Dr. Suman Kalyan Samanta
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur​
Kharagpur-721302
India
Location: Room No. 701 (Office), 713 (Lab)
Tower-A, JCG-PCR Building
Phone: +91-3222-283340 (Office)
+91-3222-269760 (Lab)
E-mail:
Education
Ph.D. (2011): In Supramolecular and Soft Materials Chemistry from the Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India.
Advisor: Prof. Santanu Bhattacharya
Thesis Title: Design, Synthesis and Properties of Novel Oligo-Phenylenevinylene based Supramolecular Photochromic Gels and Soft Composites with Nanomaterials.
Received Best Thesis Award (The Guha Research Medal)
M.Sc. (2006): In Chemistry (Organic Chemistry Specialization) from Rajabazar Science College, Kolkata, University of Calcutta, India.
Secured First Class First rank (Gold Medal) in the University.
B.Sc. (2004): In Chemistry (Honors) from City College, Kolkata, University of Calcutta, India.
Professional Experiences
Associate Professor (Feb 2026 – Present)
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKgp), India
Assistant Professor (Jul 2018 – Jan 2026)
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKgp), India
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Postdoctoral Scholar (Feb 2017 – Jul 2018)
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea.
Research Topic: Synthesis of Small Molecular and Polymeric Semiconductors for Organic Electronic Devices
Advisor: Prof. Joon Hak Oh
Research Associate-II (Dec 2015 – Jan 2017)
Director’s Research Unit, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata, India.
Research Topic: Polymer Networks for Dye Absorption and Catalysis
Advisor: Prof. Santanu Bhattacharya
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (Jul 2013 – Aug 2015)
Department of Macromolecular Chemistry and Institute for Polymer Technology, Wuppertal University, Germany.
Research Topic: Conjugated Polymers and Polymer Networks for Organic Electronics and Gas Storage Applications
Advisor: Prof. Ullrich Scherf
Research Associate (Aug 2011 – Jun 2013)
Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
Research Topic: Pheromone Nanogels for Pest Management
Advisor: Prof. Santanu Bhattacharya
Awards & Honors
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Received Faculty Excellence Award 2025, IIT Kharagpur on the occasion of Institute 75th Foundation Day, 2025
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Awarded CRS Bronze Medal from the society Chirantan Rasayan Sanstha® (CRS), 2025
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Awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (Germany) on March 2013
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Achieved Best Thesis Award (The Guha Research Medal) from IISc, Bangalore for the academic year 2011-12
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Research Associate fellowship from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, 2011-2013
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Awarded Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) fellowships (JRF and SRF), 2006-2011
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Qualified National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by CSIR- UGC, India, on June, 2006
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Qualified Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), February 2006
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Amulya Kumar Saha best prize for securing highest marks in M.Sc (2006)
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Gold Medal in M.Sc. for secured highest mark (University of Calcutta, 2006)
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Professional Affiliations
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Review Editor, Frontiers in Electronic Materials (Section: Optoelectronic Materials), Frontiers Publishing (Aug, 2021-Present)
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Board of Studies member for School of Sciences, Woxsen University, Hyderabad
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Life Member of the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI): Jun, 2023 onwards
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Life Member of The Society for Polymer Science, India (SPSI): Aug, 2023 onwards
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Life Member of The Chirantan Rasayan Sanstha (CRS), India: Nov, 2024 onwards
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Life Member of the Luminescent Organic Materials Consortium of India (LOCI): Jan, 2026 onwards
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Short Biography
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Suman Kalyan Samanta was born in West Bengal, India, in 1983. He received his B.Sc. (2004) and M.Sc. (2006) in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2011 from the Indian Institute of Science under the tutelage of Prof. Santanu Bhattacharya. In 2013, he joined Prof. Ullrich Scherf’s group at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, as Alexander von Humboldt fellow for his postdoctoral studies on conjugated polymer and polymer network synthesis. He completed his second postdoc in the group of Prof. Joon Hak Oh at the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea, in optoelectronic device applications of organic materials (small molecules and conjugated polymers) for field-effect transistors, organic solar cells and light-emitting diodes. His research interests include design, synthesis, and characterization of chromophoric functional organic molecules, conjugated polymers, porous polymer networks, supramolecular chemistry, nanomaterials, physical gels, and optoelectronic device applications. He has co-authored more than 53 peer-reviewed International journals. He has received prestigious awards including Gold medal in MSc, Best Thesis Award (The Guha Research Medal) in Ph.D., Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (Germany) in postdoc, CRS Bronze Medal 2025, and Faculty Excellence Award 2025, IIT Kharagpur.
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Faculty Excellence Award 2025, IIT Kharagpur
CRS Bronze Medal 2025, MAHE, Manipal
Conferences
20) Invited Talk at the ICLMFA 2026, IISER Bhopal on 1 February 2026. Talk entitled- "Conjugated Luminescent Materials for Multimodal Detection and Degradation of Toxic Analytes"
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19) Invited Talk at the MOFES’26, JNCASR, Bengaluru on January 12, 2026. Talk entitled- "Bandgap Engineered Conjugated Porous Organic Polymers in Photocatalysis and Pollutant Removal"
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18) Invited Talk at the ICCHD-2026, CU, Kolkata on January 11, 2026. Talk entitled- "Bandgap Engineered Conjugated Porous Organic Polymers in Photocatalysis"
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17) Invited Talk at the Yachay Tech University, Ecuador (online), on November 5, 2025. Talk entitled- "Bandgap Engineered Conjugated Porous Organic Polymers in Photocatalysis and Pollutant Removal"
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16) CRS Award Lecture, MAHE, Bangalore on August 1, 2025. Talk entitled- "Bandgap Engineered Conjugated Porous Organic Polymers in Photocatalysis and Pollutant Removal"
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15) Invited Talk at IISER Bhopal on June 16, 2025. Talk entitled- "Bandgap Engineered Conjugated and Non-conjugated Porous Organic Polymers in Catalysis and Pollutant Removal"
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14) Invited Talk at the ICCHD-2025, CU, Kolkata on January 5, 2025. Talk entitled- "Conjugated and Non-conjugated Porous Organic Polymers in Sustainable Photocatalytic and Adsorptive Environmental Remediation."
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13) Invited Talk at the ICPCNB-2024, MGU, Kerala on November 8, 2024. Talk entitled- "Porous Organic Polymers in Environmental Remediation by Adsorptive and Photocatalytic Pathways."
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12) Invited Talk at the "SPSI-Macro2023" on Dec10-13, 2023 at IIT Guwahati. Talk entitled- "Triphenylamine-Anthracene based and Various Functional Porous Organic Polymers for Catalysis and Environmental Remediation."
11) Invited Talk at the "Research Scholar Day" on Sep 7, 2023 at IIT Kharagpur. Talk entitled- "Functional Porous Organic Polymers from Conjugated and Non-conjugated Backbone for Catalysis and Environmental Remediation."
10) Invited Talk at the "Bio- and Physical Science (SSCC-1)" on March 29, 2023 at City College, Amherst Street, Kolkata. Talk entitled- "Molecules to Materials".
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9) Invited Talk at the “Functional Smart and Supramolecular Materials (FSSM 2020)”, January 29-30 (2020) at IIT Kharagpur. Talk entitled- “Phosphate based New Organic Polymer Networks for Efficient Dye Sorption and Catalyst Loading”.
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8) Poster Presentation at the "International Conference on Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals", July 1-6 (2018), Busan, South Korea. Poster title- "High-Performance n-Channel Organic Transistors Based on [1]Benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene–Rylene Diimide Donor–Acceptor Conjugated Polymers".
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7) Invited Talk at the Humboldt Colloquium “Germany and India – Partners in Education and Research” Bengaluru, India, 23–25 November 2017. Title of the talk- "Light Matters! When Organic Molecules and Polymers Meet Devices".
6) Poster Presentation at the "Annual Fall Meeting of The Polymer Society of Korea ", October 10-13 (2017), ICC Jeju, South Korea. Poster title- "High Performance Field-Effect Transistors based on BTBT containing copolymers".
5) Attended the conference on “GDCh-Wissenschaftsforum Chemie 2015: Connecting Chemistry and Chemists (GDCh Chemistry Forum)”, 30 August - 2 September (2015), Dresden, Germany.
4) Invited Talk and Poster Presentation at the “Network Meeting of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation”, April 9-11 (2014) in Berlin. Poster title- “Aggregation Induced Opto-electronic Properties of Monomeric and Polymeric Phenylenedivinylene bis-Pyridinium Salts”.
3) Attended the conference on “Joint Workshop on Energy Polymers”, January 23-24 (2014), Potsdam-Golm.
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2) Poster Presentation at ‘Soft Mater Chemistry Workshop’, November 09-11 (2011), Raman Research Institute, Bangalore on the occasion of International Year of Chemistry (2011). Poster title “Composites of Graphene and other Nanocarbons with Organogelators Assembled through Supramolecular Interactions”.
1) Poster Presentation at the Indo-US joint conference on ‘Advanced Materials Research’, September 01-02 (2009), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore. Poster title- “Gelation of Organic Solvents by New tri(p-phenylenevinylene) (TPV) Molecular Building Blocks”.
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