Associate Professor Sunil Kumar
Contact Details
Tel: +61 8 8302 3169
Fax: +61 8 8302 3683
Email: sunil.kumar@unisa.edu.au
Position
Associate Research Professor in Advanced Materials
Qualifications
BSc(Hons) MSc(Hons) GNDU, India PhD IIT, Delhi, India
Background
Since obtaining his PhD in thin-film electronic materials, Sunil Kumar has
been working in the fields of advanced thin-film materials and plasma
surface engineering. Before migrating to Australia, Sunil worked in New
Zealand and the USA. He joined the Ian Wark Research Institute of the
University of South Australia (UniSA) in 1997 and is currently working on
various research projects centred on biomaterials, bioimplants (prostheses),
tissue engineering scaffolds and plasma (ionised gas) processing. Sunil’s
current and recently completed research projects as Chief Investigator have
been funded by the ARC (Australian Research Council) and the NHMRC (National
Health and Medical Research Council), BioInnovationSA and industry (local
and international). A total of over $2.5 million in research funds have been
competitively won by him as Chief Investigator. Sunil had been a Partner
Investigator on an ARC-funded Special Research Centre for Particle and
Material Interfaces ($7.2 million over the period 2000-2008). Through
invited visits, Sunil has undertaken collaborative work and continues to do
so with researchers from the USA, Canada, Mexico and Singapore. In addition,
Sunil has several ongoing strong research links with Australian researchers.
Sunil has been a Supported Researcher of UniSA since year 2000 and an
experienced research degree supervisor. On research degree completions,
Sunil has successfully supervised research projects of 16 students (9 PhDs +
5 Masters + 2 Hons). All these students are now fully employed in various
research and other organisations or doing higher research degrees. For his
teaching duties, Sunil has been teaching the Honours degree course Nano- and
Bio-materials at UniSA since 2005. The lectures delivered are primarily
centred on one- and two-dimensional nanomaterials. Sunil’s current key
administrative duties at The Wark/UniSA include: Research Degrees
Coordinator; Member – IWRI Research Degrees Committee; IWRI Research
Publications Data Coordinator; Member – UniSA Joint Promotions Committee
Levels B/C.
Sunil has published over 150 research papers (73 in peer-reviewed
international research journals and 81 conference papers) on the growth and
characterisation of various advanced thin-film materials, including
biomaterials. Some of the papers have bagged best paper awards. The research
published by Sunil is of high impact, as evident by: a total citation count
of over 1000 for the peer-reviewed publications (an average citation rate of
~14); and h, H and g indices of 18, 25 and 29, respectively. Sunil has
presented several invited talks, seminars and lectures at various
conferences and research organisations worldwide. On knowledge application,
the research carried out by Sunil has resulted in patents and benefits to
various hi-tech industries.
Research Interests
• Biomaterials, including bioimplants (prostheses), tissue engineering
scaffolds and bioactive thin-film coatings
• Plasma processing of materials
• Surface engineering of materials
• Advanced thin-film materials by PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition) and CVD
(Chemical Vapour Deposition)
• Surface and interface analyses
• Wear-resistant and hard coatings
Supervisor - Available Postgraduate/Honours Projects
Bioactive
polymeric nanocomposites for bone tissue engineering (P)
Molecular level
structural mapping and bioactivity of proteins adsorbed onto well-defined,
patterned nanoengineered biomaterials surfaces (P)
New strategies for
promoting angiogenesis in biodegradable polymeric tissue engineering
scaffolds: A materials science approach (P)
Sustained,
localised drug delivery (of bisphosphonates) from hydroxyapatite coatings
for improved fixation of orthopaedic implants (P)
The
influence of the surface chemistry of metallic and ceramic implants wear
debris particles on the cellular response (P)
Understanding the bone growth enhancement in silica-hydroxyapatite
biomaterial systems (P)
Bioactive
polymeric nanocomposites for bone tissue engineering (H)
Nanoscopic
templates from domain forming block copolymer (H)
Teaching Interests
• Two dimensional nanomaterials (for The Wark/UniSA Honours course)
• Thin-film coatings by PVD and CVD methods
• Biomaterials
• Plasma surface modification and characterisation
• Advanced electronic materials
Current International Roles/Duties
• Research Expert of International Standing, Australian Research Council.
• Editorial Board Member, The Open Biomedical Engineering Journal, Bentham
Science.
• Editorial Board Member, The Open Process Chemistry Journal, Bentham
Science.
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society.
• Steering Committee Member, IUVSTA (International Union for Vacuum Science,
Technique and Applications), on the development of Biointerfaces Division.
• Symposium Organiser and Chair, Symposium D “Biomedical Coatings” and
Topical Symposium TS3 “Bioactive Coatings and Surface Biofunctionalisation”
of the prestigious, annual International Conference on Metallurgical
Coatings and Thin Films, San Diego, CA, USA (2007 - 2013).
• Peer-reviewing duties with several national and international research
funding agencies, including Australian Research Council, Australian
Technology Network (ATN) Universities, Medical Research Council of UK, New
Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology.
• Peer-reviewing duties for over 20 prestigious international research
journals.
Publications
Some of Sunil’s recent publications:
Development of surface modification techniques for the covalent attachment
of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) on PECVD silica-coated titanium, E J
Szili, Sunil Kumar, M DeNichilo, R St C Smart and N H Voelcker, Surf. Coat.
Technol. (Accepted for publication, 31 May 2010).
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study of the growth kinetics of
biomimetically grown hydroxyapatite thin-film coatings, K McLeod, Sunil
Kumar, N K Dutta, R St C Smart, N H Voelcker and G I Anderson, Applied
Surface Science (Accepted for publication, 14 May 2010).
Osteoblast biocompatibility on poly(octanediol citrate)/sebacate elastomers
with controlled wettability, I Djordjevic, E J Szili, N Roy Choudhury, N
Dutta, D A Steele and Sunil Kumar, Journal of Biomaterials Science – Polymer
Edition 21 (2010) 1039-1050.
The role of silicon in the corrosion of AA6061 aluminium alloy laser
weldments, A B M Mujibur Rahman, Sunil Kumar and A R Gerson, Corrosion
Science 52 (2010) 1969-1975.
Polyoctanediol citrate/sebacate bioelastomer films: surface morphology,
chemistry and functionality, I Djordjevic, N R Choudhury, N Dutta, Sunil
Kumar, E J Szili and D A Steele, Journal of Biomaterials Science – Polymer
Edition 21 (2010) 237-251.
Spray-pyrolyzed hydroxyapatite thin-film coatings, M Aguilar-Frutis, Sunil
Kumar and C Falcony, Surf. Coat. Technol. 204 (2009) 1116-1120.
Sulfonated surfaces by sulfur dioxide plasma surface treatment of plasma
polymer films, Kim Shyong Siow , Leanne Britcher, Sunil Kumar and Hans J
Griesser, Plasma Processes and Polymers 6 (2009) 583-592.
Protein adsorption on low temperature alpha alumina films for surgical
instruments, A N Cloud, Sunil Kumar, M Kavdia, H H Abu-Safe and M H Gordon,
Thin Solid Films 517 (2009) 5927-5930.
Generation of a stable surface concentration of amino groups on silica
coated onto titanium substrates by the plasma enhanced chemical vapour
deposition method, E J Szili, Sunil Kumar, R St C Smart and N H Voelcker,
Applied Surface Science 255 (2009) 6846-6850.
Synthesis and characterization of novel citric acid-based polyester
elastomers, Ivan Djordjevic, Namita Roy Choudhury, Naba K Dutta and Sunil
Kumar, Polymer 50 (2009) 1682-1691.
Concurrent elution of calcium phosphate and macromolecules from alginate/chitosan
hydrogel coatings, Ping Peng, Nicolas H Voelcker, Sunil Kumar and Hans J
Griesser, Biointerphases 3 (2008) 105-116.
Protein adsorption on low temperature alpha alumina films for surgical
instruments, A N Cloud, Sunil Kumar, M Kavdia, H H Abu-Safe and M H Gordon,
Surf. Coat. Technol. 203 (2008) 913-917.
Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition of silica onto titanium: Analysis
of surface chemistry, morphology and hydroxylation, E J Szili, Sunil Kumar,
R St C Smart, R Lowe, E Saiz, N H Voelcker, Surf. Sci. 602 (2008) 2402-2411.
Preparation and bioactivity of SiO2 functional films on titanium by PACVD,
X-M Cheng, B-M Nie and Sunil Kumar, Trans. Nonferrous Met. Soc. China 18
(2008) 627-630.
The speciation of Si and other alloying elements in the oxide surface film
of galvanically corroded weld fusion zone of laser welded AA6061 aluminium
alloy, A B M Mujibur Rahman, Sunil Kumar and A R Gerson, Corrosion Science
50 (2008) 1267-1273.
Morphological and surface compositional changes in poly(lactide-co-glycolide)
tissue engineering scaffolds upon radio frequency glow discharge plasma
treatment, Ivan Djordjevic, Leanne Britcher and Sunil Kumar, Appl. Surf.
Sci. 254 (2008) 1929-1935.
Membership of Professional Associations
• American Vacuum Society (Current)
• ASTM Committee F04 on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices (Current)
• Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (Current)
• Australian Ceramic Society (Current)