Prof. Arup K. Chakraborty is the Robert T. Haslam Professor in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He is also the founding director of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. His predictive computational/theoretical work has impacted both the experimental basic immunology and the infectious disease research. He has had a remarkable illustrious career marked with several prestigious research and teaching awards from Berkeley and MIT. In 2008, IIT Kanpur conferred upon him the Distinguished Alumnus Award for his seminal contributions.
Profile
Prof. Chakraborty received his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1983. Following it, he joined the Ph.D. program in the same subject at the University of Delaware, USA and completed it in 1988. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota from 1987 to 1988, he joined as a faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley where he was the Warren and Katherine Schlinger Distinguished Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering. He also headed the Theoretical and Computational Biology at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In September 2005, he moved to MIT where he is currently the Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biological Engineering. He is also the founding director of MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and a founding member of the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH and Harvard.
Prof. Chakraborty's research interests include cell-cell recognition in immunology, T-cell biology, polymers and membranes, and statistical mechanics. The central focus of his research group is to understand the mechanistic basis of the adaptive immune response to pathogens, and then to use this understanding to help design better vaccines and therapies. They work on problems ranging from inter-cellular communication in the immune system, bio-sensors, polymer science and interfacial phenomena to zeolite catalysis. His work is outstanding and distinguished because of its close synergy with complementary studies in experimental immunology laboratories and clinical research. They have collaborated with over 15 different immunology laboratories and have active collaborations with several other prestigious names. His laboratory is one of the six core groups comprising the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT & Harvard-a multidisciplinary institute focused on understanding the human immune response and harnessing this knowledge to develop a vaccine against HIV..
Achievements and Honors
MIT Institute Professor, 2021
John M. Prausnitz Institute Lecturer, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2021
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, Chemical Engineering Department, MIT, 2020
Doctor of Engineering honoris causa, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (awarded 2019, conferred 2020)
Guggenheim Fellowship, 2018
Moore Distinguished Scholar, Caltech, 2018
Elected, Member of the National Academy of Medicine, 2017
Elected, Member of the National Academy of Sciences, 2016
Graduate Student Council Outstanding Faculty Award, 2012.
Outstanding Graduate Teaching award, Chemical Engineering department, MIT, 2012
Outstanding Graduate Teaching award, Chemical Engineering department, MIT, 2009
Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2008
Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, 2008
Elected, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007
E.O. Lawrence Award for Life Sciences, DOE, 2007
NIH Director's Pioneer Award, 2006
Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement, University of Delaware, 2005
Doraiswamy Lecturer, Iowa State Univ. and National Chemical Laboratory, India, 2005
Dept. of Chem. Eng. Teaching Award, UC Berkeley, 2005
Engineering Foundation Endowed Lectureship, U.T. Austin, 2005
Elected, Member of the National Academy of Engineering, 2004
Professional Progress Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2004
Chemcon Distinguished Lecturer Award, Bhubaneswar, India, 2003
Robert W. Vaughan Memorial Lecturer, Caltech, 2000
Research Professor, Miller Institute for Basic Science, Berkeley, 1999-2000
Featured Speaker, NAE Frontiers of Engineering Meeting, 1999
Allan P. Colburn Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1996
Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 1994
AIChE, Berkeley Student Chapter, Appreciation for Distinguished Teaching, 1996-97
National Young Investigator Award, 1992-1997
Royal Academy of Engineering (U.K.), ICI Fellowship, 1993- 1998
Shell Young Faculty Fellow, 1989-1992
Best Review Paper, Intnl. Conference on Polymer/Solid Interfaces, Belgium, 1991
