SYSTEMS CHEMISTRY & SOFT MATERIALS LAB
Engineering Molecules for Life-like Systems
Meet Our Team!
We work at the interface of Organic Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry and Synthetic Biology.
We do have openings periodically. Please inquire with Dr. Samanta.
Post-doctoral Fellow
Dr. Ishani Mukherjee
National Post-Doc Fellow (NPDF) funded by ANRF
Ishani is from Purulia, a small district town situated along the western border of West Bengal. She completed her B.Sc. in 2017 from Bankura Christian College, which is affiliated with The University of Burdwan. Following her Bachelor’s degree, she joined IISER Kolkata as an Integrated PhD fellow, where she completed her Master of Science (MS) and PhD in Chemical Sciences in 2020 and 2025, respectively. In September 2026, she joined the Systems Chemistry Lab at IIT KGP as an ANRF NPDF Postdoc Fellow. Her current area of interest focuses on engineering autonomous DNA Nanopores for transmembrane transport.
Dr. Sagnik De
Institute Post-Doc Fellow
Sagnik is from Howrah, West Bengal. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta and obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in the field of Supramolecular Chemistry. His research interests include the spectroscopic properties of soft matter and dissipative systems.
PhD Students
Nikhil Dhiman
CSIR Fellow
Nikhil hails from Shimla, a city in northern India, located at the foothills of the Himalayas. Nikhil completed his Bachelors and Masters in Chemistry from Himachal Pradesh University in 2020 and 2022 respectively. He joined IIT KGP with his individual CSIR NET scholarship (All India Rank 110). He is developing new chemically fueled molecular transformations and pathways leading to complexity in bottom-up self-organized systems.
SK Asif Rahman
Institute Fellow
Asif earned his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Ashutosh College, University of Calcutta in 2021 and completed his Master's degree from Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta in 2023. Before joining IIT KGP, Asif worked on various projects including polymer synthesis and hydrophobic surface engineering. He is developing responsive soft microcompartments for a variety of catalytic reactions that can be used in biotechnological applications such as sensing and bioremediation.
Arun Biswas
Institute Fellow
Arun comes from North Dinajpur in West Bengal. He has completed his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Raiganj University and Master's degree from IIT Dhanbad in 2021 and 2023 respectively. He works jointly in Samanta and Palei lab at IIT KGP. He is developing pathways for cell-free protein synthesis in crowded macromolecular condensates for new synthetic cell models.
Kuntal Samanta
UGC Fellow
Kuntal is from South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. He earned his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Chemistry from Behala College, University of Calcutta, followed by a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Chemistry from the University of Hyderabad. His early research experience in enantioselective photobiocatalysis sparked a strong interest in interdisciplinary research. After qualifying for the CSIR-UGC-JRF examination with an All India Rank of 79 (UGC), he joined the Samanta Lab at IIT Kharagpur. His current research focuses on engineering synthetic biomolecular condensates and developing compartmentalized organocatalytic systems for sustainable chemical transformations.
Nita Sarmah
Institute Fellow
Nita is from Udalguri, Assam, in the northeastern region of India. She completed her Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Chemistry from the National Institute of Technology Meghalaya and her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Chemistry from Gauhati University. Her research focuses on developing DNA- and lipid-based synthetic cell models to understand and engineer biomimetic compartmentalized systems.
MASTER's Students
(INternal)
Current:
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Victor Ghosh (2026-2027)
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Manoranjan Nayak (2026-2027)
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Past:
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Sayan Mondal (2025-2026)
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Harshita Sahu (2025-2026)
Internships & External theses Students
Current:
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Past:
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Tania Paul (2026, NIT Rourkela)
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Amrik Das (2026, IISER Kolkata)
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Samiha Shabnam Banu (2026, Calcutta University)
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Subhadip Chakladar (2025, Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur)