Materials science · Microfluidics · Thermal engineering
Dr Vijaykumar Varma
PhD materials scientist and R&D lead with more than 11 years in India, Singapore, Luxembourg and Belgium. I design, simulate and build devices where fluids, heat and materials meet: liquid cooling for high-power chips and electronics, lab-on-chip platforms, and automated labs that discover better materials faster.
Liquid cooling & thermal packaging
CFD, CHT & porous-media models
Microfluidics & lab-on-chip
Multiphysics digital twins
AI-driven materials discovery
EU & FNR proposals
AdvisorTechnical Advisor to M3TRL Consulting, Luxembourg, for hardware, materials and device projects, in a personal capacity.
11+ yrsmaterials science and engineering R&D in four countries
29experimental setups and devices built, from 12+ original designs
35publications, plus one provisional patent
36conference presentations, including 2 keynotes and 14 invited talks
What I work on
Liquid cooling & thermal packaging
Direct-to-chip and microfluidic liquid cooling for 2.5D/3D chip packages, batteries, LEDs and solar cells. Conjugate heat transfer and porous-media (LTNE) models in Ansys Fluent and COMSOL, steady-state and transient.
High-throughput simulation
Automated Python, PyAnsys and PyFluent pipelines on HPC clusters: thousands of runs, parameter sweeps and trade-off analysis turned into clear design recommendations.
Microfluidics & lab-on-chip
Design, modelling, microfabrication and validation of droplet and continuous-flow devices, including porous-media and chromatography models and image-based measurement of separation and phase fraction.
Validated digital twins
Models calibrated against thermocouple, IR thermography and flow measurements, with over 95% model-to-experiment agreement and more than 50% fewer prototype iterations.
Accelerated materials discovery
Closed-loop platforms linking synthesis, robotics and characterisation, guided by Bayesian optimisation and active learning, screening 2–5 times faster.
Quality & process engineering
Design of experiments, FMEA, statistical process control, reliability and thermal-cycling tests, and traceable calibration.
Experience
2026 – now
R&D Engineer · Microfluidics & Thermal Simulation (AI chip cooling)
Semiconductor research, Leuven, Belgium
- Ran 3,000+ full-stack, multilayer 3D CFD and thermal simulations in under a month to evaluate liquid-cooling architectures for high-density AI chips.
- Modelled conjugate heat transfer and porous-media (LTNE) effects of GPU/HBM integration, hybrid bonding, TSV density, thermal interface materials and coolant flow, in steady-state and transient studies.
- Built automated end-to-end simulation pipelines in Python, PyAnsys and PyFluent on HPC clusters, and presented thermal trade-offs to industrial partners.
2025 – 2026
Applied AI & Digital-Twin Development
Luxembourg
- MIT Applied AI & Data Science programme, applied to Ansys and COMSOL digital twins for porous media, AI-driven discovery and chemical engineering.
2025
Postdoctoral Researcher · Experimentation & Device Development
University of Luxembourg
- Designed 3D-printing configurations, experimental setups and data-acquisition workflows for shear alignment of liquid-crystal materials in an ERC project.
2023 – 2024
Senior R&T Scientist · Principal Investigator, accelerated materials discovery
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
- Secured €60k CAPEX to prototype a high-throughput platform combining AI with robotic fluidics, accelerating materials discovery by 200–500%.
- Authored and led, as PI, the FNR-ATTRACT (€3M) and FNR-CORE (€1M+) proposals on AI-guided, automated materials discovery with FAIR data handling.
- Built three high-throughput automated synthesis and processing platforms for the cosmetics industry.
- Led a commercialisation project on automated image-data pipelines for correlative microscopy (SIMS, TEM), and trained junior researchers in green-skills automation. Promoted to Senior R&T Scientist within 1.5 years.
2022 – 2023
Senior Research Fellow · Team Lead, AI-driven discovery
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Led interdisciplinary teams building automated discovery platforms with A*STAR (Singapore) and the University of South Florida (USA).
- Applied Bayesian optimisation to aerospace TiAl alloys, screening 2–5 times faster across 6+ performance parameters.
- Built porous-media and volume-fraction models in COMSOL applied to chromatography; delivered 3+ soft-robotics platforms and 3+ fluidic systems.
2017 – 2022
Research Fellow · Group Leader, automated fluidics & thermal technology
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Raised thermal performance by 300% with three multi-objective optimisation platforms coupling digital twins and high-throughput fluidic experiments.
- Built and tested 18+ liquid-cooling prototypes for LEDs, batteries and solar cells (thermal cycling, reliability, IR and thermocouple telemetry), with over 95% model-to-measurement agreement.
- Developed "green cooling" technology for high-power electronics, filed a provisional patent and attracted 5+ industrial partners; 12+ articles published.
2013 – 2017
PhD Researcher
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Built an automated droplet-microfluidics laboratory from the ground up, leading to 10+ publications.
- Designed, fabricated and tested 11+ lab-on-chip devices with COMSOL-led design, cutting prototype cycles by over 50%.
2010 – 2012
Research Assistant · Defence materials R&D
University of Pune, India
- Led R&D of an automated thermal-plasma reactor for industrial nanomaterials, cutting material costs 1000-fold and doubling yield.
- Built three industry-scale automated synthesis setups for defence applications such as propellants and radiation dosimetry.
Selected projects
| Years | Project | Role and result |
|---|---|---|
| 2017–2023 | AI-driven combinatorial flow chemistry for accelerated materials development (NTU–A*STAR, S$3.78M programme) | Designed the data infrastructure; 3× faster discovery workflows, 2× yield for 3D-printed motor materials |
| 2022–2023 | AI-based discovery of TiAl aerospace alloys ($1M) | Co-lead; 2–5× faster screening across 6+ parameters |
| 2017–2020 | Digital-twin-driven green cooling systems ($750k) | Lead; 18 cooling devices, 300% performance gain, 5+ industry partners |
| 2021–2022 | Smart magnetic-fluid grippers for soft robotics ($500k) | Lead; 3 gripper technologies in 6 months |
| 2013–2017 | Magnetic Janus particles by droplet microfluidics (with SIMTech-A*STAR, $1M) | Platform developer; 95% particle uniformity |
| 2010–2012 | Nano-aluminium synthesis for defence applications | Process lead; 1000-fold cost reduction |
Grants & proposals
- Principal Investigator: FNR-ATTRACT 2024, €3M, "AI-guided microfabrication" platform proposal; FNR-CORE 2023, €1M+, "Accelerated iterative discovery of materials by flow chemistry", with a €60k prototyping grant secured; NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship proposal, 2021.
- Contributor to funded programmes: Structural Metal Alloys (S$5.136M, AI-driven alloy discovery: data management and analysis); Accelerated Materials Development for Manufacturing (S$3.78M: data infrastructure).
- International proposals: FNR-DFG INTER 2024 with German partners (machine-learning soil analysis); FNR-NWO INTER 2023 with Dutch partners (automated design of semiconductor nanomaterials).
Education
2017
PhD in Materials Science & Engineering
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore · Microfluidics, fluid physics, magnetic materials, heat and mass transfer · NTU research scholarship (S$184,000)
2010
MSc in Physics (Materials Science)
University of Pune, India
2008
BSc in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics
B. P. College, SRTM University, India
Training
Certifications
MIT Applied AI & Data Science · AI Foundations: Machine Learning (2021) · Six Sigma Yellow Belt (2021) · GMP awareness
Awards, teaching & service
- Awards: Best Presentation Award, IEEE Magnetics Symposium, Singapore (2016); keynote speaker grants, India (2017, 2019); International Conference Grant, NTU (2017); Industrialization Potential Award, University of Pune (2012).
- Teaching and mentoring: university lecturer at NTU (Metal and Ceramic Lab, Semiconductor Lab), with student ratings up to 4.7/5; designed PhD and MSc lab courses; mentored 12+ researchers, including 2 PhD students, and interns from the USA and India.
- Editorial: Guest Editor, Magnetochemistry special issue on magnetic fluids, droplets and magnetic composites; Topical Advisory Panel, Coatings; reviewer for Lab on a Chip, Physics of Fluids, Scientific Reports and Nature, Elsevier and RSC journals.
- Memberships: Materials Research Society (USA); IEEE Magnetics Society and Biomedical Engineering Society (Singapore).
- Network: collaborations across 15+ institutes in 7+ countries, including A*STAR and the University of South Florida.
Keynotes & invited talks
- Keynote: Advances in magnetic materials: energy-efficient cooling, energy harvesting and lab-on-a-chip applications. ICRAS-19, India, 2019.
- Keynote: Magnetic nanofluids in applied sciences: self-pumping magnetic cooling, Janus particle synthesis and lab-on-a-chip devices. International Conference on Applied Sciences, India, 2017.
- Accelerated discovery of industrial alloys for energy and aviation applications. AMSCA-2023, Pune, India, 2023.
- Machine-learning-based rapid discovery of novel γ-TiAl alloys. ASATM, Singapore, 2023.
- A green thermomagnetic technology for efficient passive cooling by ferrofluids. 15th Joint MMM-Intermag Conference, New Orleans, USA, 2022.
- Droplet micro-magnetofluidics for accelerated development of biomaterials. Microfluidics Global Expo, UK (online), 2022.
- Free cooling technology of magnetic fluids: from theory to devices. IEEE Magnetics Symposium, Singapore, 2022.
- Session chair, IEEE Magnetics Symposium, Singapore, 2022, and AMSCA, India, 2023.
36 conference presentations in total, including 14 invited talks.
Publications
35 publications and one provisional patent, newest first. Each PDF link opens the full text.
Book chapter, patent and theses
- Varma VB, Chavan AJ. Magnetic droplets for advanced theranostics: cancer diagnosis, targeted delivery, and therapeutics (invited book chapter). In: Chaughule RS, Patkar DP, Ramanujan RV, editors. Nanomaterials for Cancer Detection Using Imaging Techniques and Their Clinical Applications. Springer, 2022, p. 59–89. PDF
- Lee HT, Ramanujan RV, Varma VB. Self-pumping magnetic cooling for electric motor. Provisional patent, Singapore, 2021.
- Varma VB. Development of magnetic structures by micro-magnetofluidic techniques. PhD thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2017. PDF
- Varma VB. Noise analysis of the field emission current from graphene. Master's thesis, University of Pune, India, 2010. PDF
Journal articles and conference proceedings
- Padhy SP, Davidson KP, Varma VB, Tan LP, Sharma VK, Tan X, Wei Y, Xu X, Hippalgaonkar K, Jhon MH, Ramanujan RV. Integrated design framework for titanium aluminides through interpretable machine learning. J Alloy Compd. 2025;1047:184937. PDF
- Deka K, Deshpande GA, Kamble SA, Varma VB, Ramanujan RV, et al. Enhanced magnetic hyperthermia performance in thermal plasma synthesized MnFe2O4 nanoparticles. J Phys Chem Solids. 2025:112586. PDF
- Padhy SP, Tan LP, Varma VB, et al. Accelerated multi-property screening of Fe-Co-Ni alloy libraries by hyper-heuristic combinatorial flow synthesis and high-throughput spark plasma sintering. J Mater Res Technol. 2023;27:2976–88. PDF
- Keneth ES, Lieberman R, Pahima A, Varma VB, Sharma V, Chao Y, Qi G, Ramanujan RV, Magdassi S. Untethered magneto-thermal flexible actuators for soft robotics. Sens Actuators A. 2023;363:114683. PDF
- Varma VB, Cheekati SK, Pattanaik MS, Ramanujan RV. A magnetic nanofluid device for excellent passive cooling of light emitting diodes. Energy Rep. 2022;8:7401–19. PDF
- Pattanaik MS, Cheekati SK, Varma VB, Ramanujan RV. Superior cooling performance of low footprint, hybrid, magneto-fluidic heat transfer devices. Int J Heat Mass Tran. 2022;183:122082. PDF
- Pattanaik MS, Cheekati SK, Varma VB, Ramanujan RV. A novel magnetic cooling device for long distance heat transfer. Appl Therm Eng. 2022;201:117777. PDF
- Pattanaik MS, Varma VB, Cheekati SK, Chaudhary V, Ramanujan RV. Optimal ferrofluids for magnetic cooling devices. Sci Rep. 2021;11:24167. PDF
- Mandlik NT, Varma VB, Sahare PD, Mathe VL, Bhoraskar SV, Dhole SD. Synthesis of nanocrystalline Al2O3:C by thermal plasma reactor for radiation dosimetry applications. J Radioanal Nucl Ch. 2021;330:1533–43. PDF
- Varma VB, Pattanaik MS, et al. Superior cooling performance of a single channel hybrid magnetofluidic cooling device. Energ Convers Manage. 2020;223:113465. PDF
- Mandlik NT, Varma VB, Kulkarni MS, Bhatt BC, Sahare PD, Raut SA, Mathe VL, Bhoraskar SV, Dhole SD. Luminescence and dosimetric characteristics of nanocrystalline Al2O3:C synthesized by thermal plasma reactor. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res B. 2020;466:90–101. PDF
- Lim ZW, Varma VB, Ramanujan RV, Miserez A. Magnetically responsive peptide coacervates for dual hyperthermia and chemotherapy treatments of liver cancer. Acta Biomater. 2020;110:221–30. PDF
- Pattanaik MS, Varma VB, Cheekati SK, Prasanna G, Sudharsan NM, Ramanujan RV. A self-regulating multi-torus magneto-fluidic device for kilowatt level cooling. Energ Convers Manage. 2019;198:111819. PDF
- Pai C, Watve J, Jain R, Varma VB, Radha S, Press MR, Garde CS, Ramanujan RV, Prabhu SS, Nagarajan R. THz spectroscopic studies of ferrofluid. AIP Conf Proc. 2019;2115:030530. PDF
- Deepak K, Varma VB, Prasanna G, Ramanujan RV. Hybrid thermomagnetic oscillator for cooling and direct waste heat conversion to electricity. Appl Energ. 2019;233:312–20. PDF
- Cohn D, Sloutski A, Elyashiv A, Varma VB, Ramanujan R. In situ generated medical devices (invited review). Adv Healthcare Mater. 2019;8:e1801066. PDF
- Wang Y, Wu R, Varma VB, Wang Z, Seah YP, Wang Z, Ramanujan RV. Flowing label-free bacteria trapped by small magnetic fields. Sensor Actuat B-Chem. 2018;260:657–65. PDF
- Pai C, Shalini M, Varma VB, Radha S, Nagarajan R, Ramanujan RV. Study of magnetofluidic laser scattering under rotating magnetic field. AIP Conf Proc. 2018;1942:050126. PDF
- Varma VB, Wu RG, Wang ZP, Ramanujan RV. Magnetic Janus particles synthesized using droplet micro-magnetofluidic techniques for protein detection. Lab Chip. 2017;17:3514–25. PDF
- Ray A, Varma VB, Jayaneel PJ, Sudharsan NM, Wang ZP, Ramanujan RV. On demand manipulation of ferrofluid droplets by magnetic fields. Sensor Actuat B-Chem. 2017;242:760–8. PDF
- Raghavan L, Joy PA, Varma VB, Ramanujan RV, Anantharaman MR. Defect induced modification of structural, topographical and magnetic properties of zinc ferrite thin films by swift heavy ion irradiation. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res B. 2017;396:68–74. PDF
- Pai C, Varma VB, Srinivasan R, Nagarajan R, Ramanujan RV. Control of magnetofluidic laser scattering of aqueous magnetic fluids. IEEE Magn Lett. 2017;8:1–5. PDF
- Wang X, Wang Z, Varma VB, Wang Z, Ray A, Lew WS, Ramanujan RV. Instability-induced mixing of ferrofluids in uniform magnetic fields. IEEE Magn Lett. 2016;7:1–5. PDF
- Varma VB, Ray A, Wang ZM, Wang ZP, Ramanujan RV. Droplet merging on a lab-on-a-chip platform by uniform magnetic fields. Sci Rep. 2016;6:37671. PDF
- Varma VB, Ray A, Wang Z, Wang Z, Wu R, Jayaneel PJ, Sudharsan NM, Ramanujan RV. Control of ferrofluid droplets in microchannels by uniform magnetic fields. IEEE Magn Lett. 2016;7:1–5. PDF
- Ray A, Varma VB, Wang ZM, Wang ZP, Jayaneel PJ, Sudharsan NM, Ramanujan RV. Magnetic droplet merging by hybrid magnetic fields. IEEE Magn Lett. 2016;7:1–5. PDF
- Mathe VL, Varma VB, et al. Enhanced active aluminum content and thermal behaviour of nano-aluminum particles passivated during synthesis using thermal plasma route. Appl Surf Sci. 2016;368:16–26. PDF
- Wang ZM, Varma VB, Xia HM, Wang ZP, Ramanujan RV. Spreading of a ferrofluid core in three-stream micromixer channels. Phys Fluids. 2015;27:052004. PDF
- Wang Z, Varma VB, et al. Tuning magnetofluidic spreading in microchannels. J Micromech Microeng. 2015;25:124001. PDF
- Tank CM, Varma VB, Bhoraskar SV, Mathe VL. Synthesis of silicon nanostructures using DC-arc thermal plasma: effect of ambient hydrogen on morphology. Advanced Materials Research, Trans Tech Publications, 2014, p. 76–81. PDF
- Mandlik N, Varma VB, Bhoraskar V, Mathe V, Bhoraskar S, Dhole S, Kulkarni M, Bhatt B, Sahare P. Study of dosimetric characteristics of nanocrystalline Al2O3:C synthesized by thermal plasma reactor. 31st IARP National Conference on Advances in Radiation Measurement Systems and Techniques, 2014. PDF
- Varma VB, Tank CM, Nandi A, Pant A, Prashant H, Pandey RK, Das AK, Bhoraskar SV, Mathe VL. Effect of shield gas on the size distribution of aluminum nanoparticles synthesized in thermal plasma reactor. AIP Conf Proc. 2013, p. 436–7. PDF
In preparation
- Varma VB, Cheekati SK, Pattanaik MS, Ramanujan RV. Multiparameter optimization of a magnetic cooling device by genetic algorithms for superior cooling of batteries and solar cells.
- Varma VB, Cheekati SK, Pattanaik MS, Ramanujan RV. Performance enhancement of solar cells by a branched magnetofluidic cooling device.
Contact
Languages: English and Hindi. For hardware, materials or device projects, contact M3TRL Consulting. For research and speaking, message me on LinkedIn.