LAKSHMI VARADACHARI

Summary of the work carried out at IITM from 1stApril 2012 to 5th April 2018 and 1st Dec 2018 to till date

On 1st of April 2012 joined IITM under IC&SR recruitment for NCCRD. It is a Joint National Centre for Combustion Research & Development between IIT Madras and IISc, Bangalore. This is a Centre funded by Science Engineering & Research Board (SERB), DST, Government of India. NCCRD is the State of the Art facility at IITM, headed by Prof T Sundararajan and Prof. S.R.Chakravarthy. NCCRD consists of four specialized areas namely Aerospace Combustion, Automobile Combustion, Thermal Combustion and Fire Suppression. 30 IITM professors specialized in the above areas of Combustion, worked in the Centre. Below roles are carried out by me in the Centre.

1. Co-ordinated with all the 30 professors, who worked under NCCRD. Getting their research requirements periodically, procure them the same

2. Series of consultative meetings with internal, IISc and industry have been organized

3. Helped in forming of Steering Committee, National Advisory Committee, Executive Committee and International Advisory Committee.

4. Organised all the above said committee meetings periodically.

5. Floating of Tenders for the purchase of major equipments, preparing technical specifications, as per the requirement of the faculty, follow up on the purchases with the suppliers

6. Organized 3 member committee for the small purchases and their procedures

7. Organising IITM & IISc co-ordination meetings to facilitate collaborative research work, exchange programs.

8. Organising National, International workshops, Conferences, Guest Lectures, Extramural Lectures by the International reputed faculties in Combustion. Lectures by faculties of other IITs, other universities (list given below)

9. Organized weekly lectures by the research fellows, Alumnis, who worked under the 30 professors in NCCRD

10. New building was constructed for NCCRD. Construction related work progress and follow ups with Engineering Units were carried out

11. Organised official travel of the co-ordinators / NCCRD faculties both domestic and international, right from getting International travel visas, arranging travel itinerary, until getting travel reimbursements from ICSR.

12. Worked at few other on going projects of the co-ordinators (listed below). Purchase in these projects were also taken care of. RMF and PCF accounts were also maintained.

13. MoUs and NDAs were signed with Industries related to Combustion. Coordinated with the legal cell on carrying out these.

14. Academic help to the co-ordinators like organizing Seminars, Synopsis, PhD Viva, collecting thesis from the research fellows etc were done.

15. Organised SERB Summer and Winter schools. This had participants from all over India. Normally conducted for a week. (list given below)

16. Preparing periodical progress reports for the projects of the co-ordinator. Sending of UC, Statement of accounts to the respective funding agencies at the end of every financial year.

List of International faculty visits and lectures organised

Prof. Paul Ronney, Univ. Southern California, LA

Prof. Peter Lindstedt, Imperial College

Prof. Jose Torero, Univ. of Queensland

Prof. Wolfgang Polifke, TU Munich

Prof. Yannis Hardalupas, Imperial College

Prof. Simone Hochgreb, Cambridge Univ.

Dr. Matthew Juniper, Cambridge Univ.

Dr. Mani Sarathy, KAUST

Prof. Okajima, Hosei Univ., Tokya

Prof. Kamimoto, Tokyo Inst. Tech

Prof. Nikos Ladammatos, Univ. College London (expected summer 2014)

Prof. Tim Lieuwen, Georgia Tech (expected Oct. 2014)

Prof. Dom Santavicca, PennState

Dr. Jacqueline O’Connor, PennState

Prof. Michael Renfro, Univ. Connecticut

Prof. Kalyan Seshadri, Univ. California San Diego

Prof. Kalyan Annamalai, Texas A&M Univ.

Prof. Vycheslav Akkerman, West Virginia Univ.

Dr. Steve Ciati, Argonne National Labs

Dr. Joe Cetino, GE Power & Water, Greenville, SC

Dr. Burt Stuck, GE Power & Water, Greenville, SC

Dr. Michael Foust, GE Aviation, Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Bruno Schuermans, Alstom, Switzerland

Dr. M. S. Anand, Rolls Royce, Indianapolis

Dr. Frank Eulitz, Siemens, Germany (expected)

Dr. Louis Gritzo, Vice President, FM Global, MA (expected Mar 2014)

Dr. Heinrich Volges, LaVision

Dr. Franz Murr, AVL Graz

Dr. Wayne Eckerle, Cummins, USA

List of major collaborative work / exchange programs with International Universities.

Imperial College

Cambridge Univ.

Univ. College London

Penn State

Purdue Univ.

Georgia Tech

Univ. Queensland (8/2013, 2/2014)

AVL, Graz, Austria/Munich, Germany

FEV, Aachen, Germany

VTT, Finland

CNRS, Orleans

EM2C, Paris

TU Darmstadt, Germany

ECN, Netherlands

FM Global, USA

KAUST, Saudi Arabia

Universitat Siegen, Germany

TU Berlin (planned 6/2014)

List of workshops Organised

1. Industry Academia Workshop on Combsution (IAWC) - July 2012

2. Workshop on Combustion Dynamics – 8 Sep 2012

3. Workshop on Solid Propellants Combustion – 21 Sep 2012

4. Workshop on Supersonic Combustion – 7th Dec 2012

5. Workshop on Supersonic Combustion – 21stFeb 2013

6. Industry Consortium meeting on GDI Engine Developments Chaired by The Director, IITM – 11th May 2013. Industries participated were Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Defiance Tech, UCAL Systems, India Pistons, Delphi TVS)

7. Inauguration of the Fire Test Enclosure and Propellant Combustion buildings organized in 2014. Inauguration of the main NCCRD building in Jan 2016

8. National workshop on Rotating Detonation Wave Engine – 29-30 March 2019

9. Nation al Workshop on Tactical Missile Propulsion – Oct 22-23, 2019

10. Fire Research in Propulsion Systems – 23rdJan 2020

11. Workshop on Hypersonic air-breathing vehicles – 26thMarch 2021 (Web)

List of Academic Summer and Winter Schools organised

1. Combustion fundamentals for aero propulsion: DRDL, July 2012 ~ 80 participants

2. Automotive engine combustion: IITM, Sep. 2012 ~40 participants

3. Combustion dynamics: Jadavpur, Dec. 2012 ~30 participants

4. Automotive engine control: IITM, Jan. 2013 ~30 participants

5. Combustion Modelling & diagnostics: IIT Indore, Oct. 2013 ~40 participants

6. ICIWS 2015 (12-23 Dec 2015). International Winter School. This had 172 Indian and 127 International participants. 6 Eminent professors on Combustion from Universities abroad gave away lecturers. Academic program also included cultural events, Local (Chennai) visit, Visit to Mahabalipuram and Industrial visit to Mahindra Research Valley

List of other projects worked parallel to NCCRD

1. Gas Turbine Combustion instability funded by RIC, DRDO, Research Park

2. Solid Rocket Combustion Instability funded by RIC, DRDO, Research Park

3. Umbrella project on Fuel Characterization funded by BHEL

4. Centre of Propulsion Technology funded by DRDO (with IITB)

5. Acoustic enhancement of steam generation funded by Forbes Marshall

6. Inline Gas Monitoring for Non-standard Gas Engines funded by Cummins

7. Biomass Characterization funded by METSO

8. Biomass Combustion Optimization funded by Thermax

9. Fire Suppression Sprinklers funded by FM Global

10. OPTIMASH funded by European Commission

• Hobbies: Music
• Father's Name: V.K. Varadachari
• Date of Birth: 06/03/70
• Marital Status: Single

Learnt classical music for more than 10 years. Music is my passion.