Rate My Professor Bobby Mathan

Dr. Bobby Mathan is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. His research interests encompass materials engineering, biomaterials, hydrogen embrittlement, corrosion, polymer coatings, and failure analysis of engineering materials. Mathan has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles, including the textbook 'Civil Engineering Materials' (2016) and nine book chapters such as 'Chemical Conversion Coatings: Fundamentals and Recent Advances' (2022), 'Recent Approaches for Enhancing Corrosion Resistance of PEO/MAO-Coated Mg and Its Alloys' (2022), 'Hydroxyapatite coating on biodegradable magnesium and magnesium-based alloys' (2015), 'Biodegradable polymeric coatings for surface modification of magnesium-based biomaterials' (2015), and 'Plasma electrolytic oxidation/micro-arc oxidation of magnesium and its alloys' (2015).

Mathan's career includes significant contributions to corrosion behavior of magnesium alloys for biodegradable implants, stress corrosion cracking of magnesium and aluminum alloys, electrochemical corrosion of steels, and surface treatments like calcium phosphate and polylactic acid coatings. He has served as an investigator on Australian Research Council Discovery Projects, including 'Microbiological and abiotic marine corrosion of steel in particulate media' (2017-2019, $443,870), 'Longer-term progression of localised corrosion of critical infrastructure' (2020-2024, $586,424), and 'Short- and long-term corrosion of steels in highly calcareous seawaters' (2021-2023, $427,171). Key journal publications feature 'Corrosion resistance of Mg-Al-LDH steam coating on AZ80 Mg alloy: Effects of citric acid pretreatment and intermetallic compounds' (2023), 'Antipsychotic drug waste: A potential corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in the oil and gas industry' (2022), 'Advances in hydroxyapatite coatings on biodegradable magnesium and its alloys' (2022), 'Biodegradable 3D porous zinc alloy scaffold for bone fracture fixation devices' (2020), and 'Electrochemical surface engineering of magnesium metal by plasma electrolytic oxidation and calcium phosphate deposition: biocompatibility and in vitro degradation studies' (2018).