Dr Kumar  [H-Index Web of Knowledge (WoK): 41, >6500 citations; Google Scholar: 44, >8500 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 has served as the Head of Centre for Quantum Materials Technologies in School of Mathematics and Physics since 2022 (He was Head of Centre for Nanostructured Media between 2020-22). 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 (6), ACS Nano (7) and Advanced Materials (8). Over his career, he has presented 11 invited talks at reputed international conferences, 4 invited research workshops, and 8 invited seminars at leading universities and research laboratories. He has secured external funding as PI for 6 external research grants amounting to ~ £3.5M in total value at QUB (across collaborations) obtained from EPSRC, Royal Society and NSF/SFI/DELNI. He was co-I on recently awarded EPSRC core equipment award. He was also PI on internal Central Research Infrastructure Fund amounting to £0.25M which helped him establish a state-of-the-art scanning probe microscopy lab with unique capabilities. He  acquired a unique £0.5M Horiba NV-Centre microscope in 2021 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), was a member of the local organising committee for ISIF-2019 and is co-organising FerroUK meeting in 2025. He is a member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP) and serves as secretary of Ferroelectric UK. He has directly supervised 6 PhD students to completion (four under current supervision) and 4 PDRAs (two under current supervision).

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

Funded Research Projects

Core Equipment Award - Dedicated Lift-out tool 2024 (co-PI), Funded by EPSRC, 2024-26 (Total institutional award £400k, Award component £54k)

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), 2014-2016
PHY 3012/3002 (Solid State Physics), 2015 and 2023-Present
PHY 9032 (Materials Characterisation, Online MSc Course), 2015-17
PHY 9033 (Materials Characterisation Case Study, Online MSc ), 2015-17
PHY4024/4009 (Physics of Materials Characterisation), 2017-Present
PHY 2004 (EM and Optics), 2024-25
PHY 7001 (Microstructure in Materials), 2019-2024
PHY 7021 (Functional Materials), 2019-2024
Physics Level 1,2 and 3 Labs for undergraduate students, 2013- Present
Level 4 MSci Projects, 2013- Present