Dr Priyank Kumar
Scientia Senior Lecturer, 2022-present
Chemical Engineering
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Scientia Lecturer, 2019-2022
Chemical Engineering
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Postdoctoral fellow, 2015-2019
Mechanical and Process Engineering
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
PhD, 2010-2015
Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
B.Tech., 2006-2010
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
Dr. Priyank Vijaya Kumar is a Scientia Senior Lecturer in chemical engineering at UNSW. Prior to this, he obtained his PhD in June 2015 under the guidance of Prof. Jeffrey C. Grossman in the department of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. His dissertation focused on the atomistic computational design of two-dimensionalmaterials (graphene, graphene oxide and transition metal dichalcogenides)for electronic, optoelectronic and biomedical applications. He was also closely involved with experiments in the group of Prof. Angela Belcher at MIT.Following his PhD, he won a Marie-Curie grant to carry out his postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. David J. Norris at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He applied ab initio methods such as density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) to investigate plasmonic hot-carrier processes such as plasmon formation, hot-carrier generation, electron transport and electron-phonon coupling at metal-semiconductor and metal-molecule interfaces with an aim to advancephotocatalysis and other applications. In May 2019, he started as a Scientia Lecturer in the school of chemical engineering at UNSW, Sydney with a vision to establish a computational materials design group and foster experimental collaborations.
To access his research website, please click .
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- Marie-Curie ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015-2017
- Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP) Education Grant, Applied Physics, Aalto University, Finland
- MRS Graduate Student Silver Award Spring Meeting 2015, San Francisco CA, USA
- Shell-TATA MIT Energy Fellowship, 2013-2015
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Scholarship University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2009
Application of ab initio computational methods based on density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) to model plasmonic hot-carrier processes such as plasmon formation, plasmon decay to hot carriers, charge transport and electron-phonon coupling. The aim is to advance applications such as photocatalysis, photodetection, photovoltaics, photon upconversion and sensing.
Application of atomistic methods such as molecular dynamics (MD) and DFT to model and design two-dimensional materials such as graphene, graphene oxide, metal dichalcogenides and other low-dimensional structures such as nanotubes, quantum dots etc. for applications in energy conversion and storage technologies, electronics, catalysis, health-care and water treatment.
We constantly seek experimental collaborations in the aforementioned areas and would be more than happy to discuss any such opportunities.