Announcements & updates.

The group is actively seeking motivated PhD students (GATE/NET qualified) and B.Tech/M.Tech project students. Interested candidates should send a CV and brief statement of interest to chetan@metal.iitkgp.ac.in.

Dr. Chetan Singh joins the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at IIT Kharagpur as an Assistant Professor. He also continues as a Whiting Fellow at the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute, Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Singh received the Best Presentation Award, recognized by the Acting Director of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Maj. Gen. Lyle K. Drew, for outstanding research on reactive metal powders at the Materials Science in Extreme Environments URA, ATR meeting. Also received the Director's Challenge Coin.

Dr. Singh served as Symposium Co-Chair for the Characterization of Minerals, Metals and Materials 2026 Poster Session and as Session Chair for the Advanced Characterization IV: Electron Microscopy-Based Techniques II session at the TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition.

Delivered an invited career-development seminar, 'From Implants to Ignition: Microstructure as a Compass,' for the Materials Graduate Society at Johns Hopkins University, highlighting research spanning biodegradable implants, cryogenic testing, and reactive metal powders.

Presented research on integrating alloying and processing to tailor ignition and combustion in reactive aluminum alloy powders at the Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar.

Awarded neutron beamtime at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to explore the correlation between precipitation behavior and lattice strain evolution in AA6061 alloy (PI: Prof. Soo Yeol Lee).

Awarded Second Prize in the Electron Microscopy Image Contest at the Materials Characterization and Processing Facility, Johns Hopkins University.

Recognized with a $1,500 award for mentorship excellence through the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School Apprenticeship Program at the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute.

Awarded neutron beamtime at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to elucidate the influence of heterogeneous microstructures engineered via pre-straining during deep cryogenic treatment at 15 K.

Patent 202411013979 filed: J. Jain, N.N. Gosvami, A. Bhowmik, C. Singh, I. Agarwal, 'A Method for Electroplating an Alloy and Composition Thereof.' Developed during industry collaboration at IIT Delhi with GIVA (Indiejewel Fashions Pvt. Ltd.).

SEM work acknowledged by the American Society of Metals (ASM International) and featured in Microstructure–MicroArt, published in Metallography, Microstructure, and Analysis (MMA).

Recognized by JEOL USA for advanced microscopy skills; the 'Heart of Magnesium' micrograph was published in their annual microscopy issue.