Inspired to hike up the academic ladder. Meet our PIMS CNRS PDF at UBC, Anirudh Asuri Mukundan.
Ruth A. Situma, PIMS Programs & Communications Manager
When Anirudh Asuri Mukundan moved to Vancouver, he was pleasantly surprised by the diversity at the University of British Columbia. After six years in Europe, he was able to seamlessly transition to the environment, meeting many professors and colleagues despite the pandemic. He started his postdoc at UBC in 2020, and in 2021, was appointed as a PIMS-CNRS Postdoctoral Fellow. (This award is targeted to applicants that are French, or who have completed their Ph.D. degree in France). Asuri Mukundan completed his Ph.D. at the French National Lab CORIA in Rouen, France. Like many itinerant scholars, he has crisscrossed the globe to further his studies — he began his undergraduate in India, moved to Germany for his Master’s degree, and then again to France for his Ph.D.
Anirudh has always been fascinated by mechanical and aeronautical equipment, which made him choose mechanical engineering. But he is not the typical engineer! In fact, rather than transition directly to an industrial position, he has chosen to remain in academia. It was inspiration from an undergraduate professor that made him decide to pursue a path that was more academic-oriented, and this has been his guiding principle ever since. I connected with Asuri Mukundan to find out more about his education and career trajectory. Our interview has been edited for clarity.
Tell us about your academic journey. What field are you in and how did you get there?
I chose to do a Master's in computational engineering at RWTH Aachen University, in Germany. This period was enjoyable despite the steep learning curve on numerical simulations, tools, and mathematical analyses. During the entire period of my Master’s study, I had the opportunity to work as a graduate student research assistant in the research group of Prof. Heinz Pitsch. The research group works both on fundamental and applied/industrial research projects. The projects I was assisting with gave me an idea of which topics to choose for my Ph.D. study. Upon completing my Master’s, I was fortunate to be selected to work on a research project focused on fuel injection for aircraft engines. This was under the European Union’s Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher (ESR) Fellowship.
I then began my Ph.D. at the French National Lab CORIA in Rouen, France under the supervision of Dr. Alain Berlemont, Dr. Thibaut Ménard, and Dr. Jorge César Brändle de Motta. It was an adventurous experience for me to move to France since I didn’t speak a word of French except knowing the word “Bonjour”. I realized that even though Germany and France are part of the European culture & continent, the local French culture is quite different from that in Germany. I really like the work-life balance the people had in France compared to that in Germany. By living in France, I learned that family and relationships are more important than work. I still remember the words of my Ph.D. supervisor Dr. Thibaut Ménard, “your CV does not make who you are, you make who you are”.
After starting my work in France, I was able to be really productive, thanks to the training I received in Prof. Pitsch’s research group in Germany. I made a lot of progress and published multiple research papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. I must thank my Ph.D. supervisors for a) giving me academic freedom to explore various allied topics of my Ph.D. research; b) sending me to multiple conferences and introducing me to many distinguished researchers and their students; c) and, finally, allowing me to be myself during the Ph.D. research (and not micromanaging me). I am definitely going to emulate the same qualities as a supervisor when I become an independent researcher one day.
During my time at CORIA lab, I learned about the various research groups and one of them was of Dr. Vincent Moureau who is an academic friend of Dr. Anthony Wachs (my current PostDoc supervisor). It is through Vincent that I got to know about the PostDoc opening in Anthony’s group. Since my Master’s, I’ve been excited to work on a project that combines computational engineering and biological flows. The current PostDoc project is a perfect blend of the two and hence, here I am, at UBC, working on the numerical modeling of red blood cells (RBC).
Have you been teaching this semester? And how do you balance those requirements, your research, and your personal life?
I teach Math 152 to first-year undergraduate engineering students. This course focused on the linear system of equations and exposes the students to vector geometry, matrices, determinants which they’ll be using in many engineering applications. I like both online and in-person modes of teaching. In fact, I taught the same course in January-April 2021 where I had interactive sessions with the students and received good feedback. I’m observing the same set of interactive sessions this year in the in-person teaching too. The biggest advantage I see for the in-person teaching is that the students feel free to ask a lot of questions rather than typing them in the zoom meeting chat box which will be answered later.
I do many activities outside my work and teaching schedules. At times I may go on a hike with my friends or alone. I’ve been to many hikes near Vancouver including Grouse Mountain, Joffre Lake, Sea to Summit, Quarry Rock and Norvan Falls.
What does a typical Sunday look like for you?
Usually, on Sundays, I take a music class. I’ve been taking singing and keyboard lessons for Indian classical Carnatic music for the past 10 years. In addition to that, I rejuvenate myself through yoga and meet my friends either at their place or at mine. I also use this time to prepare the lectures to teach and research to do for the upcoming week.
What is your best discovery since arriving in Vancouver? What do you miss from your time in Europe?
My best discovery in Vancouver is how many accessible hikes there are from the city of Vancouver. I lived in European cities which were not so mountainous and if I had to go hiking, I invariably had to take a plane, or train, to another city and hike and come back. However, here in Vancouver, I find that the mountains are the doorstep. For an avid hiker like me, I’d say this is the hiking paradise on earth! However, although many hikes are accessible by public transit, the cost can sometimes be very expensive. In fact, the general cost of living in Vancouver is very high starting from house rents, groceries, and other sundry expenses. Au contraire, what I miss about Europe is that unless and until one lives in really big cities like London, Paris, Munich in Europe, the cost of living is pretty manageable.
Anirudh Asuri Mukundan obtained his Ph.D. from the Université de Rouen Normandie in Rouen, France on the topic of numerical modeling of liquid fuel atomization in aircraft engines under the supervision of Dr. Alain Berlemont, Dr. Thibaut Ménard, and Dr. Jorge César Brändle de Motta. He completed a Bachelor of Technology degree in Industrial Engineering at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirappalli in Tiruchirappalli, India. Currently, he is a PIMS-CNRS Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia, working with Prof. Anthony Wachs on the topic of numerical modeling of red blood cells (RBC).
Anirudh will be speaking at the PIMS Emergent Research Seminar Series, on March 23, 2022, at 9:30 AM Pacific. Details on his talk, From liquid fuel injection to blood flow in human body can be found here.
