Dr. Prabir Patra is a tenured full Professor, department of Biomedical Engineering with a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering Department in the School of Engineering at the University of Bridgeport. He is also currently the Chair of the department of Biomedical Engineering that he founded 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 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 children Sreejita and Siara.

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.

• 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