Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NITK Surathkal, 2007

Experience 

• Assistant professor Grade I, SMMME, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, December 22 onwards
• Assistant professor Grade I , Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu, December 21-December 22
• Assistant Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering & CRF, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, September – November 21
• Post-doctoral researcher, Structure and Nano-/micromechanics, Max Planck institute for Iron research, Dusseldorf, August 16- January 21

Selected recent publications and talks

• An invited talk on “Twins and micromechanics” in a workshop on “Micromechanics and it’s applications” at Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science department, IIT Bombay in November 2024.
• “Equiatomic CoCrFeNi alloy thin films on c-sapphire: The role of twins and orientation relationships”,  Adv. Engg. Mater, 26 (2024) 2400720, https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202400720
• “Size dependent strength, slip transfer and slip compatibility in nanotwinned silver”, Acta Materialia, 184 (2020) 120- 131, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2019.11.042
• “Grain boundary crystallography in polycrystalline yttria stabilized cubic zirconia”, Philosophical Magazine, 98 (2018) 1865 – 1883,  https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2018.1464677

Student supervision (recent)

• Ph.D. thesis 
• “High entropy fluorite oxides”, Rakesha K. Mohanty (ongoing)
• Twinning in alloy thin films”, Sushree Subhasmita Nayak (ongoing)
• M.Tech.
• “Formation of Cu-Ni dense sputtering targets”, Aditya K. Dalei, 2025-26 (ongoing)
• “Application of VR in crystallography”, Akash K. Sahoo, 2025-26 (ongoing, co-supervisor: KKS)
• B.Tech.
• “Grain growth in brass sheets”, Ghanshyam, 2025-26, (ongoing)
• “Automatic image anaysis of SEM micrographs”, Devashish Karmakar, 2025-26 (ongoing)
• “Small scale recycling of Al cans”, Aditya K. Dalei, 2024-25
• “Grain growth behavior of commercially available copper sheets”, Prince Parimal, 2023-24

Academic awards and honors

• Fellowship of the Max Planck Society for post-doctoral research from August 2016 to July 2018.
• DST-ITS travel grant for attending 12th International Conference on Ceramic Processing Science in 2013.
• Selected for ‘Women in Technology and Science Meet’ (WITS)’ – India at John F. Welch Technology Centre at GE Global Research, Bangalore in 2011.
• K.K. Malik medal by The Council, IISc, Banglore for the best M.E. student in Materials Engineering for the years 2008-09.
• NITK medal for first position in B.Tech in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at NITK, Surathkal in 2007.
• All India ranks of 4th and 35th in GATE in the years 2007 and 2006 respectively.

• Twinning induced orientation relationships in alloy thin films, funded by ANRF-DST (ongoing)
• Phase stability and high temperature deformation behaviour of High entropy fluorite oxides (HEFOs), funded by IIT Bhubaneswar (ongoing)

• Physical Metallurgy
• Advanced Physical Metallurgy
• Elements of Electroceramics
• Engineering ceramics (@ IIT Jammu)
• Mechanical behavior of materials
• Advanced Mechanical behavior of materials (@IIT Jammu)
• Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering
• Materials characterization lab II
• Introduction to Materials lab
• Materials processing lab II (@IIT Jammu)
• Advanced Materials lab (@IIT Jammu)

Courses developed

• Advanced Mechanical behavior of Materials (@IIT Jammu)
• Thin film Materials (awaiting approvals)
• Dislocations in solids (awaiting approvals)

Ph.D projects

• Rakesha Kumar Mohanty (ongoing)
• Sushree Subhasmita Nayak (ongoing)

M.Tech. projects

• Aditya K. Dalei (ongoing)
• Akash K. Sahoo (ongoing, co-supervisor: Prof. Kisor K. Sahu)
• Suman Mahata
• Dipankar Patra

B.Tech projects

• Ghanshyam (ongoing)
• Devashish Karmakar (ongoing, co-supervisor: Dr. Miral Verma)
• Aditya K. Dalei (2025)
• Prince Parimal (2024)
• Md. Zulquar Nain (2023, @ IIT Jammu)
• Vishal Yadav (2023,@ IIT Jammu)
• Soubhav (2023, @IIT Jammu)
• Harshit Singh (2023, @IIT Jammu)
• Manbir Singh (2023, @IIT Jammu)
• Sufyan Khan (2023, @ IIT Jammu)

Internships and short term projects

• Tejavath Pavani, B. Esawara Rao, Huzaifa A. Khan, Ritesh Kumar, Ayush Kumar, Akash K. Sahoo, Aditya K. Dalei (Summer 2025)
• Shrey Dhakar, Yash Aryan Singh (Autumn 2024 & Spring 2025)
• Subham Kumar, Vishal K. Yadav (Summer 2024)
• Aditi T., Manali A. Ingle (Summer 2023)
• Md. Zulquar Nain, Soubhav, Harshit Singh, Piyush Silotiya (Summer 2022, @ IIT Jammu)

1. Dislocation slip in nanotwinned Ag micropillars, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2019.11.042
2. The {345} orientation in CoCrFeNi alloy thin films!, https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202400720
3. Sigma 11 in YSZ?!, ​https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2018.1464677
4. Diffusion creep in zirconia, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-2916.2010.03617.x
5. How do Ag films deform?, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2020.07.056

• Ph.D., Materials Engineering, IISc, 2017
• M.E., Materials Engineering, IISc, 2009
• B.Tech., Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NITK Surathkal, 2007

• Assistant professor, IIT Bhubaneswar (December 22 onwards) ;
• Assistant professor, Materials Engineering, IIT Jammu, J & K, (December 21 – December 22) ;
• Assistant Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering and Central Research Facility, NIT Karnataka, Surathkal, (September – November 21);
• Post-doctoral researcher at Max Planck institute for Iron Research, Dusseldorf, Germany, (August 16 – January 2021) (worked on: “GB CORRELATE”, “Analysis of the thermal stability of the High Entropy Alloys by Dewetting of thin films (AHEAD)” , nanotwinned Ag).

• Fellowship of the Max Planck Society for post-doctoral research from August 2016 to July 2018.
• DST-ITS travel grant for attending 12th International Conference on Ceramic Processing Science in 2013.
• Selected for ‘Women in Technology and Science Meet’ (WITS)’ – India at John F. Welch Technology Centre at GE Global Research, Bangalore in 2011.
• K.K. Malik medal by The Council, IISc, Banglore for the best M.E. student in Materials Engineering for the years 2008-09.
• NITK medal for first position in B.Tech in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at NITK, Surathkal in 2007.
• All India ranks of 4th and 35th in GATE in the years 2007 and 2006 respectively.