Debanjan Chowdhury

Debanjan Chowdhury is the Joyce A. Yelencsics Rosevear ‘65 and Frederick M. Rosevear ‘64 Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences. His research centers on theoretical condensed matter physics, focusing on exotic quantum phenomena in materials like unconventional superconductors, quantum spin liquids, and moiré systems.

He received his education at premier institutions: an Integrated M.Sc. in Physics from IIT Kanpur (2010), and A.M. (2012) and Ph.D. (2016) in Physics from Harvard University under Prof. Subir Sachdev. Prior to Cornell, he was a Moore Foundation Fellow at MIT (2016-2019).

Chowdhury's research explores strongly correlated quantum systems where interactions produce non-traditional behaviors beyond quasiparticle paradigms. Key interests include:

• Universal properties of incoherent metals and Planckian dissipation
• Superconductivity and quantum criticality in moiré materials
• Relationships between quantum chaos, thermalization, and transport
• Topological phases in disordered and amorphous systems

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on moiré materials (e.g., twisted graphene), non-Fermi liquids, and quantum criticality, with frequent use of field-theoretic and numerical techniques to address non-perturbative regimes.

He has received significant recognition:

• Moore Foundation Fellow (2016-2019)
• NSF CAREER Award (2023)
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2023)

Chowdhury leads an active research group advising graduate students (Sunghoon Kim, Xuepeng Wang, Keiran Lewellen) and postdocs (Dan Mao, Dimitri Pimenov). His work is supported by grants including NSF CAREER and a New Frontier Grant from Cornell.