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Moumita Das

Four RIT faculty members are opening up soft matter physics, sometimes known as “squishy physics,” to a new generation of diverse scholars. Moumita Das, Poornima Padmanabhan, Shima Parsa, and Lishibanya Mohapatra are helping RIT make its mark in the field.

Scientists from RIT and Cornell University have teamed up to explore cartilage tissue’s unique properties with the hopes of improving osteoarthritis diagnosis and treatment. The team published a new paper in Science Advances outlining their findings.

Associate Professor Moumita Das is part of a team of researchers that was recently awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to design and create next-generation materials inspired and empowered by biological cells. The team’s goal is to create self-directed, programmable, and reconfigurable materials—using biological building blocks including proteins and cells—that are capable of producing force and motion.

Undergraduates aren’t the only students taking advantage of RIT’s co-op and internship program. Across the university, Ph.D. students are securing prestigious work experiences to provide important gateways to careers in industry, foundations, and government.

Several School of Physics and Astronomy faculty secured large grants as principal investigators during a banner summer.

Moumita Das, an associate professor in RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy, received funding from the National Science Foundation to better understand the fundamental rules that allow bacteria to compartmentalize the functions within their cells.

WROC-TV talks to Moumita Das, associate professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, about her work with neurons and an NSF-funded project to build synthetic neurons.

WXXI talks to Moumita Das, associate professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, about her work with neurons and an NSF-funded project to build synthetic neurons.

Researchers from RIT and six other universities are teaming up to build synthetic neurons and a programmable network of such neurons in an effort to better understand the rules of life. The project is part of the National Science Foundation’s “Big Ideas” initiative— 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering.