Dr Kumar  [H-Index Web of Knowledge (WoK): 39, >5800 citations; Google Scholar: 42, >7500 citations]  Dr. Kumar was appointed to a lectureship in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in 2013, became a senior lecturer in 2019, reader in 2023 and currently serves as the Head of Centre for Quantum Materials Technologies in School of Mathematics and Physics. Exploring novel phenomena in ferroelectrics and functional imaging have formed the core of his research career and he has made several key contributions to these fields over the years. He is considered an expert on nanoscale imaging of ferroelectric phenomena and has written a relevant editorial article for Nature (2014). At QUB, he has built his own research group working in novel dimensions of ferroelectric research which explores the underpinning physics to utilise novel functionality  arising out of domain and domain walls in ferroic materials (with special attention to stress-mediated phenomena and electronic behaviour of domain walls). He has authored >100 peer reviewed journal publications, with a significant number in high-impact, high-visibility journals spread across the entire career. Publications include Science (1), Nature (1), Nature Physics (1), Nature Chemistry (1), Nature Communications (4), Physical Review Letters (5), Nano Letters (4), ACS Nano (4) and Advanced Materials (7). He has also presented ~10 invited talks and seminars over the last five years. He has secured external funding as PI for 6 external research grants amounting to ~ £3M in total value at QUB (across collaborations) obtained from EPSRC, Royal Society and NSF/SFI/DELNI. He was also PI on internal Central Research Infrastructure Fund amounting to £0.25M which has helped him establish a state-of-the-art scanning probe microscopy lab with unique capabilities. He has recently acquired a unique £0.5M Horiba NV-Centre microscope with excellent AFM options as University Lead to launch novel research ambitions. He has co-organised a session within the Physical Sciences programme at the Microscience Microscopy Congress (mmc2015) and was a member of the local organising committee for ISIF-2019. He is a member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP). He has directly supervised four PhD students (four under current supervision) to completion towards their degree and three PDRAs (one under current supervision) over the past six years.

Ferroelectrics, Scanning Probe Microscopy, Local electrochemistry in Batteries & Fuel cells, Nonlinear Optics

Funded Research Projects

Processing-Driven Nucleation Mediated Control for Manufacturing Phase-Pure Ferroelectric Hafnia (PI, The joint proposal across three countries is funded for £1.0 M in total)  Funded by DELNI/SFI/NSF (Grant No. USI 205), 2023-25.

Antiferroelectricity, Ferrielectricity and Ferroelectricity in the Archetypal Antiferroelectric PbZrO3 at small scale   (PI, The joint proposal across three countries is funded for £1.2M in total)  Funded by DELNI/SFI/NSF (Grant No. USI 211), 2022-26

- Quantitative Hall Voltage mapping at conducting Ferroelectric domain walls: A novel approach to extracting conduction mechanisms on the nanoscale (PI ), Funded by EPSRC (Grant No. EP/S037179/1), 2019-20

- Far-from-Equilibrium Processing of ferroelectric thin films on glass and polymeric substrates   (PI, The joint proposal across three countries is funded for $ 1M in total)   Funded by DELNI/SFI/NSF (Grant No. USI 082), 2016-19

- Investigating Pressure induced conducting states on the nanoscale : A novel approach to  nano-circuitry (PI, £100K ), Funded by EPSRC (Grant No. EP/N018389/1), 2016-17

-Probing local ionic transport in Li-ion battery cathodes (PI, £13K)
 Funded by Royal Society (Grant No.  Royal Society RG130604), 2014-15

PHY 4029 (Synoptic Physics), 2014-

PHY 3012 (Solid State Physics), 2015

PHY 9032 (Materials Characterisation, Online MSc Course), 2015-

PHY 9033 (Materials Characterisation Case Study, Online MSc Course), 2015-

Physics Level 1,2 and 3 Labs for undergraduate students, 2013-

5 Level 4 MSci Projects, 2013-