1. Nominated as head of the Max Planck Partner Group of Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, Dusseldorf, Germany at IIT Roorkee. For this activity Max Planck Society has provided 20000 Euro/year for first three years. After reviewing the research output of first three years, funding under this scheme has been extended for two more years making total project budget as 100000 Euro. Research work under this project is focused at fundamental understanding of gas/solid interaction with more emphasis on nitriding of steels. This project runs until the end of march 2022.
2. SERB CRG project proposal titled “design of stainless steel chemistry for realization of colossal nitrogen supersaturation upon low temperature nitriding” has been approved with a budget of Rs. 67.9 lacs. This project duration is for 3 years and is expected to start from 2021.
3. Global Institute for Materials Research Tohoku (GIMRT, Japan) proposal titled “Substitutional-Interstitial High Entropy Alloys” has been accepted. Under this, GIMRT supports travel and accommodation expenses of 400000 JPY for the visit to GIMRT to carry collaborative research work in 2021. 
4. Faculty initiation grant of Rs. 10 lacs from IIT Roorkee was received to develop nitride dispersion strengthened steels. 

• Nominated to head Max Planck Partner Group of Max Planck Institute for Iron Research, Dusseldorf, Germany at IIT Roorkee
• Academic Excellence Award from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India for the best performance in the Master’s program at IIT Kanpur during academic year 2006.
• Recipient of IIT-DAAD Scholarship in 2006-2007 under which Master’s thesis work was carried out at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany.
• Received scholarship from Max Planck Society during PhD research at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart.
• S.R. Meka et al, Phil. Mag., Vol. 92, 2012, p 1083, runner-up for the 2012 James Clerk Maxwell Young Writers Prize. Paper was awarded the distinction of being highly commended.
• Co-authored contribution, by T. Steiner, S.R. Meka, E. Bischoff, T. Waldenmaier and E.J. Mittemeijer,in European Conference on Heat Treatment and 21st IFHTSE Congress 2014 received the IFHTSE-Tom Bell Young Author award. Award was given to Mr. T. Steiner.
• Best poster award at 26th International Symposium on Metastable, Amorphous and Nanostructured Materials (ISMANAM 2019: K.N.Sasidhar and S.R.Meka "isothermal stabilization of metastable states upon controlled gaseous nitriding"

1.      K.N. Sasidhar and S.R. Meka. Isothermal stabilization of metastable states upon controlled gaseous nitriding. Poster presentation at 26th International Symposium on Metastable, Amorphous and Nanostructured Materials (ISMANAM 2019), July 8-12, 2019, Chennai, India. Received Best Poster Award.

2.      K.N. Sasidhar, A.Kumar and S.R. Meka. Aluminium Partitioning Triggered by Inward Diffusing Carbon During Carburization of Fe2.3wt%Al Alloy, Oral presentation at the 14^th International Conference on Diffusion in Solids and Liquids (DSL-2018), June 25-29, 2018, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

3.      A.S. Yadav, J. Singh and S.R. Meka. Carburization Induced Phase Transformation in Fe-2wt.% Mn Alloys, Oral presentation at the 14^th International Conference on Diffusion in Solids and Liquids (DSL-2018), June 25-29, 2018, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

4.      S.R. Meka, A. Schubert, E.Bischoff and E.J. Mittemeijer. Development of Nitrides of Silicon and Iron upon Nitriding Fe-Si alloys, Oral presentation at the European Conference on Heat Treatment (ECHT 2018), April 12-13, 2018, Friedrichshafen, Lake Constance, Germany.

5.      A. S. Yadav, S. K. Rajulapati and S.R. Meka, Nitridation of Fe-2.3 wt.% Al alloy powder and its compaction by spark plasma sintering, oral presentation by A.S. Yadav at International Conference on Advances in Materials & Processing: Challenges & Opportunities” (AMPCO-2017), IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, 30^th Nov. – 2^nd December, 2017. Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 17239–17246.

6.      S. K. Rajulapati, A.D. Saggurthi A. S. Yadav, and S.R. Meka, Crystallite size and microstrain in mechanically alloyed and heat treated Fe-25 wt.% Y₂O₃, oral presentation by S.K. Rajulapati at International Conference on Advances in Materials & Processing: Challenges & Opportunities” (AMPCO-2017), IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, 30^th Nov. – 2^nd December, 2017. Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 16904–16911.

7.      S.R. Meka. Nitriding induced microstructural evolution in Iron-based alloys, invited oral presentation at International Conference on Recent Advances in Materials, Mechanical and Civil Engineering ICRAMMCE-2017, June 01 to June 02, 2017, Hyderabad, India.

8.      S.R. Meka. Stress and defects driven phase transformations, oral presentation at Heads of Max Planck Indian partner groups bi-annual-meeting 2017,  March 03 to March 05, 2017, IISER Mohali, Mohali, India.

9.      S.R. Meka. Nitriding of Iron-based alloys, Oral presentation at joint international conferences  emerging materials and processes for defense and infrastructure and advanced heat processing, organized by ASM International-India chapter, October 12 to October 14, 2016, Mumbai, India.

10.  T. Steiner, S.R. Meka, T. Waldenmaier and E.J. Mittemeijer. Internal nitriding of Fe-Cr-Mo alloys; Precipitation of mixed nitrides and role of the Cr/Mo ratio, Oral presentation by T. Steiner at ASM Heat Treat Society Conference & Exposition, October 20 to October 22, 2015. Detroit, USA.

11.  S. Loewy, B. Rheingans, S.R. Meka and E.J. Mittemeijer. Modulated martensite formation behavior in Fe-Ni steels. Oral presentation by S. Loewy at 10^th European Symposium on Martensitic Transformations (ESOMAT), September 14 to September 18, Antwerp, Belgium.

12.  M. Akhlaghi, T. Steiner, S.R. Meka, A. Leineweber and E.J. Mittemeijer. Misfit induced changes of lattice parameters in two-phase systems: Coherent/incoherent precipitates in a matrix, poster presentation by M. Akhlaghi at International Conference on Solid-Solid Phase Transformations in Inorganic Materials (PTM 2015), June 28 to July 3, 2015, Whistler, BC, Canada.

13.  M. Jung, S.R. Meka, B. Rheingans and E.J. Mittemeijer. Simulation of simultaneously occurring coupled inward diffusion and internal precipitation, oral presentation by M. Jung at International Conference on Solid-Solid Phase Transformations in Inorganic Materials (PTM 2015), June 28 to July 3, 2015, Whistler, BC, Canada.

14.  S.R. Meka, A. Chauhan, T. Steiner and E.J. Mittemeijer. Development of austenite-martensite and ferrite-austenite duplex microstructure upon nitriding Fe-Mn alloys. Oral presentation at the European Conference on Heat Treatment and 22nd IFHTSE Congress, May 20-22, 2015, Venice, Italy.

15.  T. Steiner, S.R. Meka and E.J. Mittemeijer. Composition, crystalstructure and kinetics of formation of nitride precipitates in Fe-Cr-Mo alloys, oral presentation by T. Steiner at AWT (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechni) - Fachausschuss Nitrieren und Nitrocarburieren (Nitriding and Nitrocarburising Board of AWT), May 7, 2015, Gommern, Germany.

16.  T. Steiner, S.R. Meka, E. Bischoff, T. Waldenmaier and E.J. Mittemeijer. Internal nitriding of ternary Fe-Cr-Mo alloys; nitride development, oral presentation by T. Steiner at European Conference on Heat Treatment and 21st IFHTSE Congress, May 12-15, 2014, Munich, Germany.

17.  M. Akhlaghi, S.R. Meka, E. Bischoff and E.J. Mittemeijer. Low temperature nitriding of ferritic Fe-Cr-Al alloys, oral presentation by M. Akhlaghi at European Conference on Heat Treatment and 21st IFHTSE Congress, May 12-15, 2014, Munich, Germany.

18.  S.J.B. Kurz, S.R. Meka, N. Schell, J. Keckes and E.J. Mittemeijer.  Residual stress gradients in nitrided Iron-based alloys revealed by cross-sectional high-energy X-ray micro-diffraction, oral presentation by S.J.B. Kurz at 9^th European Conference on Residual Stresses, July 7-9, 2014, Troyes, France.

19.  S. Loewy, B. Rheingans, S.R. Meka and E.J. Mittemeijer. Unusual martensite-formation kinetics in steels: observation of a series of transformation–rate maxima, oral presentation by S. Loewy at International conference on martensitic transformations, July 6-11, 2014, Bilbao, Spain.

20.  S.R. Meka, B. Rheingans, E. Bischoff and E.J. Mittemeijer.Unusual Octapod-shaped, Nanosized Amorphous Silicon-nitride Particles in a Crystalline Ferrite Matrix, Poster presentation at the international conference, 2013 MRS Spring Meeting & Exhibit, April 1-5, 2013, San Francisco, USA.

21.  S.R. Meka and E.J. Mittemeijer. Thermodynamics and kinetics of the competition of internal and external precipitation; morphology, constitution and structure of iron nitrides grown on iron-based alloy substrates, Oral presentation at the international conference, 2013 E- MRS Spring Meeting, May 27-31, 2013, Strasbourg, France.

22.  S.R. Meka, E. Bischoff, B. Rheingans, R.E. Schacherland E.J. Mittemeijer. Anomalous nitriding behaviour of Iron-based Fe-Si alloys, oral presentation at AWT (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechni) - Fachausschuss Nitrieren und Nitrocarburieren (Nitriding andNitrocarburising Board of AWT), November 27, 2013, Issum, Germany.

23.  S.R. Meka, E. Bischoff, B. Rheingans and E.J. Mittemeijer.The development of amorphous and crystalline nanoparticles of silicon nitride in ferrite; role of interfacial energy and elastic anisotropy upon phase transformation, Oral presentation at the international conference, Materials Science and Engineering 2012, September 25-27, 2012, Darmstadt, Germany.

24.  S.R. Meka. Unusual phase-transformation phenomena during nitriding of iron-based alloys, Oral presentation during meeting of board of trustees, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart. November 17, 2010, Stuttgart, Germany.

25.  S.R. Meka, E. Bischoff, R.E. Schacherl and E.J. Mittemeijer. Influence of lattice defects on nucleation and growth of different modifications of nanoprecipitates of AlN in nitrided Fe-Al alloy, Oral presentation at the international conference, Materials Science and Engineering 2010, August 24-26, 2010, Darmstadt, Germany.

26.  S.R. Meka, R.E. Schacherl, E. Bischoff and E.J. Mittemeijer.Internal gaseous nitriding of Fe-2at%Si alloy: Ideally weak nitriding interaction and formation of amorphous silicon-nitride precipitates, Oral presentation at European Conference on Heat Treatment 2010: Nitriding and Nitrocarburising, April 29-30, 2010, Aachen, Germany.

27.  S.R. Meka, R.E. Schacherl, E. Bischoff and E.J. Mittemeijer. Unusual microstructural development upon gaseous nitriding of Fe-4.65at.% Al alloy, Poster presentation at THERMEC 2009, International conference on processing and manufacturing of advanced materials, August 25-29, 2009, Berlin, Germany. Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 89-91, 2010, p 371-376.

28.  S.R. Meka. Unusual microstructural development during nitriding of iron-based Fe-Al alloy, oral presentation at AWT (ArbeitsgemeinschaftWärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechni) - FachausschussNitrieren und Nitrocarburieren (Nitriding and Nitrocarburising Board of AWT), September 17, 2009, Wels, Austria