Rate My Professor Somak Chatterjee

Dr. Somak Chatterjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, Pilani Campus, a position he has held since March 2019. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2018, following an M.Tech from the same institution in 2013, and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, in 2011. Prior to joining BITS Pilani, he served as a Senior Scientist at Filtrex Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in Bangalore from 2018 to 2019 and as a Senior Engineer at Tech Mahindra Technology Centre in Hyderabad from 2017 to 2018. Additionally, he has international exposure through internships at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2014 and 2015, the University of Zaragoza, Spain, in 2014 and 2015, and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Haldia Refinery, in 2010. In 2025, he was a Visiting Faculty at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia, under the BITS Pilani University Immersion Programme.

Dr. Chatterjee leads the Water and Energy Sensor (WES) Lab at BITS Pilani, where his research focuses on separation processes, high-sensitivity inline sensors for detecting pesticides and heavy metals in water and food, mixed matrix membranes for low-pressure water treatment, electrospun nanofiber membranes for efficient removal of arsenic, lead, and fluoride from groundwater, food packaging applications, and non-conventional energy generation from wastewater. He has secured funding from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) for projects including the application of co-axial electrospun novel composite nanofiber membranes towards specific removal of contaminants from groundwater and the design and development of inline sensors for lead ion detection. His contributions earned him the Institution of Engineers (India) IEI Young Engineers Award 2021-22 in the Chemical Engineering Division. As Founding Director of NeerTech Research and Innovations Pvt. Ltd., he advances water and energy sensing technologies from lab to industry. Dr. Chatterjee supervises PhD scholars, serves as an examiner for PhD vivas, and mentors students who have won awards such as the CII MILCA National Award for Academia in 2020.