Experience and Background 

Experience 

• Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi                    

( January 2024 - till date)

• Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi ( August 2016 - January 2024)

Educational Background

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand (2013-2016)

• M.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand (2011-2013)

• B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, Punjab (2007-2011)

Ph.D. Advisor

Prof. Apurbba Kumar Sharma, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttrakhand 

Brief Outline of self Ph.D. work

Ph.D. Thesis Title: Development of Nanostructured Wear Resistant Surfaces through Microwave Cladding

Sunny Zafar was involved in full time research programme in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee leading to Ph.D. thesis on “Development of Nanostructured Wear Resistant Surfaces through Microwave Cladding”. Microwave heating is well known for uniform and volumetric heating of materials at the molecular level. This volumetric and uniform nature of heating reduces processing time significantly and results in better microstructure and properties of the materials as compared to the conventional processing of materials. The work involves developing of wear resistant surfaces on austenitic stainless steel through a novel surface engineering technique: 'Microwave Cladding'. The wear resistant layer was developed using popular wear resistant material 'WC-12Co'. The clads of thickness of approximately 1 mm were developed on stainless steel substrate using powder in micrometric and nanometric size range. The cladding process parameters were optimised using exhaustive experimental trials. The developed micrometric and nanometric WC-12Co clads were characterised in terms of their metallurgical, mechanical and tribological aspects through various techniques. The tribological behaviour of the micrometric and nanometric clads was investigated and compared with each other. The nanometric clads were found to exhibit improved mechanical and tribological properties compared to the micrometric clads.

Scholarship and Awards

• Young Faculty Fellow (YFF) Award 2025, IIT Mandi

• Young Achiever's Award 2023, IIT Mandi

• Teaching Honor Roll Award 2021, IIT Mandi

• Early Carrier Research Award by SERB, DST, Government of India

• International Travel Grant by SERB, DST, Government of India

• Ph.D. Fellowship, MHRD, Government of India

• M.Tech. Fellowship, MHRD, Government of India

• Marquis Who's Who Official Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award 2018

• Biography accepted into Marquis Who's Who, which is comprised of the top 3% of the professionals in the world