Dr. Ravi Kumar N V | Professor | Head of Department

Ravi Kumar is a Professor of Ceramics and Head of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at IIT Madras, India. Prof. Ravi Kumar’s research interests include the development of novel non-metallic & inorganic materials whose properties can be tuned on an atomistic scale which includes thermal management, catalysis and energy. Since the last six years, his research has diversified into developing ceramics for environmental and energy applications such as photocatalytic materials for water remediation, dielectric materials for capacitor-based energy storage, electrocatalytic and solar materials for hydrogen production. He has been a visiting professor at various institutions abroad and is currently executing bilateral projects with various international institutions as well as with industries. He is a recipient of the Young Faculty Recognition Award (YFRA- 2012) and Institute Research and Development Award (IRDA- 2015) from IIT Madras. Prof. Ravi Kumar also serves on the editorial board of Surface Innovations, Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, Frontiers in Materials: For Ceramics & Glass and Journal of Innovative Materials in Extreme Conditions. At the Laboratory for High-Performance Ceramics in IIT Madras, we have been focusing on producing and characterizing structural and functional ceramics from precursors. We work with silicon and non-silicon based polymer derived ceramics (PDCs) for thermostructural, environmental and energy applications. We have established partnerships with various defence and space organizations to develop strategic materials through the polymer derived route. The precursor approach enables good control over chemistry, phase evolution and microstructures. We also extensively use characterization techniques such as diffraction, microscopy and spectrochemical methods to understand the material structure. A comprehensive evaluation of the properties of sintered materials with a specific focus on mechanical testing is our forte.