Ravi Kumar Pujala

Department of Physics, IISER Tirupati

Email: pujalaravikumar[at]iisertirupati.ac.in

Phone: +91-877-2500-942

Research Interests:

Soft Matter Physics, Active Matter, Self-Assembly, Rheology, Nanomaterials and Composites.

Educational and professional career:

• Assistant Professor (December, 2018 ~): Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati, India.


• DST INSPIRE Faculty (August 2017 – December 2018): School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, India.


• Researcher (Onderzoeker 4, February 2016 – July 2017): Department of Physics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (Advisor: Prof. Alfons van Blaaderen)


• Postdoctoral Researcher (December 2014 - September 2015): IESL-FORTH/University of Crete, Greece (Advisor: Prof. George Petekidis)


• Ph.D (March 2014): School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. (Advisor: Prof. H. B. Bohidar)

Theme of Research:  

Studying physics of soft matter systems both passive and active systems; Fabricate new mesostructured materials by self-assembly. The ultimate goal is to develop new functional soft materials with reconfigurable structures at the nano and meso-scales.

Honours and Awards:

• Review Editor for Frontiers in Soft Matter.
• SERB Core Research Grant, Govt. of India (2022).
• SERB Core Research Grant, Govt. of India (2021).
• Visiting Professor, CNRS, France (2020).
• DST-INSPIRE Faculty Award, Govt. of India (February 2017).
• Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence by European Commission (2017).
• Springer Thesis International Award in Physics (The “best of the best”)(2014).

Selected publications:

1. Kumbam Lingeshwar Reddy, Jikson P Mathew, Sonia Maniappan, Catherine Tom, Elizabeth Shiby, Ravi Kumar Pujala Ravi Kumar Pujala, and Jatish Kumar. Mandelic Acid Appended Chiral Gels as Efficient Templates for Multicolour Circularly Polarized Luminescence. Nanoscale (2022).


2. Catherine Tom, Venkata M S Ganesh Tanuku, Erwan Paineau, and Ravi Kumar Pujala*. Binary Mixtures of Colloidal Cellulose Nanocrystals and Laponite for Preparation of Functional Nanocomposites. ACS Applied Nano Materials 4,8586 (2021).


3. Devika V S, Ravi Kumar Pujala, and Surajit Dhara. Orientation Dependent Interaction and Self-assembly of Cubic Magnetic Colloids in a Nematic Liquid Crystal. Advanced Optical Materials 1901585 (2020). This article appears in: Hot Topic: Magnetic Materials.


4. Ravi Kumar Pujala^* and H.B.Bohidar. Hierarchical Self-assembly, Spongy Architecture, Liquid Crystalline Behaviour and Phase Diagram of Laponite Nanoplatelets in Alcohol-Water Binary Solvents. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 554, 731 (2019). (^* Corresponding author)


5. Fabian Hagemans^||, Ravi Kumar Pujala^||, Danisha S. Hotie, Dominique M. E. Thies-Weesie, D. A. Matthijs de Winter, Johannes D. Meeldijk, Alfons van Blaaderen, and Arnout Imhof. Shaping Silica Rods by Tuning Hydrolysis and Condensation of Silica Precursors. Chemistry of Materials 31, 521 (2019). (^|| Co-first author).


6. Muhammed Rasi M, Ravi Kumar Pujala, and Surajit Dhara. Colloidal analogues of polymer chains, ribbons and 2D crystals employing orientations and interactions of nano-rods dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal. Scientific Reports 9, 4652 (2019).


7. Ravi Kumar Pujala^*, C.T.W.M. Schneijdenberg, Alfons van Blaaderen and H. B. Bohidar. In-situ Observation of Hierarchical Self-Assembly Driven by Bicontinuous Gelation in Mixed Nanodisc Dispersions. Scientific Reports 8, 5589 (2018). (^* Corresponding author) (Ranked in TOP 100 Sientific Reports papers in 2018)


8. Ravi Kumar Pujala^*, M Praveen Kumar and Surajit Dhara. Hierarchical self-assembly of colloidal nanoplatelets driven by evaporation (Invited Article: Special Issue on Driven Colloids). Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 51 304003 (2018). (^* Co-corresponding author)


9. Ravi Kumar Pujala and H. B. Bohidar. Ergodicity breaking and aging dynamics in Laponite- Montmorillonite mixed clay dispersions. Soft Matter 8, 6120 (2013).


10. Ravi Kumar Pujala, Nisha Pawar and H. B. Bohidar. Universal sol state behaviour and gelation kinetics in mixed clay dispersions. Langmuir 27, 5193 (2011).

Books:

1. Ravi Kumar Pujala, Dispersion Stability, Microstructure and Phase Transition of Anisotropic Nanodiscs, Springer Thesis, 2014. ISBN: 978-3-319-04554-2.

Invited talks:

• Compflu 2020, Dec 10-12, 2020, IIT Bombay.
• Soft Matter: Young Investigators Meet (SMYIM) May 12-14, 2019, Shillong, India.
• Compflu 2017, Dec 17-20, 2017, IIT Madras.
• 4^th International Soft Matter Conference, 12 - 16 Sep 2016, Grenoble, France.
• Softcomp annual meeting, 2015 June 09-12, Ancona, Italy.

Teaching

• PHY 211: Foundations of Physics III: Electricity & Magnetism
• PHY212: Lab II: Electricity, Magnetism and Optics
• PHY521: Soft Matter Physics

Open Positions

1. Project Assistant/Fellow:
http://www.iisertirupati.ac.in/job-faculty/pa-pf/

Name of the project: Shape-directed dynamics of active colloids

Description: The project will involve fabrication and study of shape-directed dynamics of self-propelled colloids. The aim is to study the collective behaviour (active matter) of model swimmers in fluids.

For more information, visit http://www.iisertirupati.ac.in/people/faculty/ravikumar.php

Last Date for application: 5.00 P.M. on 07 th April, 2019
2. PhD: Soft and Active Matter

Closing date of Online Application : April 30, 2019

3. Postdoc:
http://www.iisertirupati.ac.in/job-faculty/pdrf/

Soft and Active Matter

Last Date for application: April 10, 2019.

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