Centre for Functional Materials(CFM)

Vellore Institute of Technology

R. Ezhil Vizhi is a Professor at the Centre for Functional Materials, VIT. She obtained her Master’s degree in Physics from Rajah Serfoji Govt. College, Thanjavur, Bharathidasan University. She completed her M.Phil. degree in Physics from Queen Mary’s College, Chennai and Doctoral degree in Physics (Materials Science) from Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore. She joined VIT in 2001 to work and doing research in Materials Science. Her research works revolves around two fields namely crystal growth and nanomagnetic materials. Synthesizing organic, inorganic and semi organic crystals for NLO application have been one part of her work. The second part is research on magnetic nanomaterials mainly revolves around the characterization of soft and hard ferrites for permanent magnet applications.

Her research laboratory focuses on the design and development of multifunctional nanomaterials for permanent magnet, spintronics, recording media and biomedical applications. She has produced five Ph.D students and presently guiding six research scholars in the field of crystal growth, nanomagnetic materials and thin films. She has authored over 53 research publications, 62 conference presentations and 2 books. She has been reviewer in reputed international journals.

Dr. Ezhil Vizhi has received several recognitions in her research career which includes the Active Researcher award from Vellore Institute of Technology [VIT] (2011 to 2019), Fast Track Young Scientist Fellowship from Department of Science and Technology [DST] (2012), Woman Achiever Award from Vellore Institute of Technology [VIT] (2020). She has also received a grant from Department of Science and Technology [DST- EMR] in 2017. She is a life member of Indian Association for crystal growth and Magnetic Society of India.

Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur

Dr. Madhuri W has done her Ph.D. from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur in the faculty of Physics. She is Having 20+ years of teaching experience and 18 years of research in material science. Current research is on electromagnetic interference shielding materials synthesis and characterization for Radar applications. She was the principle investigator of a project titled “microwave sintered NiMg and NiMgZn ferrites for EM interference shielding technology” sponsored by DRDO, India during 2013 – 2017. She has guided many PG projects and research scholars on ferrites, hexa-ferrites and ferro-electrics materials. By 2020 six students are awarded Ph.D. degree under her supervision

She has published several original research articles in various peer reviewed international journals, national and international conferences proceedings. She is the Life member of Magnetics society of India. Dr. Madhuri W is the First Indian recipient of Eleonore-Trefftz Guest Professor Fellowship, Technical University, Dresden, Germany. The publications are here.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay

Dr. Palanisami is a professor at the centre for Functional Materials. He obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Mumbai in 2006 and then moved to Institüt für Anorganische Chemie, Julius-Maximilians-University of Wurzburg, Germany until 2010. He was visiting research professor-Brain Pool Fellowship (2013-2014) at Korean Federation of Science and Technology (KOFST), Suncheon National University in South Korea. He has been awarded with outstanding Reviewer by The Editors of Inorganic Chemistry Communications, Elsevier publications and from Dec 2006-Nov 2007, he was awarded the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung postdoctoral Fellowship, Germany.

Dr. Palanisami works mainly in the areas of Optical and non-linear optical studies of main group borasiloxanes, Non-linear optical studies on ferrocene appended X, Y and H-shaped donor-π-acceptor chromophores and AIE-active ferrocene/non-ferrocene conjugated heterocyclic chromophores for sensor applications.

His research group has successfully finished two funded projects from DST-SERB Fast Track Scheme for Young Scientists, CSIR-Extramural Research Grant. Currently, Dr. Palanisamy’s research group is funded with three projects from agencies like DST-Italian bilateral project, CSIR-Extramural Research Grant and DST-SERB Extramural Research.

Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany

Dr. Ramesh Thamankar is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Functional Materials, VIT Vellore. He obtained his Masters in Science (Physics) from Mangalore university and M.Tech. in Materials Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka. After working in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for a year, he went to Germany to pursue Ph.D. at Institute for Experimental Physik, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany. Here designed ultra high vacuum systems for growth and characterizing ultrathin 3d alloy films to study the correlation between structural and magnetic properties. In 2004, he went to University of California, Riverside to work in the areas of spintronics and organic electronics. From 2006 to 2009, he worked with Max-Planck Institute for Mikrostrukturphysik in Halle, Germany. Here he developed a process to fabricate ultrahigh density magnetic dots on single crystal metallic surfaces.

From 2010 to 2014, he worked as a scientist in Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR, Singapore and from 2014 – 2016, as a Senior Research Scientist at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Singapore.

His Research focusses on understanding physics at nanoscale and atomic scale. He has published more than 40 international publications and has presented more than 30 presentations/talks in international conferences. He has written 4 book chapters in Advances in Atom and Single Molecule Machines.

Currently, he is working on designing new materials for atomic scale electronics, memories and Neuromorphic computation.

Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi

Dr. Shaik Kaleemulla works in the dilute magnetic oxide semiconductors, transparent conducting oxides and solar cell materials. He has 12 years research experience and 13 years of teaching experience in and around VIT University. He has awarded 8 Ph.D. and published about 90 research articles in various national and internationals peer reviewed journals. He has completed 2 major research projects from UGC-DAE-CSR funding agency. These two projects were mainly on oxide thin films ( Cr, Fe, Ni and Cu doped In2O3 films and Mn and Fe doped ITO thin films) for spintronic and technological applications. Apart from actively involved in research, Dr. Kaleemulla also teaches Physics and Materials Science to undergraduate students.

Anna University

Dr. S. Madeswaran is an Assistant Professor (Sr.) of physics at Centre for Functional Materials (CFM) Vellore Institute of Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from Anna University. His Ph.D. research work is on the “Growth and characterization of ferroelectric single crystals and thin films”. He did his part of work at Leibnitz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden, Germany under DAAD fellowship. He had been awarded Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India.

After his Ph.D., he joined in National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan as Postdoc researcher. He worked (2 years) there on the fabrication of Al2O3 single crystalline nano-film (~10 nm) for the application of MIM emitter. He then moved to Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Japan and investigated (4 years) hard magnetic (NdFeB) thin films, which are widely used in MEMS applications. He then joined VIT in 2011 and has been involving in teaching and research. His major research areas are ferroelectric/magnetic, energy and NLO materials.

He has wide experience in various characterization techniques (XRD, SEM, AFM, LEED, AES, dielectric, electric & magnetic hysteresis, I-V and microhardness studies). He has to his credit several research papers published in internationally reputed journals. He has also participated and presented his research findings in several national/ international conferences. He has supervised on Ph.D. student and is currently guiding five research students. He is a life member of Magnetic Society of India and Indian Association for crystal growth.

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Dr. Ankur Rastogi is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Functional Materials, VIT. He obtained her master’s degree in Physics in the year 2007 and obtained his Doctoral degree in Physics form Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 2014. After completing his doctoral thesis, he worked as a post-doctoral associate at University of Twente, Netherlands, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA, and Oakridge National Laboratory, USA. He worked extensively on ultra-thin oxide films and heterostructures. His research devoted to recognizing and solving key fundamental problems in physics and material science for their applications in energy. His research background includes interface engineering of functional materials, magnetism, spin transport, and thermoelectrics in complex oxides, and device fabrication and characterization.

He has authored over 25 high quality research publications in reputed journals like Nature, Science, Advanced materials, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B and participated various national and international conference presentations. He is also a reviewer in reputed international journals.