Director

Dr. R. Balamuralikrishnan, Outstanding Scientist / Scientist ‘H’, has taken over as Director, Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), Hyderabad on 31 Jan 2023.

Dr. Balamuralikrishnan obtained his B. Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT-Madras in 1991, and his M.S. (1992) and Ph.D. (1998) in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA. Following a three-year post-doctoral stint, also at CMU, he joined DMRL as Scientist D in 2001.

His research interests include the physical metallurgy of high-performance steels and nickel base superalloys, with a strong emphasis on advanced microstructural characterization and establishing/understanding the processing-structure-property correlations in these important engineering materials. He is also interested in applying modelling and simulation tools to study materials and processes. He has first-hand experience of 25+ years in working with speciality steels, across the entire spectrum from concept-to-product. His work has been influential in establishing the entire ecosystem, starting from lab scale scientific studies to industrial scale production and certification for final use,for the manufacture of speciality steels for naval construction.He has a strong interest in fostering/enabling interactions between academia, R&D institutions and the industry sector towards transitioning concepts to (successful) products.He has delivered nearly 100 keynote/invited talks at various R&D institutions, academia, industries, Government bodies and conferences.

Dr. Balamuralikrishnan has received the DRDO Agni Award (Team member) for Excellence in Self-Reliance in 2005, Hubert I. Aaronson Fellowship from the Indian Institute of Science in 2010, DRDO National Science Day Oration Silicon Medal in 2011, Metallurgist of the Year Award by the Ministry of Steel in 2017, and Outstanding Researcher (Steel) in an Academic Institute and R&D Labs Award by Indian Steel Association in 2019.