Archita Patnaik, Ph.D

Professor, Department of Chemistry
IIT Madras
Chennai 600 036, India
Fax: 91-044-2257-4202
Phone: 91-044-2257-4217
Email: archita@iitm.ac.in

Education

* B.Sc.(Chemistry (Hons.), Physics, Mathematics), B.J.B College, Utkal University, 1978

* M.Sc. (Chemistry), Banaras Hindu University, 1981

* Ph.D. Banaras Hindu University, 1986


Career and Professional Experience

* Research Associate, Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, 1986 -87

* Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Forschungszentrum, Juelich, Germany, 1987 – 89 (Prof.(Dr) Kurt Roessler)

(German Language Course : Grund Stuffe I and Grund Stuffe II over a period of 4 months)

* National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Fellow, Centre for Radio Physics and Space Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, 1989 -1990 ( Prof. (Dr.) Carl Sagan)

* Max-Planck Research Fellow, Max-Planck Institute for Cosmochemie, Mainz, Germany, 1991 – April 1992 (Dr. Johannes Bruekner)

* Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, May 1992

* Visiting Professor, Institute for Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China, July – December 1996

* Visiting Scientist, Synchrotron Centre, Elettra, Trieste, Italy, August – October 2000

* Associate Professor , Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 2000

* JSPS Invitation Professor, Japanese Society for Promotion of Sciences , Department of Materials Technology, Chiba University, Japan, 2002 – 2003 ( Prof.(Dr.) Nobuo Ueno)

* Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, 2006

* Senior Fulbright - Nehru Research Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA, 2010 (Prof. Shaowei Chen, Dr. Jeff Neaton)

* Adjunct Professor of Chemistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA, 2011 -2012


With immense gratitude to my School Teachers on the verge of the Teacher’s Day tomorrow, who have instilled the Ancient Wisdom in me and have eclipsed my expectations…………


Honour and Awards

* National Scholarship in Higher Secondary School( & All Round Best prize)

* 1st class First in Master of Science

* AvH Fellowship

* NASA Fellowship

* Max-Planck Research Fellowship

* TWAS Fellowship

* JSPS Fellowship

* Fulbright - Nehru Fellowship

Research Interests

Colloids and interfaces, Nanofunctional materials, Directed electron transport in functional amphiphiles corroborated through ab-initio electronic structure calculations, Molecular modeling and dynamics for controlled aggregate curvature and dynamics.


Projects

Completed several sponsored projects from DST, DRDO, CSIR and DAE.

The latest project being " Molecular scale interface engineering with self-organized donor-bridge-acceptor structures: Electron transport in single molecular junctions".

Sponsor :Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi.


Human Resource Trained

* Advised 13 Ph.D and 20 M.Sc Students and one Post-dopctoral Fellow.

* Currently supervising 3 graduate students ,two masters student and two Post-doctoral Fellows.


Details of Doctoral Theses Supervised

1999 - Ion-beam induced Synthesis of Conducting Substrates from Polymer bases: Their Microstructure and the Associated Charge Transport.

2003 - Positrons as Microprobes in Structure -Property Correlations in Chemical Systems.

2003 - Physico-Chemical Interactions in Surface Functionalized C¬60 -terminated Self-assembled Monolayers and Tritium Encapsulated C60.

2006 - Fullerene C60 Didodecyloxybenzene Dyad: Structure, Dynamics and Self-Organization

2007 - Supramolecular Architectures of Functional Amphiphiles: A Two and Three Dimensional Approach

2009 - Hybrid Gold Nanoarchitectures for Directed Electron Transport

2010 - Molecular Self-assembly from Fullerene C60 - Surfactant Interactions

2011 - Structure - Property Relationships in a Fullerene C60-N,N-dimethylaminoazobenzene Dyad

2015 - Structured interfaces of a membrane lipid: molecular recognition and molecular tilt dependent electron transport

2015 - Hydrogen bond directed functional materials at modulated interfaces

2017 - Dimeric Conformation Dependent Molecular Aggregates of Acenes: Deviation from Classical Behavior

2017 - Chemically Directed Fullerene-C60-Gold Nanocomposites as Functional Materials

2017 - Characteristic Charge Transfer and Self-Assembly in Substituted Terpyridine Complexes of Fe(II)


Invited Lectures

~ 50, the latest being ' Structured Interfaces of Functional Amphiphiles: Intramolecular Electronic Communication in Oriented Assemblies': Courtesy: Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, IISc. Bangalore and Royal Society of Chemistry ( Deccan Section)


Additional Professional Activities

* SERB Expert Committee Member in Chemical Sciences for ECR and N-PDF Schemes - 2015 - 2018

* Member, Subject Expert Committee (SEC) – Chemical Sciences, Women Scientist Scheme (WOS-A) – DST - 2013 - 2016

* Research proposal reviewing for the Department of Science and Technology ( Chemical Sciences (Phyical Chemistry), Materials Science and Condensed Matter Physics divisions), and UGC's DS Kothari Schemes.

* Selection Committee Member for Faculty Recruitment at various academic institutions in India

* Examiner for Ph.D. theses of varied academic institutions in India


Teaching

Theory Courses

B. Tech.

* Microscopic and Macroscopic Properties of Chemical Systems

* Equilibrium and Dynamics of Chemical Systems

* Structure, Bonding and Reactivity

o Module 1- Physical Chemistry

o Module 2- Inorganic Chemistry

* Molecular Architecture and Evolution of Functions

* Instrumentation

* Preparatory Course Theory

M. Sc.

* Concepts in Inorganic Chemistry

* Analytical Chemistry

* Electrochemical Approaches to Functional Supramolecular Systems

* Advanced Analytical Chemistry

Ph.D

* Ion - Beam Techniques

* Electrochemical Approaches to Functional Supramolecular Systems

* Advanced Analytical Chemistry

* Research Methodology

Laboratory Exercises

*Instrumental Methods and Qualitative Analysis

*Physical Chemistry- I

* B. Tech Laboratory

* Preparatory Course


Laboratory Infrastructure

Building Laboratory Infrastructure was always fascinating…… (though seemed many a times ‘a journey into the unknown’ !)

Inspired by the ‘Mars Observer’ project involvement at the Cyclotron Centre Saclay, France ( 1991 -1992), the ‘Coincidence Circuits’ for Positron Lifetime Spectroscopy laboratory were developed here at IITM.

MARS OBSERVER, a planetary mission of NASA
[to study the geoscience and climate of Mars ]
Was launched on 1992-09-25
Lost contact on August 21, 1993


A cross-disciplinary event with Chemists, Physicists and Engineers