My research is at the interface of condensed matter physics and materials science. It uses high-performance computing, principles of statistical mechanics and experiments to understand the fundamental origins of length scale selection in non-equilibrium pattern forming systems found in materials science. These include systems undergoing crystallization from a melt or amorphous phases, particle precipitation, second phase formation, grain growth kinetics and reaction-diffusion processes in heterogeneous materials. Most of these systems serve as paradigms for understanding microstructure evolution during material processing. I am interested in porting over ideas and knowledge from microscopic scales to the scales on which material properties are typically realized in practical applications. This connection of length scales can be achieved by course-graining microscopic theories to yield meso-scale continuum and sharp-interface models. Models thus developed find use in materials engineering applications. Some of the phenomena I study relevance to industrial materials processing, and some of my work is sponsored by industry
