Dr. Pankaj Kumar is Professor and Dean of Research, Grants and Consultancy at SR University, Warangal. He earned his Ph.D. from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad in 2016, followed by an M.Tech in Digital Manufacturing from BITS Pilani. Over nearly a decade at SR University he has risen from Assistant Professor to Professor, serving as Director of the Centre for Materials and Manufacturing (2019–2023), Head of Mechanical Engineering (2023–2026), and now Dean of Research, Grants and Consultancy. His research spans additive manufacturing and DfAM, fiber-reinforced and metal-matrix composites, plasma-sprayed and laser-clad coatings, micro-EDM, sustainable machining, and computational modeling using COMSOL, ANSYS, and MATLAB. He has published 28 journal articles, 26 conference papers, and 18 book chapters, edited eight international books, and holds 22 patents (10 granted). He has guided two doctoral scholars to completion, with seven ongoing. He won the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Research Trends in Science, Technology, Engineering & Management 2019. He serves on the Editorial Board of PLOS ONE and reviews for many international journals. He has also delivered numerous invited talks at universities, workshops, and faculty development programs, and is a member of ASME, IEI, and ISTE.