Professor Sri Rama Koti Ainavarapu is an Associate Professor at TIFR, Mumbai. His research group use a combination of experimental techniques and theoretical tools (Protein engineering, polymer synthesis, fluorescence spectroscopy, state-of-the-aft custom-built single-molecule atomic force microscope (SM-AFM), theoretical methods and steered molecular dynamics (SMD)) to probe the stability and dynamics of proteins and polymers. Using SM-AFM and SMD, they probe the mechanical response of proteins and synthetic polymers.

Dr. Santanu Bhattacharyya is an Assistant Professor in Department of Chemical Sciences at IISER Behrampur. The main research interest of his group is to design more robust and environmentally sustainable alternative luminescent nanomaterials having larger extent of visible light absorption cross section and efficient internal charge separation process for solar fuel generation by means of photocatalytic solar water splitting and CO₂ photo-reduction.

Dr. Manabendra Chandra is an Associate Professor, in the Department of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur. His research work focuses on applying spectroscopic techniques to solve problems in nanoscience, mainlyin developing a predictive understanding of light-matter interactions at the nanoscale and revealing new aspects of how nanoscale structure influences the use and control of light. He also works on employing label-free real-time spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to understand the mechanisms of antibiotic-bacterial cell membrane interactions.

Dr. Arindam Chowdhury is a professor in Department of Chemistry at IIT Bombay. His research interest lies in detection and imaging of Single-Molecules (SM) that would incorporate physical chemistry with nano-materials and biomolecular sciences. Their research work focus on the study of fluorescent behaviours of Single-Molecules or their Aggregates in unique local environments in contrast to that of bulk using a specialized technique called Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM) as an experimental tool.

Dr. Arijit K De is an Associate Professor in Department of Chemical Sciences at IISER Mohali. His area of research focuses on studying dynamics in condensed phases using ultrafast spectroscopy and optical trapping. The main focus of his research is to explore, through a combination of theory and experiments, a wide range of problems in condensed phase dynamics with applications in chemistry, biophysics, and condensed matter physics.

Dr. Tushar Debnath is currently a Principal Investigator (Centre for Nanotechnology) at IIT Guwahati, Assam. His research interests are mainly Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Nanophotonics, Semiconductor Physics, Quantum Dots, and Energy Science.

Dr. Subhadip Ghosh is an assistant professor at the School of Chemical Sciences at the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar. His research spans the areas of Molecular and Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Fluorescence correlation Spectroscopy, and Ultrafast Spectroscopy using picosecond TCSPC and femtosecond up-conversion techniques.

Mahesh Hariharan is a Professor, School of Chemistry at IISER, Thiruvananthapuram. His research group efforts primarily focus on understanding the interaction of light with biomolecules and crystalline organic materials. They use the ultrafast processes in organic structures having diverse nearest neighbour interaction. They also design/synthesize small molecule based donor-acceptor systems to enhance the lifetime of photo-induced charge separated states in organic molecules.Using nano-, pico- and femto-second resolved absorption/emission techniques, we probe ultrafast processes such as energy and exciton migration across these architectures.Profile

Dr.Saumyakanti Khatua is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. His research group is interested in enhancing weak/slow physical and/or chemical processes using plasmonic nanostructures at both bulk and single particle concentrations.

Dr. Rajesh V Nair is an associate professor of physics at IIT Ropar. His research spans the areas of Quantum Nanophotonics/technologies, Quantum Materials and Devices, and Meta-materials. He is primarily interested to gain deterministic control over the photon density of states for quantum emitters using a different class of nanophotonic structures and meta-materials like photonic crystals, disordered structures, bio-inspired photonic structures, two-dimensional photonic and atomic layered structures.

Dr. Chayan Kanti Nandi is a professor in the School of chemical sciences at IIT Mandi. His central research areas are Spectroscopy and microscopy of nanomaterials, Designing new fluorescent materials for microscopic imaging, Super-resolution imaging of cellular cytoskeleton, Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, Stochastic Optical Reconstruction microscopy, etc.

Professor Chandrabhas Narayana is the Director of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala. His research group is a pioneer in the use of Raman spectroscopy in drug-protein interaction, for drug screening applications and diagnostic applications. They used Surface enhance Raman studies (SERS) to study recombinant HIV virus RNA. They are in the process of developing a diagnostic kit for determining the CD3, CD4 and CD8 in human cells of HIV patients in order to develop an early detection strategy.They are also looking at protein and small molecular interactions using SERS in the field of Cancer Research.

Dr. Pabitra Nayak is Principal Investigator at TIFR, Hyderabad.His research group aims to find out which chemistries and/or physical properties in soft semiconductors is responsible for their low defect densities, to guide design of new materials with these properties and develop new class electronic materials. They grow single crystals and thin-films of the materials and investigate the opto-electronic properties using various spectroscopic and electronic measurements.

Dr. Debashis Panda is an Associate Professor at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Jais, Amethi (U.P.). His current research is concerned with the application of spectroscopic and microscopic methodologies to resolve the intricacies of energy dynamics. The aim to understand and develop light-harvesting systems (Solar Cells) through a scalable and sustainable route. He is also involved in designing next-gen photo catalysts based on the concepts of nanotechnology for biomass valorization focusing to understand and acquire fundamental chemical knowledge for sustainable energy conversion and storage.

Dr Satish A. Patil is a Professor and Chair at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.The research activities of the group are focused on exploring the manifold of molecular electronics ranging from organic photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes and field-effect transistors. The interdisciplinary approach includes synthesizing multifunctional conjugated polymers and oligomers with novel properties and studying their characteristics working at the interface of chemistry, physics and materials engineering.

Dr. Amitava Patra is a senior professor and director of the Institute of Nano Science & Technology, Mohali. His research interests include ultrafast excited state dynamics, energy transfer, and electron transfer in multidimensional QD, Au nanoparticles, Au clusters, C-dots, semiconducting polymer, graphene, and porphyrin-based luminescent nanoparticles, and up-converted and down-converted luminescent materials for photonic applications.

Dr. Pramod Pillai is an associate professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. His research involves interdisciplinary areas including organic/inorganic synthesis, hybrid nanomaterials fabrication and characterization, and photophysical and biophysical studies. The goal of his research is to optimize various interactions at the nanoscale and apply them to improve the chemical and physical properties of nanomaterials.

George Thomas is a professor and J C Bose National Fellow at the School of Chemistry of the IISER, Thiruvananthapuram. His research group focuses on understanding the photochemistry and photophysics of molecular assemblies, plasmonic systems and semiconductor quantum dots, and chiral nanostructures. They mainly deal with light-matter interactions in molecules and nanomaterials. They use single-molecule/particle spectroscopy to understand trap states in quantum dots and energy transfer hybrid systems.•Profile

Dr. Ranjani Vishwanatha is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at JNCASR, Bangalore.Her research group primarily focuses on the synthesis of semiconductor nanocrystals and metal-semiconductor hybrid structures along with their optical, electronic and magnetic properties.These tiny fragments exhibit a wide range of features that may be controlled by varying the particle size in these quantum confined systems.