Professional Background

University/Institution Year Position held

Panjab University, Chandigarh Nov.'87 to Dec.'88 Research Associate (CSIR)

IIT Kharagpur Dec.'88 to Oct.'90 Lecturer

IIT Kharagpur Oct.'90 to Nov.'96 Assistant Professor

IIT Kharagpur Nov.'96 to June '03 Associate Professor

IIT Kharagpur June '03 to Aug. '09 Professor

IIT Kharagpur Aug. '09 to June ’23 Senior Professor (HAG scale)

IIT Kharagpur June '08 to May '11 Head of the Department

Centre for Theoretical Studies Feb. '08 to Oct. '13 Convener

IIT Kharagpur

Kharagpur Local Chapter, INSA June '12 to March ’15 Convener

IIT Kharagpur Oct. '13 to Sept. ’16 Dean (Faculty)

IIT Kharagpur Aug. '17 to Jul’ 20 Institute Chair Professor

IIT Bombay Dec. ’18 to Dec. ’21 Distinguished Visiting Professor

BIT Mesra July ’23 to June ‘26 Distinguished Visiting Professor

S.N.Bose Natl Centre for Basic Scs. July ’26 till date INSA Senior Scientist

Educational Background


Research Interests

Density functional theory, nonlinear dynamics, aromaticity in metal clusters, hydrogen storage, noble gas compounds, machine learning, chemical reactivity, and quantum trajectories

Awards / Medals / Recognitions / Experiences

  1. Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.
  2. Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.
  3. Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad.
  4. Fellow, West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology.
  5. Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS, Trieste, Italy).
  6. Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK
  7. J. C. Bose National Fellow (3rd Term).
  8. Distinguished Visiting Professor, IIT Bombay.
  9. Distinguished Visiting Professor, BIT Mesra
  10. Institute Chair Professor.
  11. Professor Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture Award (2020), INSA
  12. Acharya P.C.Ray Memorial Award (2017) (Indian Chemical Society)
  13. Professor R.P. Mitra Memorial Lecture Award (2022) (Delhi University)
  14. Professor S.K. Siddhanta Memorial Lecture Award (2022) (Burdwan University)
  15. Professor Prafulla Chandra Ray Memorial Lecture Award (2022) (NASI)
  16. Council Member, Chemical Research Society of India.
  17. University Gold Medal.
  18. Bardhaman Sammilani Medal.
  19. Indian National Science Academy Young Scientist Medal.
  20. Chemical Research Society of India Bronze Medal (2000).
  21. Chemical Research Society of India Silver Medal (2014).
  22. B. M. Birla Science Prize.
  23. Dr. B. C. Deb Memorial Award (Indian Science Congress Association).
  24. Associate, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.
  25. Highly cited researcher (Top 2 % bracket) : World Rank (Chemical Physics) : 195, All India Rank (Chemical Physics): 03, IIT Kharagpur Rank (Overall) : 01 , Article Source: Ioannidis JPA, Boyack KW, Baas J (2021) Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators. PLOS Biology 18(10): e3000918. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000918
  26. Outstanding researcher, Research.com, Chemistry : India Rank :32, IIT Kharagpur Rank : 1, https://research.com/scientists-rankings/chemistry
  27. Placed in the top 0.05% of all scholars worldwide (ScholarGPS).
  28. Research.com Chemistry in India Leader Award : National Rank : 27
  29. Invited to give an expert opinion on a paper published in Chemical Science, the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.
  30. https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pressure-used-to-define-relationship-between-atomic-radii-and-electronegativity/4013252.article
  31. Invited to give an expert opinion on a paper published in Chemical Science, the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.
  32. https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/magnetic-fields-generate-intricate-periodic-trends/4015717.article
  33. Member, Sectional Committee, INSA
  34. Member, Joint Science Education Panel, Science Academies of India.
  35. Affiliate Member, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
  36. Life Member, International Society for Theoretical Chemical Physics.
  37. Life Member, Chemical Research Society of India.
  38. Member, American Chemical Society.
  39. Member, FWO, Belgium.
  40. Selected for the International Exchange Programme between INSA and DFG (Germany).
  41. Formerly Research Associate: (a) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, (b) Institüt für Organische Chemie, Erlangen ‑ Nürnberg, Germany.
  42. Delivered Invited lectures and chaired technical sessions in many National/International conferences / Academy Lecture Workshops. Organized several of them.
  43. Formerly Visiting Professor: (a) Departamento de Fisica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, (b) Departamento de Quimica Fisica, Facultad de Quimica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, (c) Departamento de Quimica, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana- Izatapalapa, Mexico D.F. (d) Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico.
  44. Forty years' teaching experience at the undergraduate and post graduate levels.
  45. Five hundred and thirty three research publications in the journals of International repute and large impact factors as well as in edited books. Several research papers are cited in various text/reference books.
  46. Edited special issues of journals (9) and books (10).
  47. Guided twenty one Ph.D. students, eighteen research associates and several M.Sc. students. Two more research scholars are being guided at present. Also guided several summer project students (Indian Acad. Sc., Bangalore; INSA, New Delhi; NASI, Allahabad; KVPY; Centre for Theoretical Studies, IIT Kharagpur, S.N.B.N.C.B.S., INSPIRE)
  48. Principal Investigator of several sponsored projects.
  49. Senate member IISER Kolkata.
  50. An International conference was organized on the occasion of the 60th birthday of P.K.Chattaraj, “International Conference on Systems and Processes in Physics, Chemistry and Biology (ICSPPCB-2018), March 1-3, 2018, Assam University, Silchar
  51. Journal of Molecular Modeling has published a special Festschrift issue in honour of Professor Pratim K. Chattaraj on his sixtieth birthday. An international conference was organized to commemorate this occasion.
  52. Theoretical Chemistry Accounts has published a special Festschrift issue in honour of Professor Pratim K. Chattaraj on his sixty- fifth birthday to commemorate his research contributions to Theoretical and Computational Chemistry in general and Density Functional Theory in particular.
  53. Reviewer : J. Am. Chem. Soc., J. Phys. Chem., J. Org. Chem., Chem. Phys. Lett., Int. J. Quantum Chem., Langmuir, J. Chem. Phys., Bioorg. Med. Chem., J. Astrop. Astron., Tetrahedron, Chem. Res. Tox., Org. Lett., Int. J. Bif. and Chaos, Int. J. Mol. Sci., Int. Elect. J. Mol. Des., Pramana-J. Phys., Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. (Chem. Sci.), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. Natl. Acad. Sci. Lett., Ind. J. Chem., Ind. J. Phys., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., Chirality, QSAR & Comb. Sci., Pak. J. Sci. Ind. Res., J. Chem. Educ., Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Nucl. Ac. Res., Inorg. Chem., Spect. Chim. Acta, J.Comp. Chem., J.Chem. Theor. Comp , New J. Chem., J. Polym Sc. Tech., J. Mol. Liq., J. Phys. Org. Chem.,Phys.Chem.Chem.Phys.,Chem.-Eur. J.,Crystal Growth Desgn. Eur.J. Med.Chem., Curr. Sci., J.Mol.Struc.(Theochem ), Bull. Mat. Sci., J. Mol. Modeling, J. Biomed. Biotech, The European Physical Journal D (epjd), Chem.Bio & Drug.Desg., J. Coll. Interf. Sci.; Int. J. Mod. Phys. B, J. Nanosci. & Nanotech; Angew. Chem.; Nano; J. Cluster Sci.; Molecular Simulation; Microporous & Mesoporous Materials; Mol. Phys.; Mol. Divers.; J. Sulf.Chem.; Anal. Methods, Chem. Comm., J. Nano Mater; Molecular Informatics; J. Theo. Comp. Chem. Arabian J. Chem; Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, Eur. Phys. J. Synchr. Rad., Analytical Methods, RSC Adv., European Physical Journal - Applied Physics, African J. Biotechnology, Int. J. Medicinal Chem., Curr. Org. Chem., J. Chilean Chem. Soc., J. Mex. Chem. Soc., J. Taiwan Inst. Chem. Eng., Chem. Phys., J. Raman Spect., J. Chem. Inf. Model., Curr. Topics Org. Chem., J. Cryst. Growth, J. Mol. Graphics Modell., Phys. Lett. A, J. Appl. Phys., AIP Advances, Physica E, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, UGC (Dr. D. S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellowship, Application); CSIR (Young Scientist Award); Infosys Prize; Boltzmann Award; Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies Award; S. S. Bhatnagar Award; World Scientific Publishing (Book Proposal), McGraw-Hill Education (Book Proposal), CSIR, DST, BRNS (Project Proposals), QNRF (Qatar), N.S.C. (Poland), FONDECYT - CONICYT (Chile) (Project Proposals), AVRA Chemical Award, Ahmed Zewail Prize.
  54. Highlight of a paper (P. K. Chattaraj and B. Maiti, J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78: 811) appeared in ScienceWeek (US Library of Congress), Spectrum Press Inc., Chicago, IL, USA.
  55. Series Editor, Book Series on “Atoms, Molecules, and Clusters: Structure, Reactivity, and Dynamics� Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, Florida, 2010
  56. Associate Editor, Frontiers in Chemistry.
  57. Associate Editor, Journal of Chemical Research
  58. Guest Editor, Journal of Chemical Science
  59. Subject Editor, Proceedings of Indian National Science Academy
  60. Member, Advisory Editorial Board, J. Phys. Chem. A/B/C/Lett.
  61. Member, Editorial Board, J. Chem. Sci. (Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore).
  62. Member, Editorial Board, J. Mol. Struc. (Theochem).
  63. Member, Editorial Board, Ind. J. Chem. Section-A.
  64. Member, Editorial Board, Comp. Theor. Chem.
  65. Member, International Advisory Editorial Board, J. Ind. Chem.Soc. (Elsevier) .
  66. Parr- Chattaraj proof of the Maximum Hardness Principle [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 1854] is included in the M. Sc. course on "Quantum Chemistry" in the Mendeleyev University, Moscow, Russia.
  67. Two papers [Parr-Chattaraj and Chattaraj-Schleyer, both J. Am. Chem. Soc.] are included in the IUPAC database and two papers [Chem. Rev. and Chem. Com.] are included in Wikipedia.
  68. Several papers have become hot/most accessed/most cited/cover/Editors’ choice articles.
  69. Selected as the 'Top Reviewer' of The Journal of Physical Chemistry, American Chemical Society.
  70. Two of the ten most cited JPCA papers from India since 1997.
  71. Member, Key Opinion Leaders Panel, Nature Collection (Chemical Sciences, Nature Publishing Group), Macmillan Scientific Communications, UK
  72. Member, Nomination Council, AVRA Chemical Award.
  73. Member, Nomination Council, Infosys Prize
  74. External member, Board of Studies, National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur.
  75. Member, Syllabus Committee, The National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi.
  76. Nominated as expert by DST to cover the area of Theoretical Chemistry from Indian side for the meeting of the DST-DFG Joint Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) in Berlin, 31st Oct -1st Nov, 2011.
  77. Task force leader: IIT-KGP Vision 2020, Research excellence.
  78. Guest of Honour, AMWC – 2020, Sydney.
  79. Affiliate Member, Royal Society of Chemistry.
  80. Chief Guest, 59th Convocation (Dept.) 2021, IIT Bombay.
  81. An International conference was organized on the occasion of the 65th birthday of P.K.Chattaraj, “International Conference on Systems and Processes in Physics, Chemistry and Biology (ICSPPCB-2023), March 2-4, 2023, Assam University, Silchar


Significant recent publications

https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=bK7WK8IAAAAJ&hl=en