• Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2014) Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
• PhD (2011) Chemical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, India.
• M.Tech. (2004) Materials Science, IIT Kanpur, India.
• B.Tech. (2002) Chemical Engineering, BIET Jhansi, India.

• DST-INSA Inspire Faculty Fellowship in Engineering and Technology, 2011. (INSA)
• Malhotra Weikfield Foundation - Nanoscience Fellowship, 2011 (4th Bangalore Nano).
• Shah-Schulman Award for the best PhD Thesis in the area of Colloid and Interface Sciences, 2011 (IICHE).
• Intellectual Ventures Invention Award (Invention ID: IN-811947), 2011.
• SPIE student travel grant, SPIE Photonics Europe 2010, Brussels.
• Winner of the best student poster award, ICONSAT 2008. (DST Nano Mission)
• Best poster award, 6th National Conference on Solid State Ionics 2004.

We are investigating the issue of miniaturization of the feature size in polymer patterning by dewetting, mask-based optical patterning and micro-molding. In dewetting, it is achieved by overcoming the surface tension limitation by carrying out dewetting in aqueous media, which takes down the minimum feature size of dewetting from micrometers to sub-100 nanometers range. It is the most important finding of this work and has potential to increase applicability of dewetting as a nano-fabrication tool. Moreover, beyond-themaster micro-patterning of non-absorbing polymer film harnessing diffraction of laser light and subsequent self-organization offers an ultrafast solution for the fabrication of complex micro-patterns on polymer surface having features much smaller than the original mask. In micro-molding, the miniaturization is achieved by isotropic shrinking of the hydrogel. Use of a carbon precursor hydrogel makes possible the fabrication of surface and imbedded microstructures in carbon.

Conventional top-down nano-fabrication routes are limited by the fact that it is not possible to incorporate complex location specific details on surface. DNA nanotechnology provides unique solution for this by building structures of technological importance using sequence-specific interaction between two or more complementary DNA strands. Using DNA nanotechnologies we built two- and three-dimensional DNA crystal lattices, nanotubes and arbitrary designed shapes with added functionality. DNA based nanostructures are precise up to few nanometers and are highly scalable but limited by the size which in most cases is less than few micrometers. I worked on the integration of DNA nanostructures on lithographically patterned surfaces to build programmable self-assembled hybrid devices.

1. SERB Young Researcher Early career Grant (2016-20), ₹5 million. "Fabrication of Low-cost High-throughput Flow Cytometer using Tunable Nanolenses".
2. IIT(BHU) Seed grant for new Faculty Members (2015-16), ₹1 million. "Setting up Nanofabrication Laboratory".
3. DST-DESY project for PETRA III beamline. "Evolution of self-organized nano-size droplets by dewetting of ultrathin polymer films-in-situ time dependent GISAXS study".

In peer reviewed journals:

1. Priti Yadav, Nidhi Dubey and Ankur Verma "Controlling Lengthscales in Water-Solvent Induced Self-Organized Dewetting of Thin Polystyrene Films by Modulating the Surface Properties of the Substrate",  Journal of Macromolecular Science, Part B 2022, accepted.
2. Kanhaiya Lal Maurya, Ganesh Swain, Ravi Kumar Sonwani, Ankur Verma and Ram Sharan Singh "Biodegradation of Congo red dye using polyurethane foam-based biocarrier combined with activated carbon and sodium alginate: Batch and continuous study", Bioresource Technology 2022, 351, 126999.
3. Naval Singh, Ankur Verma, Priyanka Sachan, Ashutosh Sharma and Manish M. Kulkarni "Self-Organized Wrinkling in Thin Polymer Films Under Solvent-non-solvent Solutions: Patterning Strategy for Microfluidic Applications", ACS Applied Polymer Materials 2021, 3(12), 6198-6206.
4. Amrita Shahi, Padmanaban Velayudhaperumal Chellam, Ankur Verma and R. S. Singh "A comparative study on the performance of microbial fuel cell for the treatment of reactive orange 16 dye using mixed and pure bacterial species and its optimization using response surface methodology" Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 2021, 48, 101667.
5. Kanhaiya Lal Maurya, Ganesh Swain, Ravi Kumar Sonwani, Ankur Verma and Ram Sharan Singh, "Bioremediation of Congo red in an anaerobic moving bed bioreactor: Process optimization and kinetic modeling", Bioresource Technology Reports 2021, 100843.
6. Shubham Mishra, Manish M. Kulkarni and Ankur Verma, "High-Resolution Imaging and Fast Number Estimation of Suspended Particles using Dewetted Polymer Microlenses in a Microfluidic Channel", Micron 2021, 151, 103148(1-6).
7. Amrita Shahi, Padmanaban V. Chellam, Ram S. Singh and Ankur Verma, "Biodegradation of reactive red 120 in microbial fuel cell by Staphylococcus equoruma RAP2: Statistical modelling and process optimization", Journal of Water Process Engineering 2021, 40, 101913.
8. Priti Yadav and Ankur Verma, "Intensified Dewetting of Polystyrene Thin Film under Water-Solvent Mixture: Role of Solvent Composition", Bulletin of Materials Science 2020, 43, 170.
9. Ankur Verma, Satya Sekhar, Priyanka Sachan, P. Dinesh Shankar Reddy and Ashutosh Sharma, "Control of Morphologies and Length Scales in Intensified Dewetting of Electron Beam Modified Polymer Thin Films under a Liquid Solvent Mixture", Macromolecules 2015, 48, 3318-3326.
10. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Taming of Self-organization in Highly Confined Soft Matter to Sub-100 nm Scales: Nanolens-arrays by Spinodal Instability of Thin Polymer Films for High Resolution Optical Imaging", Current Science 2013, 104, 1037-1045. (frontispiece)
11. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Sub-40 nm polymer dot arrays by self-organized dewetting of e-beam treated ultrathin polymer films", RSC Advances 2012, 2, 2247-2249.
12. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Self-organized Nano-lens Arrays by Intensified Dewetting of Electron Beam Modified Polymer Thin-Films", Soft Matter 2011, 7, 11119-11124.
13. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Submicrometer Pattern Fabrication by Intensification of Instability in Ultrathin Polymer Films under a Water-Solvent Mix", Macromolecules 2011, 44, 4928-4935.
14. Ankur Verma, Ashutosh Sharma and Giridhar U. Kulkarni, "Ultrafast Large Area Micropattern Generation in Non-absorbing Polymer Thin-Films by Pulsed Laser Diffraction", Small 2011, 7, 758-765. (frontispiece)
15. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Enhanced Self-organized Dewetting of Ultrathin Polymer Films under Water-organic Solutions: Fabrication of Sub-micron Spherical Lens Arrays", Advanced Materials 2010, 22, 5306-5309. (frontispiece)
16. Chandra S. Sharma, Ankur Verma, Manish M. Kulkarni, Devendra K. Upadhyay, and Ashutosh Sharma, "Microfabrication of Carbon Structures by Pattern Miniaturization in Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Gel", ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2010, 2, 2193-2197.
17. Swaraj Basu, Ankur Verma, D. C. Agrawal, Y. N. Mohapatra and R. S. Katiyar, "Effect of Uniform and Periodic Doping by Ce on the Properties of Barium Strontium Titanate Thin Films", J. Electroceramics 2007, 19, 229-236.
18. Ankur Verma and K. Shahi, "Frequency Response of Mechanochemically Synthesized AgI-Ag2O-B2O3 Superionic Glasses", Indian J. Physics 2005, 79, 749-752.

Book Chapters:

1. Mohit Kumar, Ganesh Swain, Ravi Kumar Sonwani, Ram Sharan Singh, AnkurVerma and Birendra Nath Rai, "Effect of operating parameters on photocatalytic degradation of dyes by using graphitic carbon nitride" Photocatalytic Degradation of Dyes, Elsevier, 2021, 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2020-0-00551-7

• Ashutosh Sharma and Ankur Verma “Miniature lenses, systems and methods of making the same”. US patent 8,587,881.
• Ashutosh Sharma, Ankur Verma and Giridhar U. Kulkarni “Micropattern generation with pulsed laser diffraction”. US patent 9,527,730.

1. Ankur Verma and Rebecca Schulman, “Anisotropic Shrinkage of DNA Origami after a Wet-to-Dry Transition”, AICHE Annual Meeting 2013, San Francisco, CA, USA (November 3-8, 2013).
2. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Large Area Patterning of Thin Polymer films by Self Organization", CHEMCON 2011, Bangalore, India (December 27-29, 2011). (Award lecture: Shah Schulman Award)
3. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Large Area Nanopatterning by Self Organized Dewetting of Ultrathin Polymer Films", 4th Bangalore Nano 2011, Bangalore, India (December 8-9, 2011).
4. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Self-Organized Nano-lens Arrays by Intensified Dewetting of Polymer Thin-film", AICHE Annual Meeting 2011, Minneapolis, MN, USA (October 16-21, 2011).
5. Ashutosh Sharma and Ankur Verma "Self-organized fabrication of nanolens and lens-arrays: Raising the bar on dewetting of thin films", 242nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Denver, CO, USA (August 28-September 1, 2011)
6. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Self Organized Polymer Microlenses for Sub-diffraction Limit Microscopy", European Conference on Biomedical Optics, Munich, Germany (May 22-26, 2011).
7. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Fabrication of Sub-micron Sized Spherical Micro-lenses by Controlled Dewetting of Polymer Thin-films", SPIE Photonics Europe 2010, Brussels, Belgium (April 12-16, 2010).
8. Ankur Verma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Solvent Vapor Assisted Directed Dewetting of Polymer Thin-films for Large Area Patterning", 2009 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Houston, TX, USA (May 3-7, 2009).
9. Ankur Verma, Ashutosh Sharma and Giridhar U. Kulkarni, "Generation of Large Area Micro-patterns in Thin-films by Pulsed Laser Irradiation Harnessing the Diffraction of Light", 2nd International Conference on Multi-Scale Structures and Dynamics of Complex Systems: Processes and Forces for Creation of Designer Materials with Multi-Scale Structures, Bangalore, India (September 4-5, 2008).
10. Ankur Verma, Ashutosh Sharma, Sruthi Muralidharan and Giridhar U Kulkarni, "Ultrafast Micro-patterning of Polystyrene Thin films by Structured Light Illumination", Future Directions in Advanced Materials Research 2008 (FDAMR 08), Shimla, India (April 16-19, 2008).
11. Ankur Verma, Manish M. Kulkarni, Chandra S. Sharma and Ashutosh Sharma, "Submicron Patterning of Resorcinol Formaldehyde Gels and Miniaturization for C-MEMS", International Conference on Nano Science and Technology 2008 (ICONSAT-08), Chennai, India (February 26-28, 2008).

1. Ankur Verma, Optofluidics: Making Bio-inspired microscope, STTP on Intelligent BioMEMS, IIIT Allahabad (September 25, 2020) Invited Lecture.
2. Ankur Verma, Fluidic Nanolenses: Zooming in made affordable, ICSM-2018, MNIT Jaipur (December 14, 2018) Invited talk.
3. Ankur Verma, Microscopy:Seeing is believing, NWNTD-2018, IIT Guwahati (February 27, 2018). Invited lecture.
4. Ankur Verma, DMSRDE Kanpur, Nanofabrication: Doing it natures way, CEP Talk, India (August 8, 2017). Invited lecture.
5. Ankur Verma, GISAXS studies on thin polymer films and bilayers. PETRA III users meeting, DESY Hamburg, Germany (May 9, 2017). Invited talk.
6. Ankur Verma¸ Nano-fabrication beyond Lithography, Chemference 2015, IIT Hyderabad, India (December 4-6, 2015). Invited talk.
7. Ankur Verma¸ “Nano-fabrication: Top down meets bottom up”, IIT Bombay, India (July 5, 2014). Invited talk.

Designed following courses:

1. Properties of Engineering Materials (UG)
2. Polymer Science and technology (UG)
3. Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (PG)
4. Introduction to Polymer Rheology (PG)

1. Properties of Engineering Materials (UG) (Odd semester 2016 and 2017)
2. Polymer Science and technology (UG) (Even semester 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021)
3. Surface coatings (UG) (Even semester 2017)
4. Transport Phenomena (UG) (Odd semester 2018, 2019 and 2020)
5. Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (PG) (Even semester 2019)
6. Air Pollution Control Technology (PG) (Odd semester 2021 and 2022)
7. Industrial Pollution and Control Technology (UG) (Even semester 2022)