Sugam Kumar
BARC, Mumbai
Sugam Kumar is a Scientific Officer at the Solid-State Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and an Assistant Professor at Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai. He earned his Ph.D. from Homi Bhabha National Institute and carried out his postdoctoral research at Stockholm University, Sweden. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, India. He has received several prestigious awards, including the NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award, the DAE Young Scientist Award, the Indian Physics Association’s Best Thesis Award, the Homi Bhabha Prize, and university medals during his graduation and post-graduation. His research interests focus on soft condensed matter, biophysics, and neutron scattering techniques. With more than 100 publications in leading international journals, he has made significant contributions to his field. He was selected Associate of IASc in 2022.
Session 2C: Lectures by Fellows/Associates
Chairperson: Rajesh K Srivastava, BHU, Varanasi
Unique Applications of Neutron Scattering in Exploring Soft Matter Phenomena
Neutron scattering offers unparalleled advantages in studying soft matter, primarily due to its sensitivity to low-Z elements, which constitute most soft materials, and the ability to probe relevant length and time scales [1–3]. The nuclear interaction between neutrons and atomic nuclei enables the powerful approach of contrast variation through isotopic substitution, unveiling structural and dynamical insight that might otherwise remain inaccessible. Neutron scattering methods are non-destructive, allowing measurement of delicate soft materials under native conditions. Among these methods, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is especially utilized for probing structures and interactions at a mesoscopic length scale, which is pertinent in these systems [2,4]. The technique is versatile and applicable to probing a wide range of soft matter constituents, such as colloidal dispersions, self-assembled structures, biomolecules, polymers and their derivatives, liquid crystals, membranes, as well as their complexes. In this talk, I will discuss our recent studies showcasing the utilization of SANS to explore the complex interplay of Deryagin–Landau–Verwey– Overbeek (DLVO) and non-DLVO interactions in some scientifically/technically important phenomena (e.g., re-entrant phase behavior [4–7], nano-bio conjugation [8,9], colloid-polymer interactions [10,11]) in multi- component soft matter systems and resultant structures.