Rajan Chakrabarty

Focus

Complex Systems; Non-equilibrium dynamics; Aerosol Physics and Chemistry; Airborne disease transmission; Public Policy; Aerosol Instrumentation; Satellite Remote Sensing of Aerosol; Gas Phase Synthesis of Aerogels

Research 

Rajan Chakrabarty currently leads the Aerosol Interdisciplinary Research (AIR) group at Washington University, which works at the forefront of addressing grand challenges associated with Complex Environmental Systems. Current research focus is in characterizing the dynamics and properties of the various “agents” that undergo multiple interactions to give rise to emergent behavior in environmental systems. Over the years, his research group has made technical contributions to the focal themes of:

1. Addressing Grand Challenges Associated with Radiative Forcing by Carbonaceous Aerosols,
2. Advances in Fundamental Aerosol Physics
3. Open-Source and User-Interactive Aerosol Physics Software Development,
4. Aerosol Instrumentation and Engineering Techniques,
5. Environmental Determinants of Infectious Disease Transmission, and
6. Effectiveness of Non-pharmaceutical Containment Strategies.

Research advances in these themes have a tremendous broader impact in the societally highly relevant research areas of climate change, human health, satellite remote sensing, and governmental policy making.

Biography

Chakrabarty obtained his PhD in Chemical Physics from the University of Nevada, Reno with dissertation research conducted at the Desert Research Institute. He also holds degrees in Atmospheric Physics (MS) and Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (BEng). His research contributions have been recognized with several prestigious honors, most notably the 2019 Kenneth T. Whitby award (AAAR), 2019 Schmauss award (GAeF), 2018 AGU Global Environmental Change Early Career award, the 2017 Richard M. Goody award by the electromagnetic light scattering and remote sensing community, and a 2015 NSF CAREER award. Chakrabarty has been an active member, including serving as the Chair, of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) Aerosol Physics working group since 2008, and the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Between 2014 and 2017, he served as Chair of the AAAR Education Committee for three consecutive years. He was one of the host organizers of the 2018 International Aerosol Conference, in charge of a number of activities from organizing tutorials to overseeing the day-to-day smooth functioning of the events.

He also serves as the program director for the Master's of Science in Aerosol Science and Engineering offered jointly though the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB).

Affiliations

• Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization
• Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering (CASE)
• The Institute of Materials Science & Engineering