Dr. Santanu Chakraborty brings in a decade of research and expertise in the Biological Sciences. As a biologist, he has extensive experience across multiple organismal model systems, experimental, and computational methods.

Dr. Chakraborty has a strong interest in the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge. He has worked in multiple areas of human inquiry: on mechanisms of short-term memory in neural circuits (at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), NY, USA), on the genomics of autism spectrum disorders and epigenetic imprinting in the brain (at CSHL) and on the neural mechanisms of short term memory (at CSHL and Princeton University, USA) and on the mechanisms of earthquake resistance in Himalayan structures (at IIT Roorkee), on nature of Himalayan pilgrimages and changing notions of the divine. He has often used a combination of both experimental and computational methods for his work, believing in the importance and power of an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge.

His diverse interests from before he was an undergraduate have come full circle in manners that aid him in the design of a 21st-century educational program combining the sciences, mathematics, and the arts. As an undergraduate, he worked on modern methods of earthquake resistance at IIT Bombay, an experience that came alive many years later in his more recent work on the indigenous earthquake resistant vernacular architecture of the Himalayas; in particular the traditional architecture of Uttarakhand. As a consultant to the Center for Himalayan Studies, IIT Roorkee, he uncovered innovative methods, modern in spirit, of earthquake-resistant construction in use for centuries in the Himalayan structures of Uttarakhand. Yet the ideas behind this work came to him on a trip document photographically a traditional neighborhood in Kumaon; their art, woodwork, and architecture. Embedded in that one project, that he continues work on, are ideas from a diversity of areas ranging from mathematics to history.

Dr. Chakraborty has been associated with media houses such as the Bangalore Mirror and The Hindu – Business Line, where he wrote popular articles on science and its close connections to art. Bringing important concepts, as well as, new developments to readers in an accessible Manner.

He has a strong interest in art, its role in human life, and educational potential; including the overlap of art and science as it flourished in the Renaissance and the various renascences in human history. His photographic works have been shown at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, the Jehangir Art Gallery, and the Piramal Art Gallery (National Center For Performing Arts).