Priyank Kumar

Dr. Priyank Vijaya Kumar 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-dimensional materials (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 advance photocatalysis and other applications. In May 2019, he started as a Scientia fellow (level B) in the school of chemical engineering at UNSW, Sydney with a vision to establish a computational materials design group and foster experimental collaborations.

Research Interest:

• 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.

For full list of publications go to Google Scholar profile