About Me

Personal Information:

    Year of birth:    1987

    Gender:             Male

    Citizenship:      Indian

    Language:        English, Bengali, Hindi

    Marital Status:  Married

Dr. Pralok Kumar Samanta was born in East Medinipur, West Bengal, India 1987. He completed B. Sc. in Chemistry (Honours) from Calcutta University. Then he was an integrated Ph. D. student at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata, where he completed his M. Sc. in Chemical Sciences. He then joined the group of Prof. Swapan K. Pati at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore. He earned his Ph.D. degree in the area of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry. Dr. Samanta was a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Jean-Luc Bredas at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and in the group of Prof. Niall J. English at University College Dublin. Currently, Dr. Samanta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus). He worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM, Hyderabad campus) before joining BITS-Pilani. His research focuses mainly on understanding the electronic, magnetic, transport, and photophysical properties of organic and organic-inorganic hybrid molecules and materials via a combination of quantum mechanical approaches and molecular dynamics simulations; and designing novel materials for optoelectronic applications. 

Dr. Samanta received three research grants as a principal investigator (PI) and published more than 50 research articles in peer-reviewed journals. 

Football and Cricket are his favorite.

Professional Appointments and Experiences:

• Assistant Professor (2023- Present): Department of Chemistry, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani), Hyderabad, India.

• Assistant Professor (2020- 2023): Department of Chemistry, GITAM School of Science, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), Hyderabad, India.

• Post-Doctoral Fellow (2018- 2020): School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.

• Post-Doctoral Research Associate (2017- 2018): Theoretical Sciences Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), India.

• Post-Doctoral Fellow (2016- 2017): Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations, Institute for Basic Science, KAIST Campus, South Korea.

• Post-Doctoral Fellow (2014 - 2016): KAUST Solar Center (KSC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia.

Administrative Responsibilities:

• 12/2022-12/2023: Chairman, Departmental Research Committee (DRC), Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), Hyderabad, India 

• 09/2020-06/2022: 1st Year MSc Chemistry Class Coordinator, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), Hyderabad, India 

Educations:

•  Ph. D (2009- 2014): Theoretical Sciences Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India under the supervision of Prof. Swapan K. Pati.

Thesis Title: "Theoretical Investigations of Electronic Structure and Opto-electronic Properties of a few DNA and Modified DNA Systems".

• Master of Sciences (M. Sc., 2007 - 2009): M. Sc. in Chemical Sciences from Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata, India.

• Bachelor of Sciences (B. Sc., 2004 - 2007): B. Sc. in Chemistry (Honors), Physics and Mathematics from S. A. Jaipuria College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India    

Awards and Achievements:

1. Best Poster Award in “JNCASR In-house Symposium”, JNCASR, India. (11/2013)

2. CSIR Senior Research Fellowship (SRF, 2012).

3. Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). I had scored 99.96 percentile (All India Rank= 44) (2009).   

4. National Eligibility Test (NET) and CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)  Research Fellowship (2009).

5. Integrated Ph. D fellowship from Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS), Kolkata, India (2007-2009).

Short-term Project Experiences:

1. "Molecular Dynamics (MD) of Lennard – Jones Particles using Velocity Varlet Algorithms", JNCASR, Bangalore, 2009 (Project supervisor: Dr. Subir K. Das).

2. “Study of Quantum Localization in Driven Quantum System”, M. Sc. Project (4th Semester), IACS, Kolkata, 2009.  (Project supervisor: Prof. S. P. Bhattacharyya)

3. “Determination of Transition Temperature in an ISING Model System using Genetic Algorithm (GA)”, M. Sc. Project (3rd Semester), IACS, Kolkata, 2008 (Project supervisor: Prof. S. P. Bhattacharyya).

Short term Visit:  

• Prof. Anna Painelli’s group, University of Parma, Italy (Sept. 1- Sept. 30, 2012)

• Prof. Anna Painelli’s group, University of Parma, Italy (May 13- June 11, 2011)

• Dr. N. Nair’s group, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India (Nov. 14- Dec. 7, 2010)  

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