Dr. S Varunkumar received his PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2012. He worked as a research associate at IISc from February, 2012 to May, 2013 and as Assistant professor (on contract) till December, 2013 at IIT Ropar, Punjab, before joining IIT Madras. His research interest includes thermo-chemical conversion of biomass and coal for energy and fuels and modeling instability in solid rocket motors.