Dr Basil Mathai

Profile

I was born on the seventh of June,1989, in Kerala, India. I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Government Engineering College Thrissur (GEC Thrissur) from 2008 to 2012 with first class. In 2013, I joined the National Institute of Technology Rourkela, in the Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering for my Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. I completed the program in 2015 with a distinction. Following that, I was selected as a PhD candidate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. My doctoral research, on "Bone Ingrowth and Remodelling around a Porous-coated Femoral Implant", was completed in May 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Sanjay Gupta and Prof. Santanu Dhara.

I am eager to seek funding for research ideas and innovative aspects, which I believe will be disruptive in the near future. As an early-stage researcher, I was honoured with various individual fellowships following my doctoral studies, including a national postdoctoral fellowship by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India, institutional postdoctoral fellowship by IIT Madras and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions postdoctoral fellowship, which are an endorsement of my aptitude to recognize and advocate scientific solutions to research concepts in the field.

Research interests

My broad research area is orthopaedic biomechanics. My doctoral research entitled “Bone ingrowth and remodelling around a porous-coated femoral implant” was focused on numerical modelling of biological phenomena of bone remodelling and ingrowth for the implanted femur. The study explored the possibility of incorporating the anisotropic properties of bone in remodelling simulation, using multiple methods; a principal strain-based orthotropic scheme and using topology optimization of biomimetic elastic microstructures. A novel mechanoregulatory tissue differentiation framework based on multi-scale finite element models was developed, to account for local variations in host bone material properties and implant-bone relative displacements. Since these processes are mechanically driven in nature, one part of the study was directed towards the estimation of muscle and hip joint forces during physiological activities using multibody dynamics. The doctoral research yielded a few first author publications in reputed international journals.

Qualifications

• PhD in Biomechanics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India
• M.Tech in Biomedical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India
• B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, Government Engineering College Thrissur, India

Student education

● Teaching Assistant, for NPTEL online certification course on “Biomechanics of Joints and Orthopaedic Implants”, IIT Kharagpur (2020-2021): The candidate assisted in the preparation of overall course structure, course materials and weekly assignments.
● Teaching Assistant, to “Engineering drawing and graphics”, IIT Kharagpur (2017-2019): Involved in the evaluation of assignments, class tests at undergraduate levels and conducted tutorial sessions.
● Teaching Assistant, to Prof. Gupta in “Mechanics”, IIT Kharagpur (2015-2017): Assisted in tutorial sessions, monthly class test preparations and its evaluation.
● Teaching Assistant, to Prof. Thirugnanam in “Matlab for Engineers”, NIT Rourkela (2014). Assisted in curriculum and exam preparation. Assisting undergraduate students in projects works.