Sankara Arunachalam Email and Phone Number

I’m currently a post-doc fellow in the Droplet lab at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). I received a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Anna University, India (2005-09), followed by a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (2009-11). Started my career as a Research Engineer at BEML Ltd, India (2011-15), and relocated to KAUST to work as a Research Specialist (2015-20) and later as a graduate student in Prof. Himanshu Mishra's group. I received the Dean's Award for outstanding academic performance in my Ph.D. program at KAUST and several first prizes at symposiums.I have skilled in Micro/Nanoscale Fabrication, Photolithography, Dry & Wet Etching, 3D printing, Surface Modification, Metal Sputter, Surface Characterization, Scanning Electron microscope (SEM), Environmental SEM, Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope, Wetting Analysis, Contact Angle Goniometry, Optical Microscope, Reflectometer, 3D Optical Profiler and Profilometer, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Wafer Technologies, Physical/Chemical Vapor Deposition, Bio-mimetics, High-Speed Imaging, Membrane Distillation, Spray Characterization. Software skills: Catia, NX (Unigraphics), ImageJ, Ansys-Fluent, Matlab, Tanner L- edit, Adobe Illustrator, Clewin, Origin, Imaris, VSDC video editor, TrackerMy present research focuses on understating the kinetic drop friction on water-repellent surfaces (on Black silicon and Microtextured surfaces) and developing the force sensor to characterize the friction at nano-Newton levels.During my PhD, I developed sustainable gas-entrapping microtextured surfaces/membranes and studied their interactions with droplets and bulk liquids.My research work appeared in top-tier journals, including Nature Communications, Science Advances, Physical Review Letters, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Journal of Membrane Science, and I was also listed as a co-inventor on a patent. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UQZL6MkAAAAJ&hl=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sankaraarunachalamORCID iD: 0000-0003-3685-3913