Professional Experience:

• Professor, U.S. Naval Academy (2024 - present)
• Associate Professor, U.S. Naval Academy (2017 - 2024)
• Assistant Professor, U.S. Naval Academy (2012 - 2017)
• Post Doctoral Scholar, Case Western Reserve University (May 2010 - July 2012)

Education:

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts (2005 - 2010)
  • Ph.D., Physics;  Dissertation: "Dielectric Studies of Nanostructures and Directed self-assembled Nanomaterials in Nematic Liquid Crystals"
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur  (2003 - 2005)
  • M.Sc., Physics;  Thesis: "Fabrication and characterization of porous silicon and porous alumina by two-step anodization technique"
• Presidency College, Calcutta  (2000 - 2003)
  • B.Sc., Physics

Research Areas:

• Nanostructured surfaces driven liquid crystal alignment
• Interactions between softmatter and nanomaterials
• Directed self-assembly of nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, nanorods etc.) in liquid crystalline media
• Development of novel NEMS, nano-switches, and nano-electromechanical memory functions using nanoparticle-doped liquid crystals
• Chirality (chirality transfer in liquid crystals from various substrates and nanomaterials)
• Order-disorder phenomena in liquid crystals
• Liquid crystal phases and phase transitions

Awards and Recognitions:

• Selected as one of the “Early Career Stars of the Decade” in the research area of Liquid Crystal Science and Technology to contribute to a prestigious journal “Crystals”: Crystals 10(2), 123 (2020).
• 2019 recipient of the “Class of 1951 Civilian Faculty Excellence in Research Award" at USNA, 2019.

• 2019 recipient of the “Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award”. 
• 2019 recipient of the “Kinnear Fellowship Award” at USNA, 2019.

• Department of Physics elected Research Professor of the Year 2017 and Department of Physics nominee for the Class of 1951 Research Excellence Award – Honorable Mention (USNA), 2017.
• Invited article published in the prestigious U.K. based journal Liquid Crystal to celebrate the journal’s 30^th anniversary, Oct. - Dec. issue, 2016.
• Research featured on the Journal Cover of Liquid Crystal (# 97, 199 (2012)), February 2012 issue.
• Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award, The Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, WPI chapter; April 2010.
• First Prize in ‘Science’ category in the University at the Annual Graduate Research Achievement Day (GRAD) - 2009, WPI; April 2009.
• Second Prize in the poster competition at the Nanomanufacturing Summit 2009, NSF - National Nanomanufacturing Network Annual Meeting, Boston, MA; May 2009. 
• Selected as one of the most experienced and excellent Teaching Assistants (TAs) in the University to mentor the new TAs, WPI; August 2009.
• The Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, elected associate member; May 2009.
• Best Teaching Assistant Award (based on student evaluations) for the academic year of 2007-2008, Department of Physics, WPI; May 2008. 

Research Grants:

• Office of Naval Research, Division 332: Nano-engineered Materials, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024; award # N0001419WX01126, N0001420WX01656, N0001421WX01108.
• Office of Naval Research, Division 312: Electronics, Sensors and Network Research, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021; award # N0001418WX01842, N0001419WX01219, N0001420WX01630, N0001421WX01643.
• Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), (Co-PI with several USNA faculty members led by Prof. Hatem Elbidweihy), "Aerosol Jet Printing for Microfabrication and 3D-Printed Electronics", 2021; Award # N0001421WX01108.
• Office of Naval Research (Co-PI with Dr. Peter Brereton), UMBC-USNA Cyber Innovation Grant, "Optically networked semiconductor spin qubits via liquid crystal mediated ordering", 2018, 2019, 2020; award # N0001418WX01543, N0001419WX00566, N0001420WX01703.
• Office of Naval Research through the Naval Academy Research Council: Senior NARC, 2018.
• Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), (Co-PI with Hatem Elbidweihy, Brian Donovan, Ronald Warzoha), "A novel graphene characterization suite for understanding magnetic, electrical, thermal, and optical responses from the atomic to micro-scale levels", 2018; Award # N0001418WX01305.
• Office of Naval Research Electronic Warfare S&T Discovery and Invention Program (Co-I; Collaboration with Naval Research Lab, PI Dr. Christopher Spillmann), "Refractive Non-Mechanical Beam Steering in the Mid-wavelength and long-wavelength infrared", 2015, 2016, 2017; award # N0001416WX00216.
• Office of Naval Research (Co-PI with Dr. Peter Brereton), UMBC-USNA Cyber Innovation Grant, "A hybrid semiconductor-soft matter device as a route to a scalable, self-assembled spin register for optical quantum error correction", 2015, 2016, 2017; award # N0001415WX01534, N0001416WX01530, N0001417WX01519.
• Office of Naval Research, Division 312: Electronic, Sensors and Network Research, 2014; award # N0001414WX20791.
• Office of Naval Research through the Naval Academy Research Council, 2014; award # N001614WX30023.
• Office of Naval Research through the Naval Academy Research Council, 2013; award # N001613WX20992.

Professional Affiliation and Service:

• Editorial Board Member: Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352, http://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals); Section Liquid Crystals, http://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals/sectioneditors/liquid_crystals
• Reviewer: Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, Liquid Crystals, Physical Review E, ACS Nano, Nanoscale, Carbon, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Crystals, RSC Advances, MRS Advances, Optical Materials Express, Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, Soft Materials, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Indian Journal of Physics.

• Scientific affiliation: American Physical Society, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society (induction).