Professor N.K. Mukhopadhyay started his career in Metallurgical Engineering from Bengal Engineering College of Calcutta University (1983), now known as IIEST, Shibpur. He obtained his M.E. (1985) and Ph.D. (1990) from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. After his postdoctoral research at McMaster University, Canada (1990-1994), he joined CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur in 1994 as Scientist and then moved to Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi (now known as Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi) in 1998 as Reader. Since 2006, he is a Professor in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi. Presently, he has been selected for HAG (Higher Academic Grade) since August 2012.  He has visited TU-Dresden, Germany as Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and also as a visiting scientist/professor at various international institutions such as IFW (Dresden, Germany), McMaster University (Canada), Yonsai University (S. Korea).

Awards & Recognition      

Prof. Mukhopadhyay received the INSA Gold Medal for Young Scientists in 1990 awarded by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.  He was recipient of ALEXANDER von HUMBOLDT Fellowship, Germany (2003) and the prestigious National Metallurgists’ Day Awards: ‘Metallurgist of the year’ in 2006 from the Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India. He has been conferred ‘Mishra Award’ by Institution of Minerals Engineers and ‘Nijhawan Award’ by CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur. He also received ‘MRSI Medal for 2008’ from Materials Research Society (MRSI). He is a recipient of Prof. C.N.R. Rao Education Foundation Award in 2010. He has been elected as Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2009, Fellow of Institution of Engineers (FIE) in 2003, the Indian Institute of Metals (FIIM) in 2007, Electron Microscope Society of India (FEMSI) in 2013, and Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology (FAScT) in 2015. Recently he has been selected for INAE Chair Professorship (2015-2017). He has been felicitated by the Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata as ‘Eminent Materials Engineer-2010’. He is a member of international advisory board of ‘Quasicrystals’ since 2008 and ‘Mechanochemistry and Mechanical Alloying’ since 2003.  Recently he has been elected as a member of the commission of ‘Aperiodic Crystals’ of International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), UK since 2008. He is serving on the editorial board of Metallurgical and Materials Transaction A as Key Reader since 2008 and as an editor of Metallurgy and Materials Journal (Series D) of Institution of Engineers (India). Recently he was awarded ASM-IIM visiting Lectureship and under this program he visited in 2015 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.

 Prof. Mukhopadhyay has made several outstanding contributions in the areas of quasicrystals (QC), complex metallic alloys, nanomaterials, mechanical milling, nanoindentation, and failure analysis & component integrity. He has published more than 235 papers in International Journals of repute. He has delivered more than 25 lectures as an invited speaker and chaired technical sessions in many National and International Conferences. Prof Mukhopadhyay has visited several countries including USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Israel, South Korea, China, Japan, etc in connection with collaborative research projects as well as participation in International conferences. His work on discovery of ordered quasicrystals, new type of quasicrystals and their classification schemes are being the most significant research contributions, having created an international impact. His original and innovative work on the rational approximants, complex intermetallics and correlations with the quasicrystals, and new indexing schemes are also highly recognized. His works on milling and severe plastic deformation of metallic materials have thrown a new light towards the stability of the microstructures.  He has made an excellent contribution in the areas of indentation of bulk metallic glasses, quasicrystals and nanomaterials.

Major scientific achievements

Prof. N.K. Mukhopadhyay has consistently made path-breaking scientific contributions, demonstrated very high degree of creativity and a perceptible impact through his several outstanding contributions in the specific research areas of quasicrystals (QCs), complex metallic alloys (CMAs), nanomaterials, mechanical alloying/milling, nanoindentation, among others.

• Quasicrystals: His work has led to several pioneering developments such as (i) the first classification scheme of QCs, (ii) discovery of ordered QCs, (iii) a rationale for synthesis of QCs & discovery of several new types of QCs, (iv) the correlation between QCs and structurally complex intermetallics and (v) devising a new and unique indexing scheme, known as least path criterion for decagonal QCs.
• Discovery of ordered QCs: One of the most important contributions of Mukhopadhyay is his pioneering discovery of ordered quasicrystal (Face-Centred Icosahedral) just after the revolutionary discovery of disordered quasicrystal (Simple Icosahedral) in rapidly solidified Al-14% Mn alloys by Danny Shechtman, Nobel Prize winner in 2011.
• Multicomponent Multiprincipal Element Alloys: The nominee has for the first time developed multicomponent single Laves phase in equiatomic Ti-Zr-V-Cr-Ni alloys and higher order alloy systems. This is first such demonstration of high entropy intermetallic alloys containing strong and weaker hydride forming elements. The potentials of such hexagonal Laves phase as hydrogen storage has been revealed and it has made an impact for future studies for developing hydrogen storage materials.
• Nanomaterials: Mukhopadhyay has proposed criteria for the stability of various metastable phases in binary and ternary complex metallic alloys by modifying Meidema’s approach for free energy calculations. He developed a processing route for synthesizing nanospinel by controlled milling followed by annealing of the QC and CMAs.
• Mechanically activated minerals: A new process technology: It is shown by him that the reactivity of nanophase minerals fabricated by mechanical milling are much more than that of the microcrystalline minerals and accordingly his work on faster leaching kinetics for extracting the metals from the ilmenite minerals appears to be a breakthrough in developing the process technology for the leaching operations.
• High Energy Milling for driven Transformation: Mukhopadhyay has, for the first time, shown that under mechanical milling Al-based QCs is unstable and transforms to a bcc phase which further transforms to a ordered B2 phase during subsequent annealing. The significance of this work has been discussed in several International Conferences to settle the issue of whether QC phase is entropy stabilized or enthalpy stabilized.
• 2D Quasicrystalline Metallic sheet by liquid Exfoliation: It is remarkable to develop for the first time 2D metallic QC layer (analogous to graphene) by liquid exfoliation of Icosahedral and Decagonal QCs. This 2D metallic QC layers will have tremendous potential for hydrogen evolution reaction and can act as efficient catalyst. Hence, it is anticipated that this will open a new field for developing novel materials for functional applications.
• Inverse Hall-Petch Behaviour: It is to be noted that his work on  nanocrystallization during nanoindentation in quasicrystals as well as in bulk metallic glasses has been remarkable. The recent investigation of Mukhopadhyay on inverse Hall-Petch (IHP) phenomena in nano-structured quasicrystals and nano-intermetallics have drawn intense attention of the international scientific community. The grain size softening below a critical grain size has been established for the first time and interpreted due to thermally activated grain boundary shearing.