Amrita Bhattacharya

Dr. Amrita Bhattacharya is an Associate Professor in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay). She has been a faculty member since December 2017, advancing to Associate Professor in May 2021. Prior to joining IIT Bombay, she held prestigious positions including Max Planck Postdoctoral Scientist at the Fritz Haber Institute in Germany and DST Inspire Faculty at the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi.

Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Computational Physics from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and an MSc in Physics from Burdwan University.

Dr. Bhattacharya's research is focused on computational materials science, with core interests in:

• Charge and heat transport in thermoelectric materials
• Defects in semiconductors
• Magnetic structure in strongly correlated materials
• Quantum confinement effects in 2D planar nanomaterials (e.g., graphene, silicene, BN sheets)
• Machine learning applications for predicting physical properties of materials
• Development of computational methods for analyzing electronic and phononic properties

Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward high-throughput computational screening, machine learning of material properties (such as lattice thermal conductivity and zero-point energy), and the design of efficient thermoelectric materials like half-Heusler alloys and Bi2S3. Her work integrates density functional theory (DFT) with advanced transport models and data science to accelerate materials discovery.

She has received several notable awards and recognitions:

• Max-Planck Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013–2016)
• DST Inspire Faculty Award (2015)
• DAAD Travel Grant (2016)
• Young Scientist Award, Materials Research Society India (2012)
• Kawazoe Best Poster Award, ACCMS-TM2DS, Bangalore (2012)
• DST Travel Grant (2011)

Dr. Bhattacharya is actively involved in research funding and mentoring. She leads the Ab initio Computational Materials Simulation laboratory and has ongoing projects, including a BRNS-funded project on spin-orbit driven thermoelectric materials. She recruits Junior Research Fellows (JRFs) and postdoctoral researchers, indicating her active supervision of students and early-career scientists. She also contributes to method development in computational materials science, including coding tools for analyzing band structures, phonon properties, and elastic constants.

She maintains a strong publication record in high-impact journals such as Physical Review Letters, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Acta Materialia, and Journal of Materials Chemistry C.