Information
- Designation : Assistant Professor (Gr-II)
- Email : nilanjan@che.nits.ac.in
- Phone : 03842-280020, Ext: 3320
Research Group
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M.Sc. Students: Darshita Rathore, Kishan Mishra
PhD Student: Joytirmoy Talukdar
Key Notes
- Journals: 29
29
PUBLICATIONSIntroduction [Biosketch]
- Dr. Nilanjan Roy completed his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry (Honors) from Midnapore College, affiliated to Vidyasagar University, followed by a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, where he carried out his Master’s thesis under the supervision of Prof. C. P. Rao in the broad area of material's Chemistry. He earned his PhD in Solid State Chemistry, as a CSIR Junior Research Fellow from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur under the supervision of Prof. Partha Pratim Jana.
- Dr. Roy is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at NIT Silchar, and his research focuses on structure–property relationships in structurally complex intermetallic compounds. His work integrates solid-state synthesis, advanced crystallography, and density functional theory (DFT) to understand atomic ordering, disorder, and chemical bonding in intermetallic phases relevant to heterogeneous catalysis and atomic hydrogen storage.
- During his doctoral research, Dr. Roy addressed the crystallographic “coloring problem” in Pd- and Cd-rich intermetallics, leading to the discovery and structure elucidation of several novel phases, including Laves phases and γ-brass derivatives. He has extensive expertise in single-crystal and powder diffraction (X-ray and neutron), Rietveld refinement, and electronic structure calculations using Quantum ESPRESSO, VASP, and LOBSTER, employing bonding analyses such as density of states (DOS), crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP), and crystal orbital bond index (COBI).
- As a postdoctoral researcher in Chemical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University with Prof. Robert Rioux, he combined crystallography with catalysis and surface science to design Pd-based intermetallic catalysts for selective hydrogenation reactions, gaining hands-on experience with microreactor systems and mentoring graduate students. His work has resulted in the identification of catalytically relevant pyrite-type and TiAl₃-type intermetallic compounds and has been recognized by the Penn State Office of Postdoctoral Affairs Award in 2025. Till 2025, Dr. Roy has co-authored 29 peer-reviewed publications (with additional manuscripts under review and in preparation) spanning solid-state chemistry, crystallography, and catalysis. In 2026, he was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) to pursue research in Germany.
Areas of Interest
- Solid State and Structural Chemistry, Intermetallic Catalysis, X-ray Crystallography, Chemical Bonding in Periodic Solids, Heterogeneous Catalysis, Atomic Hydrogen Storage, Aperiodic Phenomena.
| Institution | Year | Degree |
|---|---|---|
| IIT Kharagpur | 2022 | PhD in Solid State Chemistry (Supervisor: Prof. Partha Pratim Jana) |
| IIT Bombay | 2017 | M.Sc. in Chemistry (Thesis Supervisor: Prof. C. P. Rao) |
| Midnapore College | 2015 | B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry |
Teaching Experience
NIT Silchar
Industrial/Research Experience
The Pennsylvania State University
Awards And Honours
- Merit Cum Means: 2012
- IIT JAM: 2015, AIR 40
- CSIR NET JRF: 2016, AIR 59
- OPA postdoctoral award from Penn State: 2025
- Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdocs: 2026, Host: Prof. Guido Kickelbick, Saarland University, Germany.
- MSCA-CZ and MSCA COFUND: 2026, Host: Dr. Václav Petříček and Dr. Michal Dušek, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, FZU, Prague, Czech Republic.
- Visiting Scientist at the Department of Structure Analysis, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, FZU, Prague, Czech Republic: May-July, 2027. Host: Dr. Václav Petříček and Dr. Michal Dušek,
