For Thursday 02/06/25, the campus will be closed until 12 noon today due to the severe weather. All classes scheduled after 12 noon will take place as scheduled. Students should check Canvas for details on classes.
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 PhD 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 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 is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. PHY-2013984. With funding from the NSF, Bhattacharya actively engages undergraduate students in his research activities. A list of Bhattacharya’s publications are available on inspirehep.
Bhattacharya is an active participant and leadership-team member of LTU’s Course-based Research Experience (CRE) initiative, a co-advisor for the Society of Physics Students (SPS) – LTU Chapter, and co-leader of the LTU team participating in the inaugural cohort of American Physical Society’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance (APS-IDEA). 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 for the 2021-22 academic year. This is a four-year position which progressively leads to Chair Elect (2022-23), Chair (2023-24), and Past Chair (2024-25).
When not playing with data or exploring theories beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, Bhattacharya enjoys volunteering with the local children’s center in Detroit, taking road trips with his spouse, and hanging out on the couch with his greyhound.
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