Academic Background & Biography

Santanu Pradhan is a PhD Researcher in Physics at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. His scientific trajectory bridges analytical mathematical physics, computational modeling, and experimental quantum measurement. He joined the IIT Kanpur doctoral programme in August 2025.

Within the Quantum Measurement Lab at IIT Kanpur under the supervision of Prof. Saikat Ghosh, Santanu's research investigates precision quantum measurement protocols and light-matter interfaces. He is currently carrying out an experimental project on buffer-gas physics in thermal vapor cells to characterize atomic coherence, collisional decoherence suppression, and diffusion dynamics. Following this project, his research in the lab will encompass optical magnetometry (atomic vapor and quantum-enhanced sensing under the National Quantum Mission), laser-cooled cold atom clouds (MOTs and atom-light interactions), graphene-based hybrid optomechanical resonators, and quantum information theory (weak measurements, quantum state estimation, and measurement limits).

During the earlier phase of his doctoral research at IIT Kanpur under Prof. Tapobrata Sarkar, Santanu focused on gravitational physics, formulating Fermi normal coordinates in black-hole spacetimes and computing surface-regularized tidal Love numbers of white dwarfs in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity, which is currently being prepared for journal publication.

Santanu earned his Master of Science in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Indore (2022–2024), where he completed his Master's thesis on AdS/CFT, anti-de Sitter black holes, and Kerr black-hole quasinormal modes under Prof. Manavendra Mahato. He graduated with First Class Honours in BSc Physics from Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), University of Calcutta (2019–2022), where he researched Green's functions in mathematical physics.