Presi boy bags chair spot in German university

Kolkata: Shoubhik Das, who was born in Nadia but studied in Kolkata, has made the city proud by becoming one of the youngest researchers to bag the position of chair at the German University of Bayreuth, as well as becoming the only Indian member of the university’s faculty of 1,452 academic staff.Felicitated on August 1, Das was made chair of the department of organic chemistry. Having done his Bachelors in chemistry from Presidency University, then College, between 2000 and 2004, Das has become one of the youngest chairs in Bayreuth, one of the youngest universities of Germany, established in 1975. He completed his Masters from IIT-Kharagpur and credits the inspiring educational facilities in his formative years studying in Bengal for the development of his academic specialisation. “I like the diversity and integrity I have seen at the University of Bayreuth, and that gives me great motivation to work with my colleagues to find solutions to sustainability,” Das said. With regard to his plans for the future at Bayreuth, Das said he is keen on working in sustainability, particularly in converting waste particles into valuable molecules.Before his shift to Bayreuth, Das had been an assistant professor at Antwerp, Belgium, and a researcher in Gottingen, Germany and Lausanne, Switzerland. He did his post-doctoral research at University of Cambridge, UK. Das also completed his PhD in Leibniz under Matthias Beller. He specialized in green chemistry, an interdisciplinary study in chemistry which aims to curb pollution, save energy and consequently produce environmentally-friendly material. Das will now be teaching the Bachelors and Masters programmes in organic chemistry from the win-ter semester.