Shraddha worked on the three-dimensional stability of particle-laden vortical flows, focusing on how a two-way-coupled dispersed particle phase alters the stability of columnar vortices. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, where she studied the hydrodynamic stability of complex fluids flowing past soft surfaces in rectilinear geometries. Prior to that, she earned a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from NIT Bhopal and spent a year at PepsiCo as a Graduate Engineer Trainee.
Srikumar worked on collisions of charged particles in the context of cloud microphysics. He received his PhD from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2023, where he studied the hydrodynamic stability of jets in crossflow and of particle-laden planar and swirling jets. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from VTU Belgaum and has worked as a Junior Design Engineer at Geometric Ltd., Bangalore.
Mansi worked on triadic resonant interactions of internal gravity waves. She received her PhD from the Department of Mathematics at IIT Kharagpur under the supervision of Dr. Rupanwita Gayen, studying the interaction of surface gravity waves with flexible structures of variable structural properties, with particular emphasis on hypersingular integral equation techniques. She was a recipient of the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship, Government of India (2021–2024).
Jogender worked on the locomotion of an inertial squirmer at small but finite Reynolds number. He received his PhD in fluid dynamics from IIST Thiruvananthapuram and a master's degree in Mathematics from IIT Bhubaneswar. His research interests span the dynamics and rheology of particle suspensions at low Reynolds number, microfluidics, complex fluids, soft matter, and non-Newtonian fluids.
Prabhash graduated with a PhD in 2026. His research examined the behaviour of inertial particles in low-Reynolds-number flows at micron length scales, focusing on how convective mixing influences the deposition and gaseous exchange of aerosols in respiratory airways across successive levels of bifurcation.
Thesis title: Stirring and dispersion in slow viscous flows
Meraj graduated with a PhD in 2026. His research developed a lattice Boltzmann framework for the scattering of electromagnetic waves by dielectric and conducting particles and for the radiation forces and torques they experience. During his earlier studies, he developed and prototyped an indoor solar cooking system.
Thesis title: A Lattice Boltzmann Framework for Simulating Electromagnetic Scattering and Radiation Forces
Anu graduated with a PhD in 2025. His research examined the Lagrangian dynamics of inertial particles in vortical flows, with particular focus on the heat, mass, and momentum exchange of water droplets in geophysical flows. During his doctoral work he developed expertise in modelling hydrodynamic interactions and in analytical tools for dynamical systems.
Thesis title: Exploring the Dynamics, Dispersion, and Destabilising Effects of Inertial Particles in Flows
Awards: Institute Research Award for PhD (2024)
Present affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, ENS de Lyon, France
Ramana graduated with a PhD in 2024. His research examined stratified shear flows, with particular focus on resonant interactions of internal wave modes and on wind-generated water waves. He also investigated the flow field and drift volume of a rigid sphere settling in a viscous, stratified medium at low Reynolds number.
Thesis title: Waves, instabilities, and particle transport in stratified flows (Submitted in 2023)
Present affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA.
Pijush graduated with a PhD in 2023. His research examined cloud microphysics, with particular emphasis on the growth of micron-sized drops in warm cumulus clouds through collision-coalescence.
Thesis title: The role of particle-flow interactions in cloud microphysics (Submitted in 2023)
Awards: Institute Research Award for PhD (2023–2024); Prof. V. Ramamurti Award for the best PhD thesis in the Department of Applied Mechanics (2024); Prof. V. Ganesan Award for the best PhD in ThermoFluid Sciences at IIT Madras (2024)
Present affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, NORDITA, Stockholm, Sweden.
Darish graduated with a PhD in 2022. His research examined how particles modulate fluid flows, through studies of instabilities in particle-laden falling films and vortices. He also studied interfacial instability in an ice-water system.
Thesis title: Waves and instabilities in
particle-laden flows (Submitted in 2022)
Present affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow,
University of Udine, Italy.
Karthiban graduated with an MS in 2025. His research focused on predicting the effective transport and elastic properties of composite materials using asymptotic homogenisation methods, in collaboration with the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory. Prior to his graduate studies, he completed a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and worked as an Assistant Manager at Bajaj Auto Ltd.
Hari graduated with an MS in 2025. His research examined the generation and growth of surface gravity waves arising from instabilities induced by wind blowing over the ocean, with broader interests in theoretical fluid mechanics, nonlinear phenomena, and data-driven methods. Before joining the group, he worked on data-driven detection of drop-drop interaction forces at IISc Bangalore and studied internal waves and double diffusion during his undergraduate years at BITS Goa.
Thesis title: Disturbing Interfaces by Nonlinear Currents: Diverse Mechanisms of Linear Instability
Awards: Best M.S. Thesis, Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering
Present affiliation: PhD student, University of Udine, Italy
Easwar graduated with an MS in 2022. His research involved predicting the effective properties of composites using multiscale methods, including the effect of interparticle interactions in particle-based composites near packing fractions.
Thesis title: Prediction of Effective Properties
using Asymptotic Homogenization Method (Submitted in 2022)
Main supervisor: A Arockiarajan (AM IITM)
Present affiliation: Software Development Engineer at SankhyaSutra Labs
Jamal graduated with an MS in 2022. His research used the lattice Boltzmann method to develop an algorithm for electromagnetic wave propagation in a medium, with the aim of estimating rainfall rates from the reflectivity of raindrops.
Thesis title: Rainfall estimation from
electromagnetic wave scattering by raindrops (Submitted in 2022)
Co-supervisor: Sumesh Thampi (CH IITM)
Present affiliation: Engineer at Detect
Technologies
Nishanth graduated with an MS in 2021. His research characterised the hydrodynamic instabilities of confined active suspensions. He is currently a PhD student at Cornell University, working on the rheology of dense non-Brownian suspensions.
Thesis title: Confined living fluids - The
effects of active stresses, autochemotaxis and convective
transport (Submitted in 2021)
Present affiliation: PhD student, Cornell University, USA
Himanshu graduated with an MS in 2020 from the Department of Applied Mechanics at IIT Madras. His thesis examined the effect of wall slip on the hydrodynamic stability of two-layered inclined channel flows. He is currently a PMRF scholar in the same department, working on particle-laden flows, air-sea interaction, and geophysical flows in our group.
Thesis title: Multiple holdup solutions and
linear stability analysis in a two-layered channel with slippery
walls (Submitted in 2020)
Main supervisor: Vengadesan S (AM IITM)
Present affiliation: PhD student (PMRF), IIT Madras
Prasoon graduated with an MS in 2020. His research examined particle dynamics in the natural-convection boundary layer over a horizontal plate.
Thesis title: Particle dynamics in natural
convection boundary layer over horizontal plate (Submitted in 2020)
Main supervisor: A P Baburaj (AM IITM)
Present affiliation: PhD student, IIT Madras
Yashashwi L · Praneet Shaw · Remil Mushthaq · Bharath V · Jash · Rakesh G · Abhisek Kundu · Yashodhan Kadam