Prof. Amit Dutta Memorial Distinguished Lecture Series
Prof. Amit Dutta was a condensed matter physicist in the Department of Physics at IIT Kanpur, where he worked on various aspects of phase transitions, non-equilibrium systems, quantum information, and quantum critical phenomena. He completed his B.Sc. (Honours) and M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Calcutta and his Ph.D. from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
He joined the institute in 2003 after completing his postdoctoral tenure at the Max Planck Institute for Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany. During his time at IIT Kanpur, he established a vibrant quantum condensed matter research group, from which many of his students have gone on to establish their own research groups across the world.
His contributions, particularly to the physics of non-equilibrium quantum condensed systems, are highly regarded in the scientific community. He was also a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Dutta tragically passed away in 2022.
The Prof. Amit Dutta Memorial Distinguished Lecture Series has been instituted by Mr. Shantanu Dutta and Ms. Doll Guha Dutta in memory of Prof. Amit Dutta.
Past Speaker
Prof. Chandan Dasgupta
Prof. Chandan Dasgupta spoke on the topic "Introduction to Spin Glasses and Neural Networks". He received his B.Sc. from Presidency College, University of Calcutta (1971) and his M.Sc. from the University of Delhi (1973). He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 under the supervision of Prof. A. B. Harris. He subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard University, and later served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota.
A theoretical condensed matter physicist with a focus on statistical mechanics, he joined the Indian Institute of Science in 1987, where he is now an Honorary Professor. He is also the Simons Professor at ICTS, Bengaluru. Prof. Dasgupta is a recipient of several honours, including the Warner Teutsch Memorial Prize (1974), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1984-87), DAE-Raja Ramanna Prize (1999), and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship (2006-10), and is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences (India), and TWAS.
Prof. Diptiman Sen
Prof. Diptiman Sen spoke on 'Some Analytical Techniques For Studying Quantum Many-Body Systems' on February 17-19, 2025. His research interests include condensed matter systems in low dimensions, mesoscopic systems, and various aspects of quantum field theory. Prof. Sen received his PhD in Physics from Princeton University in 1984.