Bhattacharya is a particle phenomenologist, focusing on the physics of quarks, leptons, the Higgs boson, and dark matter. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at the erstwhile Presidency College, Kolkata, India (2004), a master’s degree in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India (2006), and a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Chicago (2011). He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montreal in Canada (2012-2016), and at Wayne State University in Detroit (2016-2017). Bhattacharya joined LTU’s Department of Natural Sciences in 2017 where he is currently an Associate Professor of Physics.

As a theoretical physicist, Bhattacharya is interested in solving a long-standing problem called the “baryon-asymmetry problem.” A simple manifestation of this problem is in the fact that our universe is largely dominated by matter over antimatter, contrary to what the widely-accepted theory of particle physics – the Standard Model – predicts. Antimatter is related to matter via a fundamental symmetry of nature, called “Charge-Parity” or CP. Bhattacharya’s research focuses on investigating the interactions of charm and bottom quarks with new hypothetical particles, such as axion-like particles or ALPs, with a keen eye toward violations of CP symmetry as an explanation for the baryon-asymmetry problem. Bhattacharya’s research has received support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants No. PHY-2310627 and PHY-2013984. With funding from the NSF, Bhattacharya actively engages undergraduate students in his research activities. A list of Bhattacharya’s publications is available on InspireHEP.

Bhattacharya has been an active participant and leadership team member of LTU’s Course-based Research Experience (CRE) initiative and a co-advisor for the Society of Physics Students (SPS) – LTU Chapter. In 2022, Bhattacharya was selected by the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITP) to be a KITP Scholar.

In 2021, Bhattacharya was elected Vice Chair of the Eastern Great Lakes Section of the American Physical Society (APS EGLS) for the 2021-22 academic year. This is a four-year position that progressively led to Chair Elect (2022-23), Chair (2023-24), and Past Chair (2024-25). In 2025, Bhattacharya was elected Councilor for EGLS and assigned council representative for four other geographical sections of the APS.

When not playing with data or exploring theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, Bhattacharya enjoys taking road trips with his spouse and hanging out on the couch with his cat.