Draft:Samit Kumar Ray

Samit Kumar Ray (born May 10, 1961) is an Indian physicist and professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. He was the former director of the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata during 2016-2021.

Prof. Ray's research interest is in the broad area of experimental condensed matter physics focuses on semiconductor nanostructures, epitaxial growth of quantum structures, nanophotonics, and the physics of nanodevices. His research has run the gamut from practical fields such as pseudomorphic strained SiGe/SiGeC alloy heterostructures for high mobility MOSFETs to low dimensional quantum structures. His studies on Ge quantum dots and strained Ge to achieve light emission from an indirect bandgap semiconductor are useful to realize Si based lasers in future. His research results on floating-gate flash memory, 2D/3D heterostructures, quantum dot infrared photodetectors and nanowire heterojunctions are considered as significant breakthroughs for future nanodevice applications.

He has been one of the leaders in nanotechnology research activities in India. He conducted research with the first working MBE system in an educational institute in India for growing quantum structures.

Education and Career
Prof. Ray obtained his M.Sc., Physics (1982), M.Tech., Materials Science (1984) from IIT Kharagpur. After which, he worked as Scientist-B for about 14 months at at Solid State Physics Laboratory, Delhi. Following which he pursued and completed his Ph.D. in Microelectronics in 1991 from IIT Kharagpur. In the same year joined IIT Kharagpur as a Lecturer in 1991. He conducted research on a European Commission project on silicon heterostructure devices for a 6 month period in 1995 at the Queen's University of Belfast. He undertook his post-doctoral research at the University of Texas, Austin in 1996, where he work on SiGe heterostructures

He rose to the position of Full Professor in 2004 and Professor (HAG) in 2010. He has served as the Head of the Department of Physics (2011–2014), founder Head of the School of Nanoscience and Technology (2014–2016) and Dean, Postgraduate Studies and Research (2015 – 2016) at IIT Kharagpur. From 2016-2021, he was the director of the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata.

Ray has been recognized with numerous awards and honors for his contributions. He is also a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences India (NASI), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), and the West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology (WAST).

He has been a visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (2007) and National Taiwan University (2005). He was a visiting scientists to several foreign universities viz. the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research (2004), the University of Delaware (2003,2002,2001), and the University of Texas Austin (1998).

He has served both Scientific Reports (a nature publishing group journal) and Frontiers in Materials : Optics and Photonics (Switzerland) as associate editor. He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Nano Energy and Power Research, Nanotechnology, IOP, UK, and Nanotrends - India.

Prof. Ray over his career has supervised more than thirty Ph.D. students (another ten continuing at IIT Kharagpur) and more than fifty dissertations in UG and PG levels. He has completed multiple sponsored research projects worth over Rs. 20 crore as a PI/Co-PI.

Awards and honors



 * INAE Chair Professorship Award - 2022
 * MRSI-ICSC Superconductivity & Materials Science Senior Award - 2020
 * MRSI-ICSC Superconductivity & Materials Science Annual Prize 2015
 * MRSI Medal Award – 2007
 * Homi J. Bhabha Award by University Grants Commission –2001
 * CDIL Award for Industry of IETE – 1997
 * Young Scientist Award by Indian National Science Academy - 1993

Patents

 * Terahertz frequency radiation sources and detectors based on group-IV materials and method of manufacture.

Books

 * Cadmium Sulfide Nanostructures for Device Applications

Selected Articles

 * Multifunctional Au-ZnO plasmonic nanostructures for enhanced UV photodetector and room temperature NO sensing devices.
 * Chemically reduced graphene oxide for ammonia detection at room temperature.
 * Novel Colloidal MoS2 Quantum Dot Heterojunctions on Silicon Platforms for Multifunctional Optoelectronic Devices.
 * CMOS integration of inkjet-printed graphene for humidity sensing.
 * Tunable Direct Bandgap Optical Transitions in MoS2 Nanocrystals for Photonic Devices.