Sushrut Karmarkar (MSAAE ’18, PhD AAE ’24) is an associate research engineer at Purdue whose research focuses on structures and materials. In professor Vikas Tomar’s Interfacial Multiphysics Lab, he studied the development of terahertz time domain spectroscopy for interface strain-stress mapping within composite materials and coatings. 

He also works with associate professor Andreas Jung on the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) upgrade project for the CMS collaboration with CERN where Karmarkar is a composite engineer working to design, manufacture, validate and install carbon fiber composite structures for the Phase-II Tracker Detector.

“As a kid growing up in a small city in India, I remember visiting science centers and labs and always being awed by people in white lab coats,” Karmarkar says. “I had the opportunity to visit, on multiple occasions, the research center where my mom used to work and also ‘play’ in the HVAC manufacturing plant, courtesy of my dad. I also remember that Sundays were spent watching a show on DD India (a TV channel) called ‘Turning Point’ which predominantly talked about space exploration and technological advancements.”

Inner Tracker Support Tube - Carbon Composite structure for the CMS-HL Upgrade for CERN. (Photo courtesy Sushrut Karmarkar)

He aspired to be part of the Indian space program, as he grew up during a decade when it was picking up steam, ultimately finding his motivation to study science-related topics in school after being fascinated by the engineering of cars and airplanes. Karmarkar credits his father for getting him interested in mechanical engineering, saying his dad hopes Karmarkar can come work for his company and replace him in HVAC design and manufacturing, but Karmarkar says he “keeps disappointing him in this regard!”

Karmarkar offers nothing but praise for Tomar and Jung, who let him explore a great deal in the field of composite design and remote sensing.

“The best part is that I get to go to CERN and work in one of the largest technical collaborations in the world,” Karmarkar says. “As a part of my research, I am developing terahertz time domain spectroscopy techniques to evaluate the degradation and cracking in the interface materials between silicon detector modules and base composite support structures for the Tracker Forward Pixel Detector for CMS collaboration. We are also designing and building large composite structures for sustaining the high radiation environment of the particle collider.”

Bi-material interface strain measurement setup using THz-TDS. (Photo courtesy Sushrut Karmarkar)

Now that he’s earned his PhD, Karmarkar plans to remain as a research engineer on the CERN project and hopes to install the detector in the CERN tunnel, which is anticipated to happen in 2029.

In November 2024, Purdue engineers working on the Barrel Timing Layer and Tracker Support Tube delivered the first large structure to CERN as part of the CMS upgrade. This project was led by the Purdue CMS group and the Composites Manufacturing & Simulation Center (CMSC) at Purdue University.

In five to 10 years, Sushrut aspires to be a design engineering lead on particle accelerator projects like EPIC at Brookhaven National Labs and FCC at CERN. He was introduced to these projects at the Seattle Snowmass Summer Meeting 2022 and hopes to see how this research can be applied to outer space missions but is excited that his degree will allow him to work on structures 500 feet underground. 

A version of this story was originally published on May 19, 2023, on Labroots.com by Laurence Tognetti, MSc. Reprinted with permission from Labroots Inc. It has been edited for style, space and clarity.