Ranjith Padinhateeri is an Indian biological physicist and a professor at the

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranke ...

. He is known for his biological studies using statistical mechanics,

polymer physics Polymer physics is the field of physics that studies polymers, their fluctuations, mechanical properties, as well as the kinetics of reactions involving degradation and polymerisation of polymers and monomers respectively.P. Flory, ''Principles of ...

, and soft matter theory. The

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It ...

of the Government of India awarded him the

National Bioscience Award for Career Development The National Bio-science Award for Career Development or N-BIOS Prize is an Indian science award for recognizing excellence and promoting research in bio-sciences disciplines. It was instituted in 1999 by the Department of Biotechnology of the Go ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences, in 2017–18.

Biography

Ranjith Padinhateeri, born in

Malappuram district Malappuram (), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, with a coastline of . It is the most populous district of Kerala, which is home to around 13% of the total population of the state. The district was formed on 16 June 196 ...

of the south Indian state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

, did his early schooling at AUP School Marakkara, V. V. M. Higher Secondary School and MSM HSS Kallingalparamba before joining

Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College The Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College is an aided college in Kozhikode, Kerala, India offering graduation and post-graduation courses. It is affiliated to the University of Calicut. History The original institution was founded by the Zamorin ...

to obtain a BSc in physics from the

University of Calicut The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in nor ...

in 1997. Moving to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

, he earned his MSc from the

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and ha ...

in 2000 and continued there for his doctoral studies under the guidance of P. B. Sunil Kumar which earned him a PhD in 2005 for his thesis, ''Statistical mechanics of semiflexible polymers : A study of single filaments''. His post doctoral training, initially, were under John F. Marko at two US universities,

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois s ...

and

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

from 2005 to 2007 when he moved to France to continue his training at the laboratories of Jean-Francois Joanny and David Lacoste of

Institut Curie Centre of protontherapy Institut Curie is one of the leading medical, biological and biophysical research centres in the world. It is a private non-profit foundation operating a research center on biophysics, cell biology and oncology and a h ...

during 2007–09. He returned to India in 2009 to join the

as an assistant professor where he served as an associate professor from 2014 and holds the position of professor since 2018 at the department of biosciences and bioengineering. Padinhateeri is known to be involved in studies in the field of biological physics, focusing on

cellular processes The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life forms. Every cell consists of a cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, and contains many biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as many small molecules of nutrients an ...

applying nonequilibrium approaches. His approach also involves employment of tools from physics such as

and soft-matter theory. He has published a number of articles;

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in '' Times Higher Education ...

, an online repository of scientific articles has listed 34 of them.

Awards and honors

The

of the Government of India awarded him the

, one of the highest Indian science awards, for him contributions to biosciences, in 2017–18. He is also a recipient of Innovative Young Investigator Award of the Department of Biotechnology (2009-2010), IIT Mumbai Young Investigator Award (2012), Senior Innovative Young Investigator Award, Department of Biotechnology (2013), and Excellence in Teaching Award of IIT Mumbai (2014).

Selected bibliography

* * * * *

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Padinhateeri, Ranjith N-BIOS Prize recipients Indian scientific authors Living people Malayali people Scientists from Kerala University of Calicut alumni IIT Madras alumni Academic staff of IIT Bombay University of Illinois Chicago alumni Northwestern University alumni People from Malappuram district Indian physicists Year of birth missing (living people)