Ajit C. Balram

Research interests: 

Theoretical condensed matter, in particular the physics of the fractional quantum Hall effect and interacting topological insulators

Education:

• Ph.D. in Physics, August 2011 - June 2016, Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University

       Adviser: Jainendra K. Jain

• Integrated BS-MS, August 2006 - May 2011, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune

       MS thesis at the Department of Theoretical Physics (DTP), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai

       Adviser: Deepak Dhar

Research Experience

Postdoctoral fellow, Niels Bohr International Academy and the Center for Quantum Devices, 

Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2016 - June 2019

Adviser: Mark S. Rudner

Publications available at:

arXiv

Google Scholar

70 in total including 2 in Physical Review X, 1 in Nature Physics, 11 in Physical Review Letters, and 1 in Nature Communication

Grants:

• SERB Early Career Start-up Research Grant, 2020 for the project titled ``Novel partonic phases in the fractional quantum Hall effect"

• SERB MATRICS Grant, 2024 for the project titled ``Collective excitations in interacting topological systems"

• Royal Society International Exchange Scheme, 2020 (with Zlatko Papić, Theoretical Physics Research Group, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds) for the project titled ``Dynamics of strongly-entangled topological quantum matter"

Awards and honors:

• Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2022-2025)

• Alumni Association Dissertation Award, Pennsylvania State University – 2016

• David C. Duncan, Downsborough and Miller Graduate fellowships, Pennsylvania State University - 2013, 2014 and 2015

• David H. Rank Memorial Physics Award, Pennsylvania State University - 2012

• University Graduate Fellowship, Pennsylvania State University - 2011

• Institute Gold Medal of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune - 2011

• German Academic Exchange Service-Working Internships in Science and Engineering (DAAD-WISE) fellow – 2010 at the Max Planck Institute of Physics of Complex Systems (MPIPKS), Dresden

• Kishore Vaigyanik Prothsahan Yojana (KVPY) (a national program of fellowship in basic sciences, initiated and funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India) fellow – 2007

Teaching Experience and Professional Activities:

• Refereeing for Science, Nature, Nature Physics, Nature Communications, Science, PNAS, PNAS Nexus, Physical Review X, Physical Review Letters, and Physical Review B from 2013 onwards

• Member of Editorial Board of Physical Review B

• Instructor for the Advanced Condensed Matter course at IMSc - 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and Computational Physics - 2024

• Physics Ph.D. admissions coordinator at IMSc - 2021-2024

• Served as judge for the physics, math, and computer science units of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences (PJAS) – 2012-2016

• Helped students in solving assignment problems in the pedagogical part of the ``Topological particles in condensed matter physics’’ workshop held in the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India - 2015

• Served as the group leader for Kids Day demos at the State College Arts Festival – 2015

• Grading assistant for the course on Quantum Theory of Solids - Fall 2014 Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University

• Organized the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC)’s ``Physics of Flatland”  program at Pennsylvania State University – 2012: discussed my research with high-school students and created hands-on activities for them to learn about two-dimensional systems • 

Students and postdocs

1. Graduate Students at IMSc

   • Koyena Bose (expected to graduate in 2026)

   • Rakesh Kumar Dora P (graduated in 2025 ---> postdoc at IITB)

   • Sashikanta Mohapatra (expected to graduate in 2026)

   • Sandeep Sharma (expected to graduate in 2029)

   • Vengatesan G (expected to graduate in 2029)

2. Summer interns/MS thesis

   • Venkatavaradhan Sundararajan, IISER-Mohali (summer of 2023 to summer of 2024 --> Ph.D. in physics, Florida State University (FSU), United States)

   • Trinanda Bhuyan, Tezpur University (summer of 2023)

   • Rishi Joshi, NISER-Bhubaneshwar (summer of 2023) [Indian Academy of Sciences' summer program]

   • Ashwathkumaran C, Lovely Professional University (Aug-Oct 2023 --> MSc. in Engineering Physics, KTH Sweden) 

   • Adishree Srinivasan, IISER-Bhopal (May-July 2024, May-July 2025)

   • K Jayanth Raghav, IIT-Kanpur (May-Jun 2024 --> MS in Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, South Korea)

   • Nachiket Girish, Cambridge (May 2024 - July 2025 --> Ph.D. in physics, Penn. State University (PSU), United States)

   • Aaradhya Sachin Kulkarni, IISER-Mohali (May-July 2025)

   • Rohitashwa Kundu, IACS, Kolkata (May-July 2025)