Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): Two PhD scholars of Department of Physics from National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar have been selected for a prestigious internship at the University of Free State (UFS), South Africa, officials said on Monday. Research Scholars Irfan Ayoub and Umer Mushtaq have been selected for the position of Research Assistant at the UFS, South Africa.
The internship programme will run for one year. Irfan and Umer will work with Prof Hendrik C. Swart. Prof. Swart who holds Research Chair in Solid State Luminescent and Advanced Materials, is an NRF B1-rated and an internationally acclaimed researcher. Prof. Swart's group's ongoing activities are closely related to their Ph D. thesis.
They will work on the synthesis and spectroscopic investigations of rare-earth, transitional metal ions doped nanomaterials, nanocomposites, and hybrid materials to achieve color-tunable emission in solid-state lighting and white light LEDs. Reacting to the selection of the two students for the prestigious internship, Director NIT, Prof. (Dr.), Rakesh Sehgal complimented both students and their mentor Dr. Vijay Kumar for bagging a prestigious internship in one of leading institutes in South Africa and hoped that they would justify the fellowship with a quality research outcome.
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“It is a proud movement for the entire Institute. Research is important and vital for any engineering institution. Without research and investigation, there will be no progress and we cannot stay relevant in a competitive market,” Prof Sehgal said. Institute’s Registrar, Prof Syed Kaiser Bukhari extended his greetings to the Ph.D. scholars.
He said this prestigious internship will provide them with exposure and would fulfil their professional aspirations. Prof Bukhari said there is no dearth of talent among the NIT Srinagar students, who just need guidance at the right time. “To support students on campus, we have developed state-of-the-art facilities for research and will continue to expand our activities in future,” Prof. Bukhari said.
Head Department of Physics, Dr M.A. Shah also congratulated both PhD Scholars for bagging the prestigious fellowship. Dr. Shah said that the internship will provide them with excellent opportunities to gain research experience helpful for their completion of Ph.D. research. “They will learn new techniques for the characterization of nano phosphor materials for various applications,” he said.
In his message, the guide of the two selectees Dr. Vijay Kumar said both research scholars are hardworking and passionate about their areas. I hope that this internship will help them in their future studies, he said. Irfan Ayoub and Umer Mushtaq are currently pursuing PhD on'Improving luminescent materials for use in flat panel displays, solar cells, solid-state lighting, dosimetry, and thermometry' under the supervision of Dr. Vijay Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, NIT Srinagar.
Irfan recently published a research paper in RSC Advances based on the work carried out at UFS.
