Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait

Professor

Key Research Areas :Membrane technology; Effluent treatment and waste management; Advanced separation processes; Catalysis; Nanoparticles and nano-composites; Bio-diesel; Bio-products, vegetable and fruit juice processing; CO2 to products and liquid fuels.

  • Phone No: +91 361 258 2262/+91 99542 48807
  • Email: mihir@iitg.ac.in
  • Room No: 0105
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Dr. Mihir Kumar Purkait is a Professor (HAG) in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG). Presently he is holding Professor Chair of National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Min. of Jal Shakti (Govt. of India). He is energetically involved in frontier areas of Chemical Engineering with his major research interest in the field of advanced separation processes and material science.

Prof. Purkait has completed his B.Tech from University of Calcutta (1999), M Tech (2001) and PhD (2004) from  IIT Kharagpur in Chemical Engineering. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Guwahati in 2004 as faculty and served as the Dean of Alumni and External Relations (2021-2024)), the Head of the Centre for the Environment (2018-2021), Wardens (2008-2010) and Associate wardens (2005-2008) of IITG Hostel. 

Prof. Purkait has a portfolio of multifarious innovations and inventions in both fundamental and applied research. He has made an outstanding contribution to develop the fundamental concept and mechanism of smart and intelligent responsive materials (thermo-responsive, pH-responsive, dual / multi stimuli-responsive, and piezoelectric) for a wide range of separation applications. He has the credit for commercializing various technologies for up and downstream operation of water purification, many water treatment technologies for contaminated drinking water and industrial wastewater, bio-separation, value-added product separation from plant and agricultural resources, and electrochemical reduction of CO2 to several liquid fuels. His major research areas and output in terms of the number of publications are shown below.

Prof. Purkait has done outstanding contribution in translational and applied research on two major sustainable development goals, SDGs (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 9: Industry and Innovation; SDG 12: Production). Quality and quantity of his research is reflected in terms of large number of publications, patents, technology transfer, start-ups, projects, consultancies and involvement with various national and international scientific committees. His work has remarkable relevance in societal as well as industrial sectors.

He has more than 23 years of experience in research & academics. With his research team he has published more than 400 high quality International journal papers with h-index of 87 (Citation > 23,000), i-10 index: 246, 16 granted patents and made 3 technology transfer. He has authored 22 books, completed 42 sponsored projects/consultancies funded by various Govt agencies and industries. Prof. Purkait has supervised 32 PhD students and >60 M Tech students on fundamental and applied research.

For his scientific and societal contribution, he has been awarded several national level prestigious award from INAE, NASI, INSA, DST etc. He has worked as visiting professor of 3 foreign universities and involved in various international scientific/funding organizations as ECC/PAC expert member like European Science Foundation (ESF, France), Fund for Scientific Research; FWO Flanders, Brussel (Belgium) etc.

Prof. Purkait is also actively involved in different capacity like ECC / EC / PAC / selection committee member / advisor / consultant etc in various Govt (state & central) bodies including ANRF, DST, SERB, DBT, AICTE, BIS, IITs, NITs, Universities, Waste to Wealth (W2W) mission and National Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Govt of India and public sector companies.


Dr. Mihir Kumar Purkait 
Professor Chair, National Jal Jeevan Mission (NJJM), Min. of Jal Shakti (Govt. of India)
Professor (HAG), Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Guwahati - 781039, Assam, India
E. Mail: mihir@iitg.ac.in ,  mihirpurkait@gmail.com
Phone: +91-361-2582262(O),  

Homepage: https://www.iitg.ac.in/chemeng/faculty_profile.php?name=mkp
Google Scholar Citation:  https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=9Z4kD-sAAAAJ&hl=en

Books authored: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=mihir+kumar+purkait&crid=34TLQFXL5NV4W&sprefix=%2Caps%2C245&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent

Education

Post PhD Research: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA, 2010-2011                               Ph.D.: Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 2004.
M.Tech.:  Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 2001.
B.Tech.: Chemical Engineering, University of Calcutta, 1999.  

Research Interest

  • Separation processes: (Adsorption, extraction, ectrocoagulation, various surfactant mediate processes, RO/NF/UF/MF etc.
  • Membrane technology: Smart/stimuli responsive membranes (Fabrication and application of Ceramic/polymeric membranes for environmental, biological and chemical separation).
  • Water and wastewater treatment technologies
  • Catalysis, Nanoparticles and nanocomposites
  • Advanced materials
  • Bio-diesel, Bio-products
  • Environmental pollution control
  • Treatment of industrial effluent
  • Fruit and vegetable juice processing
  • Extraction of value added products from plant and industrial sources
  • CO2 to products and liquid fuels.

Experience

Present and past positions held:

Dean Alumni and External Relations, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati 1st January 2021 to 6th March 2024

Professor Chair

 National Jal Jeevan Mission, Govt of India March 2022 to March 2027
Head Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati May 2018 to February 2021
Professor  Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati July 2015 onwards
Associate Professor Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati November 2008 to June 2015
Assistant Professor Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati September 2005 to November 2008
Senior Lecturer Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati December 2004 to September 2005

Honorary Positions:

  • Visiting Scientist, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, July 2010 – June 2011.
  • Visiting Professor, National Ilan University (NIU), Taiwan, May – July, 2017
  • Visiting Expert, National Yunlin University of Sci. and Technology (Yun Tech), Taiwan, May 2018.
  • Visiting Professor, National Ilan University (NIU), Taiwan, June – July, 2018
  • Visiting Professor, GIFU university, Japan, May-June, 2019

Member of Important Committee:

  1. Mission Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) member of ANRF – MAHA programme 2026 – 2031.

  1. Subject Expert Committee (SEC) member of PM ECRG (ANRF) program, 2026

  1. PAC member of Technology Development Board (TDB) of DST from 2025 onwards

  1. Member of i) Board of Governors (BoG) , ii) Executive committee and iii) Finance committee of Central Institute of Technology Kokrajhar (CITK)  (AICTE Nominee) 06/08/2024 onward.

  1. Expert Consultative Committee (ECC) member of “Waste to Wealth (W2W) Mission”. Office of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Govt of India, New Delhi, August, 2023 – August.

  1. Core Member of Programme Advisory Committee on Chemical and Environmental Engineering (PAC-CEE). Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), DST, New Delhi, 12/07/2021 onward for 3 years.

  1. Chairman of Technical Sub-Committee on “Agri-Waste Management” of Waste to Wealth Mission of Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (PSA-GoI), 2022 onward.

  1. Special Invitee Member in the Technical Committee under Chairmanship of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Govt of India for examination and use of innovative technologies in drinking water and sanitation sector. September, 2022 onward. 

  1. Sectional Committee member of Bureau of India Standards (BIS) on “Water Conductor Systems: 2024 onwards.

  1. State Level Task Force Member (TFM) in the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Govt of Assam, India, 2022 – 2023.

  1. Expert Consultative Committee (ECC) member of “Waste to Wealth” Mission under The Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), New Delhi, January 2021 – 2022.

  1.  Esteem Expert Panel Member of Water Technology Initiative Programme, DST, Govt. of India (WTI (DST)), 2021 – 2024.
  2. PAC member of Department of Biotechnology (PAC-DBT), Govt. of India, 2020-2022.

  1. Independent “Technical Expert” of Water Quality India Association (WQIA), January 2023 onward.

  1. Expert in Faculty selection committee in several IITs, NITs and Universities.

  1. External Member of Research Board, Vel Tech University, Tamil Nadu. 2026 – 2028

  1. Expert member for the project evaluation committee European Science Foundation (ESF), France, 2020 onward.

  1. International PAC member of Fonds Voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Fund for Scientific Research; Flanders, Belgium, Brussel) FWO 2022 onward.

  1. Project Peer Reviewer of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, 2025 onwards.
  2. Water Quality Task Force member of PHED, Govt. of Assam, Since July, 2016.

  1. Advisory committee member of 107 MLD drinking water supply plant of  GAMMON India, Ltd, Guwahati. Since Aug, 2017.

  1. Core Committee member of Task Force PHED, Govt of Assam, Since Oct, 2017.

  1.  Expert committee member for the selection of sector expert for ground truthing and technical assistance in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), National centre for drinking water, sanitation and quality.

  1. Advisory committee member of IOCL, Betkuchi terminal for their Rain water harvesting plant   since Oct, 2019.

  1. Technical director of M/s Vixudha Bio Products Pvt. Ltd. for commercial production of various antioxidants from biological sources. Since July, 2018
  2. Technical director of RD Grow Green India Pvt. Ltd. manufacturing water treatment plant. Since May. 2016

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Edited Books
 

 

 

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