Kausik Mukhopadhyay received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from University of Calcutta, India. Thereafter, after being awarded the Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) national doctoral fellowship, he continued his doctoral studies in chemistry and materials science at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune (India), where he received his Ph.D. in 2004. He joined Professor Pinnavaia’s group in the chemistry department at the Michigan State University to pursue his postdoctoral research interests in clay composites. This was followed by a second postdoctoral associateship with Prof. Sherine Obare at University of North Carolina. Since then he has worked in industries for a decade on several multidisciplinary projects involving collaborations with universities and winning more than six million dollars in grants and contracts funded by the Army, Office of Naval Research, Air Force, CBD, NASA, OSD, and DoE, for which he was the principal investigator.

Dr. Mukhopadhyay joined UCF as a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Fall 2017. Dr. Mukhopadhyay directs the Functional Materials Laboratory at UCF, where his team of young researchers are engaged in fundamentals of materials, chemistry, biology and engineering to develop solutions for multitude of exciting research problems related to surface, coatings, films, electrochemistry (batteries and corrosion), sensors, heterogeneous catalysis and development of hemostatic and burn wound materials for military medicine.

At UCF, he won the QEP Program Innovation Award in 2018, followed by UCF-OUR Student Research award by his team in 2019. Recently, he was awarded a 3-yr DHS-FEMA FP&S R&D Grant for development of a cost-effective, portable detection systems to analyze toxic gases and image fires. Dr. Mukhopadhyay is a reviewer board member for the journal Membranes, and a member of the Americal Chemical Society, American Ceramic Society and Materials Research Society. He also serves as the Lab Director for the MSE UG Lab.

Ph.D. student:

• Suvash Ghimire (MSE)

Undergraduate students:

• Kasey Rigby (Biomedical Sciences)
• Jodie Chen (MAE)
• John O’Brian (Biology)
• Judy Noel (Forensic Science)
• Trevor Knecht (MAE)
• Rhondra Giscombe (MSE)

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Recent Conference proceedings

• Novel Microbe-Resistant Clay Dressing for Healing Burns, Wounds and Scars; Florida Undergraduate Research Conference, FGCU. Ft. Myers, FL. 21^st-22^nd February 2020. K. Rigby, J. Chen, J. O’Brien, M. Chug, E. Brisbois, K. Crawford, K. Mukhopadhyay.
• Novel microbe-resistant hybrid membranes for healing burns, wounds, and scars: American Chemical Society Spring 2019 National Meeting & Exposition, Orlando (FL). 31^st Mar-4^th Apr. 2019. K. Mukhopadhyay.
• Durable Aerosol, Solid and Liquid Repellent Coatings: 2017 CBD S&T Conference; Long Beach (CA), 28^th-30^th Nov. 2017. K. Mukhopadhyay, A. Tuteja, Q. Truong, M. Gurin.
• Durable, Low-Adhesion Icephobic Coatings: Defense Innovation Summit: SBIR/ STTR Innovation Summit; Austin (TX), 29^th Nov.-1^st Dec. 2016. A. Tuteja, A. Thorat, K. Mukhopadhyay.

1. Quality Enhancement Plan Program Innovation Award (UG students), 2018-2020
2. UCF Office of Undergraduate Research Student Research Team award, 2019-2020.
3. UCF CARES and CECS Dean‘s Lab Development Awards, 2020
4. Dept. Of Homeland Security FEMA Fire Protection & Security Research and Development Award, 2019-2022.

• American Chemical Society
• American Ceramic Society
• Materials Research Society

• Kasey, Jodie, and John wins OUR Undergraduate student research travel grants for presenting posters at Ft. Myers. Congrats! http://mse.ucf.edu/undergraduate-researches-awarded-our-student-research-group-grant/
• Suvash Ghimire joins our group as a doctoral student. Suvash did his MS in materials science engineering from Montana Tech. Welcome, Suvash!
• A first for UCF, our group got funded by the Dept. of Homeland Security-FEMA for the development of cost-effective, portable detection systems to analyze toxic gases and image fires. We have been featured in:

1. Featured on WFTV Orlando for 2019 DHS-FEMA award https://tinyurl.com/ybohqepb
2. Orlando Sentinel: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-fire-detecting-sensors-20191203-sytwyn4l75d4dlavgez3q64luu-story.html
3. Fire Rescue Technology: https://www.firerescue1.com/technology/articles/fla-university-receives-fema-grant-to-study-fire-detecting-sensors-RtEgrKzgNI8wF2WD/
4. Firehouse: https://www.firehouse.com/tech-comm/news/21116894/grant-to-help-university-of-central-florida-develop-sensors-for-firefighters
5. Daily Press: https://www.dailypress.com/os-cfb-fire-detecting-sensors-20191203-sytwyn4l75d4dlavgez3q64luu-story.html
6. UCF Today: https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-imec-developing-sensor-to-detect-fires-remotely/

• MSE Lab goes virtual: http://mse.ucf.edu/mse-faculty-delivers-remote-lab-instruction-using-innovative-and-resourceful-approach/

• Postdoctoral position available 
• Undergraduate positions are available for several projects.