Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait

Professor

Key Research Areas :Membrane technology; Effluent treatment and waste management; Advanced separation processes; Catalysis; Nanoparticles and nano-composites; Bio-diesel; Bio-products, vegetable and fruit juice processing; CO2 to products and liquid fuels.

  • Phone No: +91 361 258 2262/+91 99542 48807
  • Email: mihir@iitg.ac.in
  • Room No: 105
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Dr. Mihir Kumar Purkait is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG). Presently he is holding Professor Chair of National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Min. of Jal Shakti (Govt. of India)He is energetically involved in frontier areas of Chemical Engineering with his major research interest in the field of advanced separation processes and material science.

Prof. Purkait has a portfolio of multifarious innovations and inventions in both fundamental and applied research. He has made an outstanding contribution to develop the fundamental concept and mechanism of smart and intelligent responsive materials (thermo-responsive, pH-responsive, dual / multi stimuli-responsive, and piezoelectric) for a wide range of separation applications. He has the credit for commercializing various technologies for up and downstream operation of water purification, many water treatment technologies for contaminated drinking water and industrial wastewater, bio-separation, value-added product separation from plant and agricultural resources, and electrochemical reduction of COto several liquid fuels. His major research areas and output in terms of the number of publications are shown below.

Prof. Purkait has done outstanding contribution in translational and applied research on two major sustainable development goals, SDGs (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 9: Industry and Innovation; SDG 12: Production). Quality and quantity of his research is reflected in terms of large number of publications, patents, technology transfer, start-ups, projects, consultancies and involvement with various national and international scientific committees. His work has remarkable relevance in societal as well as industrial sectors.

He has more than 23 years of experience in research & academics. With his research team he has published more than 300 high quality International journal papers with h-index of 71 (citation > 16,000), 14 granted patents and made 3 technology transfer. He has authored 18 books, completed 42 sponsored projects/consultancies funded by various Govt agencies and industries. Prof. Purkait has supervised 24 PhD students and >40 M Tech students on fundamental and applied research.

For his scientific and societal contribution, he has been awarded several national level prestigious award from INAE, NASI, INSA, DST etc. He has worked as visiting professor of 3 foreign universities and involved in various international scientific/funding organizations as ECC/PAC expert member like European Science Foundation (ESF, France), Fund for Scientific Research; FWO Flanders, Brussel (Belgium) etc.

Prof. Purkait is also actively involved in different capacity like ECC / EC / PAC / selection committee member / advisor / consultant etc in various Govt (state & central) bodies including DST, SERB, DBT, AICTE, IITs, NITs, Universities, Waste to Wealth (W2W) mission and National Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Govt of India and public sector companies.


Dr. Mihir Kumar Purkait 
Dean of Alumni and External Relations
Chair Professor, National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Min. of Jal Shakti (Govt. of India)
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Guwahati - 781039, Assam, India
E. Mail: mihir@iitg.ac.in ,  mihirpurkait@gmail.com
Phone: +91-361-2582262(O),  +91 - 9954248807 (Mobile)

Homepage: https://www.iitg.ac.in/chemeng/faculty_profile.php?name=mkp
Google Scholar Citation:  https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=9Z4kD-sAAAAJ&hl=en

Education

Ph.D.: Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 2004.
M.Tech.:  Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 2001.
B.Tech.: Chemical Engineering, University of Calcutta, 1999.
B. Sc. (Hons in Chemistry): University of Calcutta, 1996   

Research Interest

  • Separation processes: (Adsorption, extraction, ectrocoagulation, various surfactant mediate processes, RO/NF/UF/MF etc.
  • Membrane technology: Smart/stimuli responsive membranes (Fabrication and application of Ceramic/polymeric membranes for environmental, biological and chemical separation).
  • Water and wastewater treatment technologies
  • Catalysis, Nanoparticles and nanocomposites
  • Advanced materials
  • Bio-diesel, Bio-products
  • Environmental pollution control
  • Treatment of industrial effluent
  • Fruit and vegetable juice processing
  • Extraction of value added products from plant and industrial sources
  • CO2 to products and liquid fuels.

Experience

Present and past positions held:

Dean Alumni and External Relations, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati January 2021 onwards
Chair Professor National Jal Jeevan Mission, Govt of India March 2022 to March 2027
Head Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati May 2018 to February 2021
Professor Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati July 2015 onwards
Associate Professor Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati November 2008 to June 2015
Assistant Professor Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati September 2005 to November 2008
Senior Lecturer Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati December 2004 to September 2005

Honorary Positions:

  • Visiting Scientist, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, July 2010 – June 2011.
  • Visiting Professor, National Ilan University (NIU), Taiwan, May – July, 2017
  • Visiting Expert, National Yunlin University of Sci. and Technology (Yun Tech), Taiwan, May 2018.
  • Visiting Professor, National Ilan University (NIU), Taiwan, June – July, 2018
  • Visiting Professor, GIFU university, Japan, May-June, 2019

Member of Important Committee:

  • Core Member of Programme Advisory Committee on Chemical and Environmental Engineering (PAC-CEE). Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), DST, New Delhi, 12/07/2021 on ward for 3 years. 
  • Special Invitee Member in the Technical Committee under Chairmanship of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Govt of India for examination and use of innovative technologies in drinking water and sanitation sector. September, 2022 onward.
  • State Level Task Force Member (TFM) in the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Govt of Assam, India, 2022 onward.
  • Expert Consultative Committee (ECC) member of “Waste to Wealth” Mission under The Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), New Delhi, January 2021 onward.
  • Esteem Expert Panel Member of Water Technology Initiative Programme, DST, Govt. of India (WTI (DST)), 2021 onward.
  • PAC member of Department of Biotechnology (PAC-DBT), Govt. of India, 2020-2022.
  • Independent “Technical Expert” of Water Quality India Association (WQIA), January 2023 onward.
  • Expert in Faculty selection committee in several IITs, NITs and Universities.
  • Expert member for the project evaluation committee European Science Foundation (ESF), France, 2020 onward and FWO (Belgium).
  • International PAC member of Fonds Voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Fund for Scientific Research; Flanders, Belgium, Brussel) FWO 2022 onward.  
  • Water Quality Task Force member of PHED, Govt. of Assam, Since July, 2016 - June 2021. 
  • Advisory of 107 MLD drinking water supply plant of  GAMMON India, Ltd, Guwahati.  Aug 2017 - Sept 2020. 
  • Core Committee member of Task Force PHED, Govt of Assam, Since Oct, 2017 - Sept 2021. 
  • Expert committee member for the selection of sector expert for ground truthing and technical assistance in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), National centre for drinking water, sanitation and quality, 2022. 
  • Advisor of IOCL, Betkuchi terminal for their Rain water harvesting plant  Oct, 2019 – Sept 2019.
  • Technical director of M/s Vixudha Bio Products Pvt. Ltd. for commercial production of various antioxidants from biological sources. Since July, 2018
  • Technical director of RD Grow Green India Pvt. Ltd. manufacturing water treatment plant. Since May. 2016
  • Associate Editor for 5 years from Oct. 18, 2010, International Journal of Chemical Research.
  • Associate Editor for 5 years from Oct. 18, 2010, Journal of Biomedical and Bioengineering.
  • Editorial Board Member Journal of Membrane Science & Technology. 
  • Guest Editor, Special Issue on "Waste Management using BioScience and Technology" in the International Journal of BioSciences and Technology.(2008).
  • Editorial Board member of International Journal of Chemical Engineering Research
  • Honorary Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of BioSciences and Technology.(2008).
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Nano Science and Technology, (2012).

Books

Authored Reference Books

Edited Books