Dipankar Das Sarma

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Professor Dipankar Das Sarma is a distinguished material scientist whose contributions have significantly advanced condensed matter science. D. D. Sarma earned his MSc in Physics from IIT Kanpur in 1977 and a Ph.D. from IISc Bengaluru in 1982. He was a Visiting Scientist at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, from 1984 to 1986. Sarma served as a faculty member at IISc’s Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit from 1986 to 2021 and held the J. N. Tata Chair from 2017 to 2020. Currently, he is an Honorary Professor (2021-2026) and CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow (2021-2024) at IISc. His work uniquely blends theoretical insights and experimental validation, often providing new perspectives on existing scientific problems or introducing novel concepts, with a specific focus on electronic structure of materials. Examples of his notable achievements include the high-temperature tunneling-type magnetoresistance observed in double perovskite oxide materials.

His research has also significantly impacted the understanding of phase diagrams in strongly correlated systems, leading to the identification of new phases such as covalent insulators and high-temperature ferromagnetism in a diverse class of materials, such as the double perovskites. Additionally, his group has designed high-performance energy materials with PV, batteries and supercapacitor applications, exploiting electrochemical reactions and phenomena of different transition metal oxides.

He is responsible for establishing two Indo-Italian synchrotron beamlines at Elettra, Trieste, dedicated to diffraction experiments, one for macromolecular study and the other for high-pressure materials science investigations. He also established the Centre for Advanced Materials at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science while serving there as the MLS Chair Professor (2006-2009). He has received many national and international awards, fellowships, and honoris causa doctorate degrees. He is highly valued as a mentor and partner in scientific collaborations across the globe, not only in his personal capacity as a researcher but also as a member of the Council/Advisory bodies of several bilateral and multilateral organizations such as Indo-French Centre, Indo-German Centre, Indo-Italian collaboration, and Indo-US collaboration.

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