Ms. Ria Sen Gupta is a Ph.D. candidate and a Prime Minister’s Research Fellow at the Department of Materials Engineering, IISc Bangalore. She is advised by Prof. Suryasarathi Bose. Her research interests span all aspects of structure-property relationships in polymer nanocomposites. A general theme underlying her current research projects is the engineering of bioinspired membranes for water remediation from interpenetrating polymeric networks (IPNs). She is also broadly interested in water remediation, polymer nanocomposites, and EMI shielding materials. Her research has appeared in several reputed international journals. She has also delivered talks and presentations at various national and international conferences, workshops, and forums.
Before joining IISc, Ms. Sen Gupta completed her M.Tech. and post-B.Sc three-year B.Tech. in polymer science and technology at the University of Calcutta, and her B.Sc. (Hons.) in chemistry at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. In her free time, she loves singing, cooking, reading books, painting, and watching movies.
As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Ms. Sen Gupta is exploring antifouling MXene composite membranes with photocatalytic self-cleaning abilities for synergistically enhanced water treatment. In particular, she is leveraging “photocatalysis” and “membrane separation” technologies to design and fabricate broad-spectrum multifunctional membranes with improved antifouling attributes and superior membrane performance. She is synthesizing composite membranes endowed with self-cleaning and antifouling features using photocatalytic two-dimensional (2D) etched metal carbides (MXene) heterostructures. She aims to ensure that the membranes can liquidate the inhomogeneity and impaired compatibility between photocatalytic nanoparticles and the 2D heterostructures membrane-based separation layer for cost-effective membrane performance and improved shelf-life.