Nanotechnology In Agriculture

Professor Mainak Das is an educator and researcher in sustainable materials and design. He is a trained agriculturist, dairy cattle physiologist, bioengineer, material chemist, and bio-designer. Professor Das has extensively designed futuristic, sustainable agricultural, green energy, physiology, and sensor systems for twenty-five years. He and his scientific group have discovered that nano iron pyrite seed and root treatment results in increased yield in a wide range of grains (wheat, rice), pulses (chickpea), vegetables (spinach, carrot, beetroot, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower), spices (chili, fenugreek, onion), oilseed (mustard, sesamum), fodder (alfalfa) and floral (marigold) crops. It is a robust breakthrough in nano-agriculture and has tremendous potential to increase agricultural yield sustainably with minimal additional input. This discovery is an avenue to cut down on synthetic fertilizers and reduce the expenditure on farming. Earlier, Professor Das discovered that natural fibers like silk and hair have the potential to generate electricity from waste heat.

Along with these, his group is a pioneer in developing supercapacitors from natural sources for energy storage applications. From 2000-2010, Prof Das worked on various US government projects (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation) to develop drug discovery platforms for spinal cord/ brain damage. Following up on this work, he has worked with India's defense on developing nanomedicine for soldiers stationed at high altitudes with low pressure and low oxygen tension- a condition termed hypobaric-hypoxia. Prof. Das's MS thesis is screening the health of dairy cattle, while his doctoral thesis is on developing drug-screening platforms. He has graduated eight Ph.D. students, five master’s in technology/ Master's in Design students, and aided many bachelor's students. Prof Das is instrumental in offering global online courses through the Indian government's National Programme on Technology-enhanced Learning (NPTEL) portal. He has procured significant funding from the Government of India for research and technology development.