Santanu Kumar Bhowmik is a Professor of Metamorphic Petrology in the Department of Geology & Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP). He obtained his BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees from the Jadavpur University, Kolkata in the years 1987, 1990, and 1994 in sequence. Immediately after completing his PhD, he joined the Geological Survey of India, in its Central India Headquarters at Nagpur in May 1994. He served there as Geologist (Jr) for 6 years, during which he executed two consecutive research projects on the metamorphic reconstructions of the Sausar Mobile Belt in central India. He joined IIT-KGP in October, 2000 as Assistant Professor, and has been serving there as Professor since May 2010. Dr. Bhowmik was a visiting scientist and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Bonn (2002, 2023) and Ruhr University, Bochum (2008-2009), both in Germany, Curtin University, Australia (2009) and the University of Sydney and Australian National University (2017).

Academic and Research Achievements:

The research of Dr. Bhowmik focuses on decoding the styles of tectonism, present and past, from oceanic subduction to continental collisions and supercontinent assembly events. For this, he uses metamorphic rocks of Archaean to Phaneozoic age and a variety of tools, including reconstructions of metamorphic P-T-t paths of evolution, monazite and zircon geochronology, and diffusion chronometry. His current research interest lies in modeling metamorphic transformations and fluid evolution along slab-mantle wedge interfaces from Mesozoic subduction zones in the Nagaland-Manipur Ophiolite Belt, NE India, and studying the Early Earth orogenesis, centering around the question of when and how did the modern-style plate tectonics begin on the Planet Earth. Some of the major research findings of his research group are the following: (1) First establishment of an Early Jurassic aged eclogite facies metamorphism along a clockwise (CW) P-T path of evolution and an evolving thermal history from an initial warm to a cold mature stage of an intra-oceanic subduction system in the eastern arm of the Neo-Tethys. (2) Demonstration of how the Proterozoic plate motion evolved from an accretionary and (ultra-) hot orogenesis style at 1.72-1.6 Ga to a modern, continental collisional mode at 1.0 Ga to produce the Greater Indian Landmass. (3) Development of a new tool of sequential diffusion chronometry to provide unprecedented details of timescales and rate processes in complex high-temperature metamorphic systems, not accessible until now. (4) New insights into our understanding of the Early Earth orogenesis, the advent of modern-style horizontal plate motion on the Planet Earth, and the growth of cratons by using rocks of the Western Dharwar Craton, South India.

Awards and Honours: Dr Bhowmik is a recipient of several awards and honours including the University Gold medals for standing first in BSc (1987) and MSc (1990) examinations, Sarat Lal Biswas (1993) and Nirmal Nath Chatterjee (199) Memorial Medals from the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, NATIONAL MINERAL AWARD in the field of BASIC GEOSCIENCES by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, 1999 and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (2002), Indian National Science Academy-Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (INSA-DFG) (2003, 2008-09) and The Institute for Geoscience Research (TiGER) at Curtin University, Australia (2009) fellowships. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore..