Prof. P. B. Sunil Kumar
Department of Physics

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Prof. P B Sunil Kumar

Former/First Director IIT Palakkad, Former HOD Department of Physics

Fellow of Academy, Fellow of Indian National Science Academy

Education

Ph.D., Raman Research Institute, Bangalore University, 1994

M.Sc., Calicut University, 1987

B.Sc., Calicut University, 1985

Welcome

Welcome to Complex Fluids and Biological Physics Laboratory at the Department of physics, IIT Madras. 

We are also part of the Centre of Excellence in Soft and Biological Matter (CBSM) at IIT Madras.

Our work is focused on understanding of the chromatin organization, shapes of biological membranesand cytoskeletal organization. We believe these studies are of importance in understanding the physics of structure and organization of biological systems. We have proposed a novel polymer model for chromatin that include the effects of structure modifying chemical reactions. We have developed a variety of powerful simulation techniques to study the dynamics of multi-component fluid membranes and membranes with protein like inclusions.

We are also interested in the interplay of cytoskeleton tension and membrane elasticity. With the aim to understand the physical mechanisms leading to convoluted shapes of cellular organelles, we investigate the steady state shapes of vesicle subjected to active fission and fusion from the outer surface.
Our study on active polymers, that are semiflexible elastic filaments immersed in a viscous fluid with energy converting โ€œactiveโ€ elements distributed along its length, is aimed at modeling cytoskeletal filaments.

In the past we have also looked into a 3D model with elastic filaments and molecular motors to study the response of cytoskeleton mimicking networks to external forces and pattern formation in mixtures of molecular motors and microtubules.

All the above was possible due to incredible hard work put in by the present and past members of the lab ( LINKED) and other distinguished collaborators ( LINKED)

+91-044-22574876

Academics


Fellowship of
the academies

Fellow of the Indian academy of sciences, Jan 2016

Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, October 2022

Administrative Responsibilities Held

Director, IIT Palakkad: 2017- 2022

Professor in Charge, IIT Palakkad: 2015-2017

Head, Department of Physics,
IIT Madras: 2012-2015

Chairman, Computer Centre,IIT Madras : 2012 January โ€“ 2012 May

Head, Department of Physics,
IIT Hyderabad: 2009-2012

Professor in Charge, High Performance

Computing Environment, IITM: 2007-2014

Other academic
Positions Held

JSPS invitation fellowship 2015

Associate Member: MEMPHYS center
for physics of biological membranes University of Southern Denmark:
July 2007-July 2014

Post Doctoral Fellow, IMSc. Chennai,
India: 1995-1997

Post Doctoral Fellow, Raman Research Institute, India: 1994-1995

Research Fellow, Raman Research Institute, India: 1988-1994

Post Doctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute ,Teltow, Germany: 1997-1999

Notable Awards

Prof M V Pylee Award for the distinguished academician of India in 2019,
instituted by the Cochin University of Science
and Technology (CUSAT)

Membership in societies

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry,
Member of the Biophysical Society

Research Areas


Computational Physics

Computational Physics

Statistical Physics

Multi-Scale Simulations

Large Scale Parallel Computing

Teaching

Courses

Courses taught for undergraduate and graduate students

  • Electrodynamics
  • Statistical Physics
  • Classical Mechanics
  • Simple and Complex Fluids
  • Computational Physics and Numerical Methods
  • Parallel programming using OpenMP, MPI and CUDA

Research Supervision

  • Supervised 14 doctoral theses and currently guiding 3 more
  • Directed numerous Master’s level research projects
  • Expertise in areas ranging from Physics, chemical engineering, biotechnology and engineering physics

Publications

  • Papers in International Journals -83
  • Books chapters โ€“ 4
  • Book edited : Rheology of Complex Fluids โ€“ Springer 2010

Video course

  • Video course on Numerical methods and programming
  • NPTEL course
  • 38 lectures
  • Viewed 100,000+ times
  • Co-authored an NPTEL web course on Numerical methods and programming

Science Outreach Activity


Active participation in popularizing science for children
Delivered numerous seminars  at high schools and junior colleges on science and technology
Active member of the  Tamil Nadu Science Forum, a state level non profit volunteer  organization for dissemination of science
Editor for the science magazine for high school children – Jantar Mantar, published by Tamil Nadu Science Forum

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About Us

Complex Fluids and Biological

Physics Laboratory, Department of Physics,

IIT Madras Chennai -600036

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+91-044-22574876

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