Awards, fellowships, honours and milestones from students, postdocs and faculty across the department, newest first.
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma have been invited to give an invited talk at the BIOSANTEXC Franco-Indian Autumn School on "Microbiology & Immunology" as part of the ENS-IISERK BIOSANTEXC Partnership at ENS de Lyon, France. Members of CIRI are organizing this Autumn School to provide an excellent opportunity for BIOSANTEXC members. This would also be an excellent chance to visit Lyon, discuss potential collaborative projects, and learn more about their institute. The visit is supported through BIOSANTEXC funding.
Ms. Chandrani Dey, a 2nd-year PhD student, working with Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma was selected as a student member of Biosantexc to attend the Biosantexc mobility program at ENS de Lyon. Both Chandrani and I received the Schengen visa for this visit. We have completed all the official procedures.
Mr. Bishal Hazra (22RS014) from Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma’s lab won the Dr. GM Taori Young Scientist Award for best oral presentation at the SNCI International Conference 2026. The conference took place from 24-26 Sept 2026 at Pondicherry University. The theme of the conference was Integrative Neurochemistry: Neuroinformatics & Therapeutics
Dr. Titas Sengupta Receives the 2026 Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty Award.The Department of Biological Sciences, IISER Kolkata, is delighted to share the wonderful news that Dr. Titas Sengupta, a BS-MS alumnus of IISER Kolkata from the Department of Biological Sciences (Class of 2014), has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Simons Foundation Fellows-to-Faculty Award. The Fellows-to-Faculty program of the Simons Foundation recognizes and supports outstanding early-career scientists as they transition from postdoctoral research toward independent, tenure-track faculty positions. The 2026 cohort comprises 15 scientists selected for their promising research programmes and potential to make significant contributions to their respective fields. Dr. Sengupta is among the recipients supported through the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain (SCPAB). Her research focuses on epigenetic regulation of memory in response to aging and the environment. We extend our heartiest congratulations to Dr. Titas Sengupta on this prestigious recognition and wish her continued success in her journey toward an independent academic and research career.
Read moreDr. Sourav Banerjee joins SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, as Assistant Professor.
Prof. Anindita Bhadra honoured by the Indian National Bar Association and featured in “The Phenomenal SHE.”
Sharanya Chatterjee selected for the KU-STAR 2026 short-term research programme at Kyoto University.
Professor Jayasri Das Sarma has been elected a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in recognition of her contributions to Indian science. This is a great honor and a proud moment for department.
Dr. Gaurav Baruah Appointed as Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. We are delighted to share that Dr. Gaurav Baruah, a former BS-MS Biology major student of our Department (Class of 2015), has been appointed as Assistant Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He was introduced to ecological research during his BS-MS dissertation in the laboratory of Prof. Robert John Chandran. Following his BS-MS degree, Dr. Baruah pursued his PhD at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and subsequently carried out postdoctoral research in Switzerland and Germany. His research has resulted in several high-impact publications in leading international journals. Notably, he has published a single-author research article in Ecology Letters, Dr. Baruah and Prof. Robert John Chandran co-authored a research paper published in Ecology and Evolution in 2025. We congratulate Dr. Gaurav Baruah on this well-deserved appointment and wish him continued success in his academic and research career.
Hindol Chatterjee (Sengupta Lab) wins Best Poster at the 47th Annual Indian Biophysical Society Meeting.
Prakash Biswas (Mallick Lab) wins a DBT-CTEP travel award to present at the IVVN Conference, Vietnam.
Afruja Khan (Mallick Lab) receives an SERB-DST international travel grant for the 18th Vaccine Congress, Lisbon.
Dr. Amirul Mallick awarded an SSHN Scientific High-Level Visiting Fellowship for research in France.
Dr. Amirul Mallick, with LSHTM London, wins an India-UK partnership grant on farmed-animal disease and health.
Aparna Varma (Mallick Lab) wins Best Oral Presentation at VIROCON 2023.
Grishma Kasle (Das Sarma Lab) wins first prize at the Young Investigators Forum, Neuroupdate Kolkata.
Prakash Biswas wins Best Poster at LASACON 2023, IISc Bengaluru.
Team iGEM IISER Kolkata wins Gold at the iGEM 2023 Jamboree — a fourth consecutive gold.
Saptarshi Maji wins the Camillo Golgi Best Poster Award at OBMT 2023.
Srishti Dutta Gupta wins Best Poster at TERMIS Asia-Pacific 2023, Hong Kong.
Dr. Amirul Mallick receives BactiVac Network catalyst funding for mucosal-vaccine research.
Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta awarded the Chemical Research Society of India Bronze Medal.
Rohan Sarkar (Bhadra Lab) wins First Prize for poster presentation at ISAZ 2023, University of Edinburgh.
Manish Pathak, Anwesha Acharjee and Subhasis Halder (Sumana Lab) receive Student Research Grants.
Eshika Halder and Sauratej Sengupta selected for the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship.
Rupam Paul (Gupta Lab) receives the Carl Storm International Diversity Fellowship.
Dr. Radhika Venkatesan awarded the Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers.
Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta named India Ambassador of the Biophysical Society (USA), 2023–2025.
Manish Pathak (Sumana Lab) secures a further $1,000 outreach grant; with grants from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology and the Society for the Study of Evolution (about Rs. 4 lakhs in all), he and students of the Ant and Dog labs run a three-phase evolution-education programme for school teachers from Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Jyotirmayee Padhan, Sarbajit Layek and Dishari Dasgupta selected for the PM Research Fellowship.
Anirban Roy (Sudhamalla Lab) accepted to the 6th Max Planck Freiburg Epigenetics Meeting.
Afruja Khan wins Best Poster at the 44th All India Cell Biology Conference.
Debdeep Chatterjee (Datta Lab) recruited by Ginkgo Bioworks, Boston.
Ishani Mukherjee and Rohan Sarkar receive Animal Behavior Society (USA) grants.
Dr. Arunita Banerjee wins third prize, Talk Your Thesis, India Science Festival 2022.
Manish Pathak awarded the international Rosemary Grant by the Society for the Study of Evolution.
Chandan Goarin selected for the DBT-Newton Bhabha short-term PhD placement, Kingston University London.
Dr. Radhika Venkatesan elected Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, London.
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences.
Manish Pathak (Sumana Lab) receives a $1,000 grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution and a 4,000 EUR grant from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology to conduct evolution outreach for school teachers and high-school students in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
Priti Roy wins Best Poster at the Theoretical Chemistry Symposium (TCS 2021).
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Neurosciences.
Madhav Sharma receives the Professor SS Parmar Research Foundation Award, IAN conference.
Pallab Dutta's team wins the National HPC Hackathon.
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.
Team iGEM IISER Kolkata wins Gold at iGEM 2021 — a hat-trick for the institute.
Parijat Sarkar (alumnus) receives the NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award.
Dr. Rubina Mondal, with Profs. Bhadra and Protopopova, awarded a WALTHAM Foundation grant on shelter-dog welfare.
IISER Kolkata's Biophysical Society student chapter — the Gangeya Student Chapter — formally approved, the second in Asia.
Priti Roy (Sengupta Lab) selected for the virtual Travel Award to attend the Biophysical Society Meeting 2021.
Vaishali Mulchandani selected for the PM Research Fellowship (December 2020 cycle).
Samarpita Sen (Gupta Lab) wins the Gates-Cambridge Scholarship 2021.
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma awarded the SERB-POWER Grant; Dr. Rituparna Sinha Roy awarded the SERB-POWER Fellowship.
Dr. Purba Mukerjee selected for the Har Gobind Khorana Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award.
Dr. Anindita Bhadra awarded the J. Ammal National Women Bioscientist Award 2020-21.
Aritra Lahiri wins the SITARE-GYTI Appreciation Award from SRISTI-DBT BIRAC.
Tithi Mandal wins the RSC Soft Matter Poster Prize at ISCSM 2020, IISER Pune.
Anindita Bhadra's study on free-ranging dogs' comprehension of pointing gestures covered by National Geographic, Smithsonian and The Hindu.
Debottam (Bhadra Lab) selected for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at Utrecht University to study the mechanisms of cooperation in macaques.
Patent granted jointly to Dr. Parna Ray (DCS) and Dr. Partho Sarothi Ray for fluorescent Ir(III) complexes with cancer-therapy applications.
Team iGEM IISER Kolkata 2019 wins Gold at the Giant Jamboree, Boston.
Dr. Anindita Bhadra elected to the Executive Committee of the Global Young Academy and to the Royal Society of Biology, London.
Babu Sudhamalla, Dipjyoti Das and Sreeramaiah Gangappa selected as DBT-Ramalingaswami Fellows.
Dr. Sudipta Bar interviewed by The Company of Biologists Ltd. on his published work.
Aditya Ghoshal’s paper on the diurnal pattern of male–female behavioural interactions in zebrafish accepted in Behavioural Processes.
Dr. Neelanjana Sengupta’s TEDxHITKolkata talk, “Is Computational Biology an answer to our health problems?”, is available on YouTube.
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma elected Fellow of the West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology.
Prof. Punyasloke Bhadury awarded the Swarnajayanti Fellowship in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Mrinmoy Pal (13MS116) attends the Else Kröner Forschungskolleg Göttingen cancer symposium and presents a poster from his DAAD fellowship work, supported by an IISER Kolkata International Travel Grant.
Biswas, Alex and Sinha publish “Interference based mapping of cell membrane fluctuations” in Biophysical Journal 113, 1768–1781.
Mr. Manmeet Singh (Das Sarma Lab) receives the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation's Du Pré award.
Dr. Malancha Ta’s team shows in Stem Cells and Development that nonmuscle myosin II regulates migration of Wharton’s Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells.
Dr. Jayasri Das Sarma and Dr. Kaushiki Biswas publish in the Journal of Virology on microtubule-assisted neuronal spread of a demyelinating mouse hepatitis virus strain.
Jibin Sadasivan (Das Sarma Lab), a fourth-year BS-MS student, receives the 2014 Du Pré award to work at the University of Colorado, Denver.
Rahul Basu (Das Sarma Lab) receives the 2012 Du Pré grant to work at the University of Pennsylvania on mouse hepatitis virus-induced demyelination.
Dr. Partho Sarothi Ray co-authors a paper in Cell (149, 88–100) combining computational and experimental biology to uncover a new regulatory mechanism, coding-region polyadenylation.
This digest covers the department’s announcements. For the complete, continuously updated news archive maintained by the department, see the link below.
