Tag: IISER

Teaching & Meaning

What adds meaning to my academic work?

Perhaps, an anonymous feedback on your teaching is one of them….

“very well taught course at a well defined pace. The interesting way various different aspects and fields in Optics was introduced was fascinating, made us so very keen on knowing more! The mind maps at the beginning of every topic, the indexes professor made was a great way to keep the bigger picture in mind and helped us glide through it. The assignment was also a great way to make us go through materials without feeling it it be imposing, rather finding it more interesting! Thank you so much Sir for this amazing course, the enthusiastic way in which you taught, all the great conversations you engaged in with us, and opened our eyes to explore so much more in this field! thank you!!“

I had a diverse class (BS-Physics majors, MS Quantum Tech, iPhD) with 110+ students, and I am glad a lot of students enjoyed the course this time.
I am a bit overwhelmed by the positive feedback I received on my teaching methods. For sure, I learnt about the subject as much as they did.

And as I always say: there is more to learn…for all of us..

Human interaction zindabad :-)

Quantum Optics – teaching in Jan 2026

More than 22 years ago, I started my journey as a research student in theoretical physics – Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) + Radiative Transfer (MSc summer project at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics), and my special paper in the MSc final semester was QED. Later in my PhD, I branched into experiments on light scattering (Raman, Mie & Rayleigh).

Over the years, QED and quantum optics have always been at the back of my mind while studying, researching and teaching.

Come January, I will be teaching a course on Quantum Optics to MS(Quantum Tech), MS-PhDs, and 4th-year physics UGs

I designed the first course on this topic at IISER Pune about a decade ago with the able inputs from Prof. Rajaram Nityananda, and I have taught the course a few times. Now, after a few years, I will teach it again.

With the emergence of quantum sci & tech, there is a new impetus and excitement on this topic.

Having said that, the foundations of the topic remain the same, and Quantum Optics has a wonderful history and philosophy associated with it…and where better to start than Dirac’s classic (see below).

Look out for ‘quantum blogs’ in 2026…

Conversation with Ayan Banerjee

Ayan is an experimental optical physicist and a Professor at IISER Kolkata: https://www.iiserkol.ac.in/~ayan/group_leader.html.

He is also a playwriter, theatre actor and a mentor to many science and arts enthusiasts.

What drives him to do all these things? We discuss this and many other things in this episode.

References:

  1. “Group Leader | Light-Matter Lab.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.iiserkol.ac.in/~ayan/group_leader.html.
  2. “IISER Kolkata – Ayan.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.iiserkol.ac.in/web/en/people/faculty/dps/ayan/.
  3. “Ayan Banerjee – Professor – Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Kolkata | LinkedIn.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://in.linkedin.com/in/ayan-banerjee-3034208.
  4. Department of Physical Sciences (DPS), IISER Kolkata, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgv7iODxYTY.
  5. “Department of Physical Sciences : Home.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://physics.iiserkol.ac.in/.
  6. Ayan Banerjee. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.facebook.com/ayan.banerjee.5895.
  7. “‪Ayan Banerjee – ‪Google Scholar.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=GQo7yG4AAAAJ&hl=en.
  8. Gupta, Subhasish Dutta, Nirmalya Ghosh, and Ayan Banerjee. Wave Optics: Basic Concepts and Contemporary Trends. CRC Press, 2015.
  9. Haldar, Arijit, Sambit Bikas Pal, Basudev Roy, S. Dutta Gupta, and Ayan Banerjee. “Self-Assembly of Microparticles in Stable Ring Structures in an Optical Trap.” Physical Review A 85, no. 3 (March 27, 2012): 033832. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.033832.
  10. “Indian Institute of Science.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://iisc.ac.in/events/remembering-prof-vasant-natarajan-1965-2021/.
  11. “LML.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://sites.google.com/iiserkol.ac.in/light-matter-lab-iiserk/.
  12. “LML – Physics of Micro-Bubbles.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://sites.google.com/iiserkol.ac.in/light-matter-lab-iiserk/research/physics-of-micro-bubbles.
  13. Network, N. F. N. “Theatre At IISER-K Against Misinterpretation of Science And Superstition,” January 17, 2019. https://newsfromnadia.in/theatre-at-iiser-k-against-misinterpretation-of-science-and-superstition/.
  14. “Self-Assembly of Mesoscopic Materials To Form Controlled and Continuous Patterns by Thermo-Optically Manipulated Laser Induced Microbubbles | Langmuir.” Accessed December 2, 2024. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/la402777e.
  15. X (formerly Twitter). “Ayan Banerjee (@ayanban7) / X,” November 26, 2024. https://x.com/ayanban7.