Dibakar Datta Laboratory (DDLab)

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Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in hand. Some face darkness to find the light. Dibakar Datta began from a remote Indian village and won the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

EDUCATION

09/2010 – 01/2015 : Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

• Specialization: Major – Mechanics of Solids and Structures, Minors – Physics and  Chemistry

• Ph.D. Qualifying exam committee included 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Prof. Kosterlitz

01/2014 – 01/2015 : Visiting Ph.D. Scholar, University of Pennsylvania, Materials Science and Engineering, The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

02/2010 – 07/2010 : Research Intern (part of MSc program), Software Engineering, Électricité de France (EDF), Code_Aster Software Development Team, Paris, France.

02/2009 – 06/2010 : École Centrale de Nantes (ECN), CNRS – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, GeM Institute, Nantes, France; Dual degree – Master of Science (MSc) in Computational Mechanics (2nd – 4th Term)

09/2008 – 01/2009 : LaCàN – Laboratory of Computational Methods and Numerical Analysis, UPC – Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain; Dual degree – Master of Science (MSc) in Computational Mechanics (1st Term)

08/2006 – 05/2008 : Master of Engineering (ME) in Structural Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India

08/2002 – 05/2006 : Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Howrah, India

Summer 2004 : Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, India

APPOINTMENT

09/2024 – Present : University Senator; 07/2024 – Present : Graduate Program Director; 07/2023 – Present : Associate Professor, 09/2016-06/2023 : Assistant Professor (Mechanical Engineering), New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), New Jersey, USA

03/2015 – 08/2016 : Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Division of Mechanics and Computation, Stanford University, California, USA

Reviewer For US Federal Government Agencies

** The reviewed proposals also included Nobel Laureates’ proposals.

– August 2025 : NSF Panel Virtual, Division of Materials Research (MPS/DMR)

– January 2025 : NSF Panel Virtual, Research Traineeship Program (NRT)

– September 2024: Ad Hoc Reviewer –  NSF CAREER proposal. CMMI Mechanics of Materials and Structures (MOMS) program

– May 2024 : Ad Hoc Reviewer – Electrochemistry program , DEVCOM (United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command), ARL (Army Research Laboratory), US Department of Defense.

– May 2024: Ad Hoc Reviewer – NSF CBET (Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport), Electrochemical Systems program

– May 2024:  Ad Hoc Reviewer – NSF DMR (Division of Materials Research), Ceramics program.

– April 2024:  Ad Hoc Reviewer – Synthesis and Processing Science program, US Department of Energy (DOE) EPSCOR, Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Division.

– March 2024:  Ad Hoc Reviewer – Atomic and Molecular Physics program, AFOSR (Air Force Office Of Scientific Research), US Department of Defense.

– March 2024: NSF Panel Virtual, CMMI (Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation ), Mechanics of Materials and Structures (MOMS) program

– February 2024: NSF Panel Virtual, CBET (Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport), Electrochemical Systems program

– August 2023 : Ad Hoc Reviewer –  NSF Solid State and Materials Chemistry (SSMC) Program

– June 2022: Reviewer, Department of Energy (DOE) $16 million EFRC (Energy Frontier Research Center) proposals. Basic Energy Sciences Materials Chemistry program

– January 2022: Invitation to serve on NSF CMMI Mechanics of Materials and Structures (MOMS) program (could not serve due to conflict of interest)..

– September 2020: Ad Hoc Reviewer –  NSF CAREER proposal. Division of Materials Research, Condensed Matter and Materials Theory (CMMT) program

– February 2020: NSF Panel (CBET) at NSF Headquarter in Alexandria, Virginia. Electrochemical Systems program

– September 2019: NSF Panel (CMMI) at NSF Headquarter in Alexandria, Virginia. Advanced Manufacturing program

** Other activities with US Federal Agencies

– October 2022 : Participated in NSF CMMI’s Game Changer Academies (CGCA) program 2023.

Other Invitations from US Federal Government Agencies

– February 2025 : The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)  has invited Dibakar Datta to attend the 2025 Annual Meeting in Boston for the Science Policy Networking Mixer.

– January 2025 : The Biden-Harris Administration and US Department of Energy invited Dibakar Datta to attend the 2024 Enrico Fermi Award ceremony.

Involvement with US Federal Agencies

Reviewer for US State Agencies

** Other Funding Reviewer (Non Federal Agencies)

– September 2019: Reviewer for the American Chemical Society (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) proposal.

Reviewer for Outside US Federal Government Agencies

External Examiner of Ph.D. Final Thesis (Outside US )

============= OTHER ACTIVITIES ===========

** Journal Editor

— Editor of a Special Issue 2025 : Focus on Nano-Architected Twisted 2D Materials in IOP Nanotechnology

— Guest Associated Editor (October 2020 – July 2022) :: ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion (JEECS)

— Editor of a Special Issue 2021 : Mechanics of Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion in ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion (JEECS)

— Editor of a Special Issue 2022 : 2D Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion in ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion (JEECS)

— Editor of a Special Issue (2019) ::  Modeling and Nanofabrication of 1D and 2D Materials: Special Issue in Elsevier  Journal Nano-Structures & Nano-Objects

** Book Editor

Editor  – ‘Synthesis, Modeling, and Characterization of 2D Materials and their Heterostructures’ by Elsevier. ISBN – 9780128184752 ; Link – Synthesis, Modeling, and Characterization of 2D Materials, and Their Heterostructures 

** Scientific Organization

01/2025 – present : Member-at-Large for the United States Association of Computational Mechanics (USACM) Technical Thrust Area (TTA) Committee on ‘Nanotechnology and Lower Scale Phenomena‘.

2021 – 2023 : Vice Chair of IEEE Nanotechnology Council Chapter (NTC), North Jersey Section

** External Examiner of Ph.D. Final Thesis Committee (Inside USA)

• Stevens Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering. (No. of Thesis – 3 ) [List at the end]

** External Examiner of MS Final Thesis Committee (Inside USA)

* 04/14/2021: Master Final Thesis Defense – Mr. Vijay Pathak, Mechanical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, USA.

** Book Proposal Reviewer 

 – IOP (Institute of Physics) Publishing eBooks (December 2019)

 – Springer (March 2024)

** Journal Reviewer ; Reviewed for over 100 journals covering a wide range of fields

Science, Nature, Nature Physics, Nature Chemistry, Nature Energy, Nature Materials , Nature Communications , Advanced Materials, Nano Letter, ACS Nano, Nanoscale, CARBON, ACS Applied Materials & Interface, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (JMPS), Materials & Design, Journal of Power Sources, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Computational Materials Science, European Journal of Mechanics – A/Solids, Mechanics of Materials, Journal of Materials Science, MRS Bulletin, Mechanics Research Communications, IEEE Sensor Journal, npj Computational Materials, npj Scientific Reports, Nano Energy, Extreme Mechanics Letters, Scripta Materialia, Journal of Applied Physics, Nanoscale Advances, Composite Part B: Engineering, ASME JEECS, Journal of Physics: Energy, Journal of Energy Storage, Materials Science and Engineering B, Institute of Physics (IOP) Electronic Structure, Wiley International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, Nanoscale Horizons, and many others …….. [On average 25+ manuscripts/year]

** Symposium Organizer

– Organizer of minisymposium at 20th U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Pasadena, California, June 21-25, 2026; Symposium 801 – Advances in Nanomechanics : Computational, Experimental and AI-Driven Approaches

– Lead organizer of minisymposium at Society of Engineering Science (SES) 2023, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA (October 8-11, 2023). Symposium on advancement of nanomechanics.

– Lead organizer of minisymposium at Society of Engineering Science (SES) 2022, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA (October 16-21, 2022). Symposium 5.2 : Advances in multiscale modeling and machine learning in nanomechanics

– July 2020: Co-organizer of a mini-symposium on ‘Multiscale Modeling of Low-Dimensional Materials & Structures‘ at the  World Congress in Computational Mechanics (WCCM) 2020, Paris, France (19-24 July, 2020). [Cancelled due to COVID-19]

– 10/13/2019 – 10/15/2019: Organizer of minisymposium entitled “Mechanics of deformable atomically-thin materials” for the 56th Society of Engineering Science (SES) meeting at the Washington University in St. Louis, USA.

– 07/22/2018 – 07/27/2018: Lead organizer of minisymposium entitled “Mechanics and Physics of 2D Crystalline Materials” for the 13th World Congress on Computational Mechanics (July 22-27, 2018), New York City, USA. 

Conference Organizer

 * 06/01/2011 – 06/03/2011: Future Directions of Mechanics Research in honor of Prof. L. Ben Freund at Brown University, Providence, USA [Conference  Organizing Team]

 * 08/03/2008 – 08/07/2008: Interquadrennial Conference of the International Congress on Fracture (IQICF) at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, INDIA [Conference  Volunteer]

** Professional Membership

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Physical Society (APS), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Chemical Society (ACS), Materials Research Society (MRS), Society of Engineering Science (SES)

** Other External Activities

– Interviewer of undergraduate applicants for Brown University undergraduate admission.  

** International Advisory Board

 * 02/22/2019 – 02/25/2019 : International Advisory Board, International Conference on Functional Nanomaterials, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Varanasi, India.

— External Ph.D. Final Thesis Defense Committee

 * 11/25/2019:  Ph.D. Final Defense Committee Member of Mr. Xiaotian Wang. Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA.Proposal Title: A Study on Localized Growth, Transfer and Characterization of Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides 

 * 05/04/2018:  Ph.D. Final Thesis Defense Committee Member of Mr. Kyle Godin, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA, Proposal Title: Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth and Characterization of Monolayer Tungsten Disulfide

— Judge

* 05/06/2016: Poster Judge @ MECON – Mechanical Engineering Conference 2016, Stanford University, USA 

 * 05/01/2015: Poster Judge @ MECON – Mechanical Engineering Conference 2015, Stanford University,  USA

******************************************************************************************

–  Internal Funding Reviewer : NJIT Faculty Seed Grant (2017 – present)

2025

11/13/2025: Ph.D. final defense committee: Mr. Niladri Talukder, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Material Degradation and Analysis of N-doped graphene/MOF Nanocatalysts for ORR in Electrochemical Energy Systems

08/13/2025: Ph.D. proposal defense committee: Mr. Zhipeng Jiang, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Smart multimodal human-machine interface using piezoelectric sensors.

08/08/2025: Ph.D. qualifying examination committee: Ms. Saba Mirahsani, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Free-energy-based multiscale modeling of the binding of flexible nanoparticles to biological cell membranes.

*07/30/2025: Ph.D. proposal defense committee: Ms. Leila Donyaparastlivari, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Project Title: A Microengineered High-Throughput Vocal Fold Model to Study Fibroblast Behavior in Phonation

*05/28/2025: Ph.D. proposal defense committee: Mr. Mohammad Jafari, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Mechanobiological regulation of fibroblast activation and fibrosis

*04/14/2025: Ph.D. proposal defense committee: Mr. Chenyang Li, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Domain-Informed Deep Learning for Science Applications

*04/11/2025: MS defense committee: Ms. Sowmya Atukuri, Dept. of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Project Title: Colloidal behavior of nanobubbles at oil/gas/water interfaces

*04/03/2025 : Ph.D. final defense: Mr. Yudong Wang, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Microfluidic-based blood plasma self-separation enhanced versatile biosensor for multiplex assay detection

*Department Chair Search Committee Member, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026)

*01/16/2025: Ph.D. qualifying exam: Mr. Morteza Hamzeh, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Computational modeling and thermodynamics analysis for multivalent adhesion of nanocarriers to biological cell membranes

*01/15/2025: Ph.D. qualifying exam: Mr. Md. Sojib Kaisar, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Electromechanical Coupling in Biological Cell Membranes.

*01/13/2025 : Ph.D. proposal defense: Mr. Dheeban Govindan, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Project titled : Controlled Synthesis of MXenes for Enhanced Electrochemical Energy Storage Performance and Environmental Application.

2024

*12/05/2024 : Ph.D. proposal defense: Mr. Rubayet Hassan, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Entropic Force near Fluctuating Surfaces.

*09/2024 – Present : University Senate Member (Senator)

*09/2024 – Present : Chair, Graduate Studies (MIE) Committee

*09/2024 – Present : Chair, Student awards and scholarships (MIE)

*09/2024 – Present : University Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Technology (TLT)

* 07/2024 – present : Graduate Program Director

*08/12/2024: Ph.D. proposal defense: Ms. Sun Hwa Kwon, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Integrating Self-Powered Nanofibrous Sensors and Machine Learning for Cardiac Monitoring.

* 06/2024 – present : Research Computing Advisory Board, NJIT High-Performance Computing

* 06/2024 – present : High-Performance Computing Resource Allocation Committee (HPC-RAC).

* Chair of Student Awards & Scholarships, Graduate Studies, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NJIT, Academic Year 24-25.

* 06/04/2024: Mr. Jianan Gao, Ph.D. Final Exam, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Project Title: Electrified Membrane for Water Treatment and Resource Recovery: Advancing Multiscale Strategies in Gas-Involving Reactions,

* 04/26/2024: Ph.D. Qualifying Exam : Mr. Mohammad Jafari, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Project Title : Aging-associated ECM softening promotes fibroblast activation while impedes wound healing

2023

* Faculty Search Committee Chair, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NJIT, Academic Year 23-24.

* Award Committee Chair, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, NJIT, Academic Year 23-24.

*11/03/2023: Speaker at the NSF CAREER Proposal writing workshop

* 08/15/2023: Ph.D. proposal defense: Mr. Niladri Talukder, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: Correlated Material Degradation and Performance Loss, Improvement Factor, and Application of N-doped- graphene/MOF Electrocatalyst.

*07/18/2023: Ph.D. proposal defense: Mr. Yudong Wang, Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Project Title: A microfluidic platform with self-separable of blood plasma for enhanced nano biosensing

*07/18/2023: Ph.D. final defense : Mr. Yu-Hsuan Cheng, Dept. of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Project Title : ESSENCE – A new electrochemical sensor that uses a shear-enhanced, flow-through nanoporous capacitive electrode sensing platform

2022

*12/08/2022: Ph.D. Qualifying Exam : Ms. Sun Hwa Kwon, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Project Title : Electrospun Porous Nanofibers for Energy-Harvesting Applications

* 04/27/2022: Ph.D. final defense : Mr. Islam Benouaguef, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Project Title : Experimental and theoretical studies of flows driven by soluto- and thermo-capillary forces

* 05/05/2022: Ph.D. final defense : Mr. Peter Totaro, Dept. of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Project Title : Effect of current density ramping on the anodic reaction and morphology of aerospace aluminum alloys

2021

* 08/10/2021: Ph.D. proposal defense: Mr. Jianan Gao, Dept. of Civil and Environment Engineering, Project Title: Multiscale Principles To Boost Reactivity in Environment Electrolytes: electronic structure, reaction microenvironment, and electrode interface

2020

  * 12/03/2020: Ph.D. final defense committee: Ms. Shaini Dilsha Aluthgun Hewage, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Project Title: The stability of nanobubbles and its application in contaminated sediment treatment

* 05/13/2020: Ph.D. proposal defense committee: Mr. Yu-Hsuan Cheng, Dept. of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Project Title : A non-planar interdigitated electrode with a uniform packed microfluidic channel for shear-enhanced impedence-based POC device

 * 05/13/2020: Ph.D. qual committee: Mrs. Suman Jaiswal, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Project Title : Study of Mullins Effect recovery in filled rubber materials in the presence of solvent

 * 04/07/2020: Ph.D. final defense committee: Mr. Sudeepto Kahali, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Project Title : Blast Shock-Wave Characterization in Experimental Shocktubes

 * 02/11/2020: Ph.D. proposal defense committe: Mr. Peter Totaro, Dept. of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Project Title :Effect of Voltage Variation on Electrochemical Anodization of Aerospace Aluminium Alloys

 2019

 * Faculty Search Committee Member for Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Materials Science, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, NJIT.

 * Developed new course (MTEN 205 – Mechanical Behavior of Materials) as part of the new BS in Materials Engineering program.

 * 04/22/2019: Master Thesis Defense Committee: Mr. Vishwas Danthi Shivaram, Physics Dept., Proposal Title: Magnetic Augmented Rotation System (MARS) – A Potential Approach to Energy Recovery & Generation 

 * 04/17/2019: Judge at the Dana Knox Student Research Showcase at NJIT, USA

 * University Commitee member for the “NJIT VISION 2025“. 

 * Department Commitee member for the “University Excellence in Teaching Awards”. 

 * Seminar coordinator, Spring 2019 Colloquium Series, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Technology, NJIT. 

 2018

 * Committee member to create a new undergraduate program at NJIT – BS in Materials Engineering.

 * Faculty Search Committee Member for Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Materials Science, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, NJIT.

 * 10/16/2018:  Ph.D. Proposal Defense Committee: Ms. Shaini Dilsha Aluthgun Hewage, Civil and Environmental Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: The Stability of Nanobubbles

 * Fall 2018 : Committee Member – ME Undergraduate Curriculum, Teaching Awards

 * 08/17/2018:  Ph.D. Proposal Defense Committee: Mr. Sudeepto Kahali, Bio Medical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Blast-Shock Wave Characterization in Experimental Shock Tubes

  * 05/04/2018:  Master Thesis Defense Committee: Mr. Swapnil Shivputra Rane, Physics – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Modeling of Oxygen Ingress Through Cork 

  * 04/27/2018:  Ph.D. Final Thesis Defense Committee: Mr. Bharath Babu Nunna, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Microfluidic Biosensor Functionalized with Gold Nano Particles on Interdigitated Electrodes 

 * 04/24/2018:  Ph.D. Proposal Defense Committee: Ms. Suchandra Das, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Electric Field Induced Self-Assembly of Mesoscale Structured Materials and Smart Fluids

  * 03/12/2018:  Ph.D. Final Thesis Defense Committee: Mr. Edison Chijioke Amah, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Electric-Field Assisted Manipulation and Self-Assembly of Particle Suspensions 

 * Seminar coordinator, Spring 2018 Colloquium Series, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Technology, NJIT.

 * Faculty Search Committee Member for Assistant Professor in Engineering Education,  Department of Engineering Technology, NJIT. 

  2017

* 12/10/2017:  Ph.D. Proposal Committee: Mr. Bharath Babu Nunna, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Microfluidic Biosensors with Functionalized Goal Nano Particles on Interdigitated Electrodes

* 11/30/2017:  Ph.D. Final Thesis Defense Committee: Mr. Simon Zhuang, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Catalysis with Metal-Organic Framework for Electrochemical Reactions

* 11/16/2017:  MS. Proposal Committee: Mr. Debdyuti Mandal, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Innovative Integrated Electrodes Based Biosensor for Biomarker Detection 

 * 10/17/2017:  Ph.D. Proposal Committee: Mr. Simon Zhuang, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Catalysis for Electrochemical Reactions: Synthesis, Characterization, and Improvement 

 * 04/19/2017: Judge at the Dana Knox Student Research Showcase at NJIT, USA

 * 03/01/2017:  Ph.D. Proposal Committee: Mr. Edison Chijioke Amah, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA, Proposal Title: Electrohydrodynamic Manipulation and Self-Assembly of Adsorbed Particles

 * Faculty Search Committee Member for Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (Thermal – Fluid Specialization) at NJIT 

  Before 2017

 * 12/14/2016:  Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Committee Member of  Ms. Suchandra Das and Mr. Islam Benouaguef, Mechanical Engineering – NJIT, USA

 * MIE Department Committee Member for the ‘NJIT – NCE Teaching Excellence Award 2016’