Professional Experience

• Alexander von Humboldt fellow: Institute of Applied Materials-Mechanics of Materials and Interfaces (IAM-MMI), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany (March 2024 - Present) 

• Post-doctoral Research Associate: Institute of Applied Materials-Mechanics of Materials and Interfaces (IAM-MMI), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany (August 2022 - February 2024) 

• Post-doctoral Research Associate: Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India (September 2021 - July 2022) 

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.): Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India (August 2016 - August 2021) 

Dissertation Title: Development of a coarsening resistant microstructure in precipitation strengthened aluminium alloys with Zr, Ta and Hf

• Master of Technology (M.Tech.): Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), India (August 2014 - June 2016) 

Dissertation Title: Effect of sintering conditions on microstructure and electrical transport in magneto-electric gallium ferrite

• Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.): Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Malviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur, India (August 2010 - May 2014)

Summer Internship: Under District collector, Government of Rajasthan 

Research Interests

Alloy development and  Solid-state phase transformation (Light-weight alloys), Microstructure-Property correlations in materials at different length scales, Diffusion, Electron Microscopy (SEM & TEM), Atom probe tomography

Skills

• Transmission electron microscopes (ThermoFisher® TecnaiTM F30, T20-ST and Aberration-corrected TITAN) – Imaging (bright field, dark (2-beam, weak beam) field imaging), CBED, HR-TEM, HR-STEM, Scanning electron microscopes (JEOL JXA-8530F EPMA and FEI ESEM) and EBSD

• 4D-Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)

• Mechanical testing machine (Hardness, Tensile, Compression, Creep, Impact)

• TEM sample preparations using Precision ion milling system (PIPS II), Focussed ion milling (FIB, HELIOS & SCIOS, TEM lamella lift out, APT needle preparation) and Electropolishing (Fischione)

• Site-specific APT sample preparations through FIB

• Vacuum arc melting, Suction casting, Induction melting and Melt spinning

• Experience of handling high-temperature furnaces

• High-temperature Probostat (Norecs make), Impedance Analyzer Solartron 1260A

• Softwares: Velox, Jems, Digital Micrograph, Origin, Image J, FullProf, MATLAB, Python

Awards and Honors

• Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, March 2024-February 2026

• P. K. Dasgupta Prize for best oral presentation in Non-ferrous category during the 73rd Annual Technical Meeting (NMD-ATM 2019)

• 1st prize in Metallography contest, Students' Symposium, Materials Engineering, IISc (2017)

• Ministry of Human Resources and Development Scholarship, Govt. of. India (2016)

• Academic excellence award (9.25/10), IIT Kanpur (2016)

• AIR-205, GATE 2014, Gratitude aptitude test in engineering

• Selected in Young intern programme-2013, Internship project offered by Government of Rajasthan

Member

• Life-time member of Indian Institute of Metals

• Life-time member of Electron Microscope Society of India (EMSI)

Major Publications

• Ujjval Bansal, Amit Sharma, Barbara Putz, Christoph Kirchlechner, Subin Lee, Data-efficient 4D-STEM in SEM: Beyond 2D materials to metallic materials, Ultramicroscopy, 2025

• Ujjval Bansal, Neelamegan Esakkiraja, Thangaraj Baskaran, Tanaji Paul, Raju Ravi, Praveen Kumar, Vikram Jayaram, Aloke Paul, Synergistic effects of Pt and Y addition in (Ni, Pt)CrAlY bond coat on oxide spallation resistance and growth of interdiffusion zone between bond coat and Ni-based single crystal superalloy, Corrosion Science, 2024

• Ujjval Bansal, Ajay Kumar Thakur, Varun A. Baheti, Shiv Brat Singh, Avik Mondal, Arup Kumar Halder, Anindita Chakraborty, Kamanio Chattopadhyay, Aloke Paul, Diffusion-controlled growth mechanism of phases and the microstructural evolution in the Ni-Zn system, Materials Characterization, 2023

• Ujjval Bansal, Mahander Pratap Singh, Shyam Kanta Sinha, Dhanendra Kumar Sahu, Sukla Mondol, Surendra Kumar Makineni, Aloke Paul, Kamanio Chattopadhyay, Strength and stability through variable micro segregation behaviour of Ta and Zr solutes at intermetallic interfaces in Al-Cu alloys, Acta Materilia, 2023

• Ujjval Bansal, Mahander Pratap Singh, Sukla Mondol, Shyam Kanta Sinha, Surendra Kumar Makineni, Aloke Paul, Kamanio Chattopadhyay, The interplay of precipitation of ordered compounds and interfacial segregation in Al‐Cu‐Hf‐Si alloys for high-temperature strength, Acta Materialia, 2022

• Ujjval Bansal, Kamanio Chattopadhyay, Newer Developments in Aluminium Alloys Through Ordered Precipitates and Segregation of Transition Elements, Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals, 2022

• Sukla Mondol, Ujjval Bansal, Mahander Pratap Singh, Saurabh Dixit, Animesh Mandal, Aloke Paul, Kamanio Chattopadhyay, Microstructure-strength correlations in Al-Si-Cu alloys micro-alloyed with Zr, Materialia, 2022

• Soumita Mondal, Ujjval Bansal, Surendra Kumar Makineni, On the fabrication of atom probe tomography specimens of Al alloys at room temperature using focused ion beam milling with liquid Ga ion source, Microscopy Research and Technique, 2022

• Ujjval Bansal, Vijay Singh, Kumar Brajesh, Rajeev Gupta, Ashish Garg, Grain size dependence of electrical transport in magnetoelectric gallium ferrite ceramics, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2020

Conferences and Seminars

• Nanomechanical Testing in Materials Research and Development IX, ECI, (Sicily, Italy), October 6-11, 2024

(Ujjval Bansal, Subin Lee, Yolita M. Eggeler and Christoph Kirchlechner, "Mechanistic insights into strengthening via precipitate assemblies using in situ micropillar compression of Ni-Cr-Al-Nb alloys")

• DSL 2024, (Barcelona, Spain), June 24-28, 2024

(U. Bansal, N. Esakkiraja, T. Baskaran, T. Paul, R. Ravi, P. Kumar, V. Jayaram, A. Paul, "Synergistic Effects of Pt and Y Modifications on Spallation Resistance and growth of interdiffusion zone in NiCrAl Bond Coats")

• PICO 2024 (Kasteel Vaalsbroek), April 21-25, 2024

(Ujjval Bansal, Christoph Kirchlechner and Subin Lee, "4DSTEM-in-SEM in event driven mode for in situ applications")

• Schöntal Symposium on Dislocation-based Plasticity (Monastery Bad Schöntal, Germany), April 14-19, 2024

(Ujjval Bansal, Zhongmin Long, Subin Lee, Yolita M. Eggeler and Christoph Kirchlechner, "Role of stacking faults on the flow stress behavior of Ni-based Superalloys")

• IMC 20, 20th International Microscopy Congress (Busan, Korea), September 10-15, 2023

(Ujjval Bansal, Christoph Kirchlechner, Subin Lee, "4DSTEM-in-SEM: From development to the microstructural characterization of high-Mn steel and Cu-Pt thin films")

• MechNano Summer School, Università degli studi Roma Tre, Department of Civil, Computer and Aeronautical Engineering (Rome, Italy) July 24-28, 2023

• In-group Seminar, INT, KIT (La Clusaz France) July 15-21, 2023

• P3T1 Seminar, KIT, Germany, June 5, 2023 

(Ujjval Bansal, Christoph Krichlechner, Subin Lee, 4DSTEM-in-SEM: From development to the microstructural characterization of high-Mn steel) 

• 12th Asia-Pacific Microscopy Conference (APMC-2020), (Hyderabad, India) February3-7, 2020 

(Ujjval Bansal, Sukla Mondol, Aloke Paul and Kamanio Chattopadhyay, “Effect of microadditions of Hf and Si on precipitation and high temperature performance of Al-Cu alloy” and Sukla Mondol, Ujjval Bansal, Aloke Paul and Kamanio Chattopadhyay, “Heterogeneous nucleation of θ′ on L12 precipitates and their effect on elevated temperature strength of Al-6Si-4.5Cu-0.5Zr alloy”)

• 57th National Metallurgical Day and 73th Annual Technical Meeting, NMD and ATM, IIM Trivandrum Chapter, (Trivandrum, India) November 13-16, 2019

(Ujjval Bansal, Sukla Mondol, Aloke Paul and Kamanio Chattopadhyay, “Precipitation and coarsening of strengthening precipitates in ascast Al-Cu-Zr alloy after three stage heat treatment”)

Responsibilities

• Organizer, Institute Seminar, IAM-MMI, KIT (2022-2023)

• Student secretary of Annual Student's symposium, Materials Engineering, IISc (2018)

• Student secretary of IIM Kanpur chapter (2015-2016)

Reviewer

Materials Characterization, Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, Intermetallics, International Journal of MetalCasting