Suman Chakraborty

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Suman Chakraborty is Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India, and Sir J. C. Bose national Fellow. Currently, he is the Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy at the same Institute.^[1] He was also formerly the Head, School of Medical Science and Technology (April 2015 to March 2019) and the Indian National Academy of Engineering Chair Professor (2014–16). He joined the Institute in the year 2002 as Assistant Professor, became Associate Professor in the year 2007. He became full Professor in the year 2008.

Chakraborty did his schooling from St. Lawrence High School, Kolkata and then graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Jadavpur University in the year 1996, securing 2nd Rank out of a pool of more than 100 students.^[2] After a brief Industrial Experience on Engineering design at the Development Consultants Ltd., he appeared for the National level competitive examination on (GATE, 1997), in which he was nationally Ranked as the 1st.^{[citation needed]} Subsequently, he joined the Indian Institute of Science(IISc) for his master's study, where he was the faculty topper (CGPA 7.9 out of 8) and received gold medal and Senate Commendation for outstanding performance in Masters of Engineering. Thereafter, he joined Jadavpur University as a lecturer. In 2000, he joined the IISc for his doctoral research, on study leave from Jadavpur University. He completed his Ph.D. thesis work in about one year at the IISc. His received “Best International CFD Thesis Award” in 2002.^[3]

Chakraborty has research interests in the area of microfluidics, miniaturization and micro/nano scale transport processes and is one among the scientists who introduced research in these fields in the Indian Academia towards the beginning of this century.^[4][5] Chakraborty is known for his fundamental contributions in microfluidics and nanofluidics that have traversed all the way to the establishment of disruptive high-quality yet low-cost diagnostic technologies for community healthcare which have passed through rigorous patient trials, regulatory certification and have culminated in the form of real-life products being deployed to create positive transformations in the context good health and well-being of the underserved.

Chakraborty's notable research contributions in microfluidics, nanofluidics and miniaturization include roughness-induced slippery flow in hydrophobic nanochannels in contrary to a presumably obvious stick, massive augmentation of electrically driven pumping in hydrophobic nanochannels, capillary-driven spreading of liquid water on atomistically designed hydrophobic surfaces, programmable electrical modulation of droplets in directions misaligned with the electric field, generating controlled microbubbles and droplets on a spinning disc, reversing thermally-driven motion of extremely tiny droplets – defying common scientific intuitions in all cases. Extending these findings on confined liquids to soft biological matters, he has subsequently uncovered unique bio-physical mechanism possibly responsible for anti-biotic resistance in critical infectious diseases. He has also introduced low-cost fabrication and analytical tools to probe blood flow dynamics in circulatory systems, including the mechanisms of collective dynamics of red blood cells in micro-vascular pathways. He has developed a tumour-on-a-chip technology for understanding elusive features of cancer progression and metastasis. He has introduced ‘Paper and Pencil Microfluidics’ - a new class of electrically-manipulative miniaturized devices that does not require any sophisticated fabrication technology unlike the other cutting-edge micro-chips. The backbone of this technology is a simple piece of paper cartridge that has pencil-sketched electrodes controlling fluid flow in printed channels. This has been the foundation of manufacturing low-cost medical diagnostic devices, as well as developing water purification and energy harvesting systems on simple paper strips. Extending this paradigm of spontaneous ion-water interaction in an interlaced fibrous cellulose network, his group has demonstrated electrical power generation in wet textiles, drawing analogies with water transport across the parts of a living plant. Demonstrating that on green field, they have shown that this electricity generation may be up-scaled massively by systematically drying a set of regular wearable garments under the sun-light, culminating into a utilitarian paradigm of low-cost power harvesting in extreme rural settings.

Chakraborty has further established a pathway of translating high end laboratory research to remote and under-developed locations. His innovated blood glucose and haemoglobin measuring devices and several others, after rigorous clinical validation, have become the lifelines of existing rural healthcare centres, withstanding extreme dirt, dust, humidity and rugged conditions where most of the high-end medical devices do not function. His research team has developed a miniaturized blood perfusion imaging device for screening of oral pre-cancer and cancer, circumventing the obvious clinical constraints of traditional laser Doppler or laser speckle perfusion imagers. This device has successfully passed clinical trial for early diagnostics of oral cancer. Beyond the ambit of technology development alone, he has provided leadership in establishing a common research and technology hub (CRTDH) on affordable healthcare under the support of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, where his own innovated products are being manufactured by micro, medium and small scale entrepreneurs for deployment in extreme rural locations

The COVID-19 pandemic has been rudely exposing the challenges due to non-availability of diagnostic technologies that are accurate yet low cost, accessible, user-friendly and amenable to massive manufacturing scale-up and parallelization. The COVIRAP test, essentially a new Piecewise Isothermal Nucleic Acid Test (PINAT) innovated by his research team, has offered a value proposition by offering test results of nucleic-acid based diagnostics quality but devoid of any laboratory procedure such as RNA extraction, achieving direct swab/ saliva to result integration in an ultra-low cost user friendly device platform. The value proposition of this is reflective of a globally-disseminative technology transfer as a first highly accurate ultra-low cost point-of-care nucleic acid based test having the simplicity and user-friendliness of a common rapid test. Such amalgamated fusion of advanced scientific premises of extremely sensitive and specific diagnostic technologies in the format of an affordable rapid testing paradigm, streamlined with the United Nation’s goal of sustainable development, is premised to eradicate any differential consideration between the rich and the poor, and promote well-being and community healthcare for the underserved in resource-limited settings.

Chakraborty has published 480+ papers in international journals of high repute. Around 40 Ph.D. students have graduated working under his supervision .^[6] He has authored several text books and edited several research monographs. He has also developed several video lecture courses, under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning.^[7][8] Chakraborty has also been the Editor / Editorial Board Member of leading Journals in his field of expertise, including Scientific Reports. He received the prestigious Santi Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize,^[9] and became the youngest Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), Indian National Academy of Science (NASI), in addition of being the recipient of the Indo-US Research Fellowship, Scopus Young Scientist Award given by Elsevier for high citations on his research publications, Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2005), and Young Scientist/ Young Engineer Award from various National Academies. He has been bestowed with the Fellowship of the American Physical Society,^[10] Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Fellowship of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.^[11] He was a visiting professor at Stanford University.^[12] He has been selected for the 30th GD Birla Award for Scientific Research for his outstanding contribution to engineering science and its applications in developing technologies for affordable healthcare.^[13]

Chakraborty has received research funding from various Government and Private bodies, including International funding agencies (such as the British Council, Royal Academy of Engineering UK, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, JSPS, Japan etc.).^[14] He has spearheaded the Healthcare domain of IMPRINT India initiative as the National coordinator. He has also been a consultant to Industrial Houses such as General Motors, Delphi, INTEL, SHELL, Tata Steel, ITC, to name a few.^[15] He has also led his own start-up company to effectively translate his research into the design of medical products. The objective of his company is to bring out novel devices for low-cost medical diagnostics and foster a healthy life for all those who have been deprived of even the basic amenities and facilities of primary healthcare over the years.

References[]

External links[]

• Publications of Suman Chakraborty