Dr Sunanda Sain Materials Characterisation Instrument Specialist
Sunanda is responsible for managing the thermal and thermomechanical characterisation laboratory.
Contact details
Dr Sunanda Sain ss5423@bath.ac.uk
Role
Dr Sunanda Sain is responsible for managing the thermal and thermomechanical characterisation laboratory, which consists of a:
- differential scanning calorimeter (DSCQ20, TA Waters Ltd)
- thermogravimetry analyser (TGA Setsys Evolution, Setaram) coupled to a mass spectrometer (Pfeltier)
- dynamic mechanical analyser (DMA1, Mettler Toledo)
She also looks after a surface area analyser (Autosorb iQ, Anton Paar) and a nanostructured material analyser (small angle x-ray scattering, SAXS, Anton Paar).
Her job duties include:
- equipment maintenance
- training students and researchers
- assisting in delivering academic and commercial projects
- providing consultancy services
Publications
Career
Sunanda has been working as a material characterisation instrument specialist in the physical structure characterisation facility since February 2024.
Before starting this role, she was a post-doctoral research assistant at the School of Chemistry, University of Lincoln, UK. Her project was a close collaboration with an industry partner, Luxus Ltd, with a focus on method development for hyphenated STA (Simultaneous thermal analysis-coupled to MS, GCMS, FTIR) and GCMS techniques to determine the volatile odorous contaminants from recycled plastic.
Her past experiences include working as a postdoc in polymer technology at the University of Boras, Sweden, and the University of Oulu, Finland. She completed her PhD in environmental science (polymer science and engineering), from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India. The main theme of her PhD and postdoc research has been the development of novel polymer materials from natural resources that can play a key role in enabling a circular economy and mitigating plastic waste.
Throughout her research career, she had experience of working with a wide range of industry projects addressing problems on sustainability, polymer recycling, and processing of biocomposites.
Education
Sunanda graduated from the University of Calcutta, India with Chemistry (Hons), Physics and Mathematics. She received her Master’s degree (M.Tech) in Materials science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, India. She completed her PhD from the University of Calcutta, India in 2015, under the supervision of Dr Dipa Roy (Reader at the University of Edinburgh), and Professor Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay (Professor, Department of Environmental Science, University of Calcutta).