Dr. S. Srikanth takes over as Director, NML

Dr. S. Srikanth, FNAE has taken over as Director, National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur with effect from forenoon of March 2, 2010. Prior to his becoming Director, NML, he was working as Scientist 'G' and Head, NML Madras Centre, Chennai.

Dr. Srikanth (born 27^th June 1960) did his B.Sc. (Engg.) (1^st Class with Honorus in Metallurgy (1982) from REC, Rourkela and M.E. (Metallurgy, 1984) 1^st Class with in Distinctions from Indian Institute of Science, (IISc.), Bangalore. Dr. Srikanth received the Prof. K.P. Abraham and Prof. A.A. Krishnan Gold medals in 1984 for highest CGPA and outstanding project respectively in the M.E. Programme at IISc., Bangalore. He did his Ph.D. (Metallurgy) in 1990 from IISc., Bangalore. He started his service career in NML joining as Scientist 'C' in September 1990 and rose to the position Scientist 'G' in February 2005 with his outstanding contributions in the R&D areas, namely: Process Development for Extraction of Cu, Ni & Co from Sea Nodules, and for Production of Ca-Si Alloys, Thermodynamics and kinetics of processes, Thermodynamics of non equilibrium phases transformations, Mechano-chemical activation of minerals, High temperature corrosion, Failure analysis, solid oxide fuel cells. He had 63 nos. of SCI research publications to his credit.

Dr. Srikanth visited Department of Materials Science & Engineering, McMaster University, Canada as a Post Doctoral Fellow during December 1992 to November 1993 and worked on Thermodynamics of Inter-Metallic Compounds, Optimization and calculation of Binary and Ternary phase Diagrams. He was also a visiting scientist to the school of Materials, University of Leeds, UK during August (1997-1999) and September 1997 and contributed in the field of Oxygen Potential Measurement in Mattes, Gibbs Energy of Formation of Inter Oxide Compounds in Na₂O-Fe₂O₃ and Na₂O-Sb₂O₅ system by emf techniques.

Dr. Srikanth visited Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Science, Praque during October- November 1998 as a visiting scientist and worked there in the field of Non-equilibrium solidification kinetic phase diagrams.

During February 2009 to January 2010, Dr. Srikanth was on sabbatical leave from NML/CSIR as a visiting scientist to General Research Global R&D, JFWTC, Bangalore where he worked on Modelling of high temperature corrosion, Modelling latice parameter in super alloys, Development of pseudobinary diagrams, Whole-cycle energy analysis of hydrogen and biomass.

Dr. Srikanth is having many Awards and Academic Distinctions to his credit. Mention may be made of few, namely - Fellow of the Indian Academy of Engineering from January (2010); Materials Research Society of India Medal (2006); MISRA Award by (2006) for best published paper on Hydro-Electro-Bio Processing; Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005); Metallurgist of the Year Award (2004) of Ministry of Steel & Mines, Govt. of India; B.R. Nijhawan award for the Best Technical Paper from NML during the (1998, 2001 & 2005); CSIR Young Scientist Award (1995); Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1992); Young Metallurgist Award" by the Ministry of Steel and Mines.