Dr. Prabir Patra is an Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Bridgeport. He is also the Director of new Biomedical Engineering Program at UB. He has research interests in multifunctional nanomaterials, polymeric nanocomposites, bioinspired nanomaterials, biomedical materials, tissue engineering, flexible nanoelectronics,bioelectronics, polymer gels, biosensors, label free immunoassay, lab on chip protein sensor, piezoelectric soft materials, carbon nanotube and graphene architectures and their device and hybrid nanomaterials for sustainable energy. He has published about fifty research papers in peer reviewed international journals and many conference proceedings articles in his areas of expertise. He has chaired/co-chaired sessions at American Chemical Society (ACS) and Materials Research Society (MRS) meetings. He is a long standing member of both MRS and ACS. He has given several invited talks in many meetings in and outside USA.

Prabir continues to be a research scientist, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS) at Rice University. Prabir was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where he eventually attained research assistant professor rank prior to his move to Rice University. He has one US patent and three invention disclosures. He has one book chapter to his credit.

Prabir received the B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Burdwan University, India in 1990, the M.Sc. Degree in Chemistry with a specialization in polymer chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India in 1993, and Ph.D. degree in Materials Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India in 1998. Prabir also has three years of industrial research experience as a senior scientific officer, Indian Rubber Manufacturers Research Association (IRMRA). Prabir loves writing poems. His favorite poets are Rabindranath Tagore and Jibanananda Das. He does recitation, plays soccer and cricket in his extra time. He is an avid follower of NFL (go Patriots!!) and Baseball (go Red Sox!!). His favorite film director is Satyajit Ray. Prabir and his wife Pinki are blessed with their only child Sreejita.

Continued research effort on polymer nanomaterials that emphasize creativity and collaboration in developing new understanding on fundamentals and technology of multifunctional polymer nanocomposite (biosensors, immunoassay based nanofibrous membranes, self assembled structure, morphologically evolved interface) materials and biologically inspired nanomaterials, tissue engineering using extensive experience in polymer formulations, synthesis and structure-property relations.

• 2009 January Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 2009-current Program Director, Biomedical Engineering, University of Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 2008 -Present Research Scientist- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), Rice University (in Professor P.M.Ajayan group)
• 2005 - 2008 Research Associate (Research Assistant Professor) - Department of
  Materials and Textiles (formerly Textile Sciences), University of
  Massachusetts Dartmouth
• 2000 - 2005 Postdoctoral Research Associate - Department of Textile Sciences,
  UMass Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA (Mentors: Professors Steve Warner and Paul Calvert)
• Ph.D. - 1998 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) - Materials Science Center,
  Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
  Thesis title: Heat Shrinkable and Flame Retardant Polymer Blends
  based on Polyethylenes (Mentor: Professor C.K.Das)
• MS - 1993 Master of Science Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of
  Technology (IIT)
  Thesis title: Adsorption of Polyaniline from its aqueous solution on
  Polyethylenes
• BS - 1990 Bachelor of Science (Honors) Department of Chemistry, Burdwan
  University, India
  

Teaching involvement at UMass Dartmouth:

• Spring 2007 Designed and taught a course entitled "Material Analysis" (MTX 305)
• 2007: Materials Processing II (Advanced flexible materials) taught at fall 2007.
• 2006 - 2008 Taught a course entitled "Materials Science" (MTX 563)
• 2002 - 2008 Designed and taught a course entitled "Polymer Chemistry" (TEC 410/510 that includes polymer chemistry lab)

Teaching involvement at UB

• MEEG 560 Advanced materials in engineering
• MEEG 565 Biomedical materials & engineering
• MEEG 561 Fundamenta analysis nanomaterials
• MEEG/BMEG/ELEC 562 Nanofabrication with soft materials
• MEEG 563 Polymer nanocomposite
• BMEG 580 Tissue engineering

• Improve the analysis of nanocomposite materials
• Extensive experience characterizing nanoscale structure property relationships and polymer synthesis
• Layer by layer assembly of graphene-polymer, CNT-polymer systems
• Polymer-nanoparticle gels, oil gels
• Electrospinning of polymer membranes and tissue engineered scaffold
• Strong background in thermal analysis of polymer nanocomposite materials
• Investigated inkjet printing of conducting polymers and carbon nanotube dispersions for piezoresistive sensors and biosensors
• Investigated ionic self-assembly of polymers for optical and nano-scale non-wovens for biological properties
  

• Research featured in the cover page on J.Applied. Polym Science issue (2007)
• Research on "flexible electronics" appeared in UMass Dartmouth news in one of the few success stories in "Getting Noticed" section-2007
• Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE-94, India)
• 1996-1998, Senior Research Fellow, IIT Kharagpur
• 1994-1996, Junior Research Fellow, IIT Kharagpur

1. American Chemical Society (ACS)
2. Materials Research Society (MRS)
3. Served as a chair of a symposium on "degradation processes of nanostuctured materials" in MRS fall meeting 2005 and gave a few invited talks in MRS Meetings.
4. Chaired a session in ACS national spring meeting, Atlanta, 2006 and gave talks on many ACS meetings
5. Giving an invited talk at ACS spring meeting , New Orleans, 2008
6. Sigma XI
7. Fiber Society
8. American Society for Composites