Dr. Amrita Pal

Post-Doctoral Research Scientist
Topic: Catalytic investigation of Niobium Oxide

  • Education:
    • PhD in Engineering: 2003-2007
      Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,
      National University of Singapore, Singapore.
      Specialization: Membrane-based Studies on Photocatalytic Reaction Kinetics for Indoor Air Purification.
    • Bachelor of Engineering B. E. (1st Class Honors): 1999-2003
      Department of Chemical Engineering,
      Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.
  • Professional History:
    • Postdoctoral Research Scientist: August, 2011 – present
      Combustion and Catalysis Lab,
      Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering,
      Columbia University, New York, NY.
      Topic: Catalytic investigation of Niobium Oxide.
    • Postdoctoral Researcher, June: 2010 – August, 2011
      Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science,
      Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.
  • Procurement of equipment and design of a catalytic nanoparticle laboratory.
  • Research on fundamentals of natural gas conversion to fuels and chemicals over molybdenum nanostructures.
  • Investigation of BPE adsorption on unoxidized and oxidized silver with Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations.
  • Research Fellow: 2007 – 2009
    Division of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering,
    School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
    Topic: Research on monitoring of emerging organic contaminants in catchment surface waters using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (Tandem MS) or LC/MS/MS.
  • Honors and Awards
    • Winner of Postdoc Award, Spring Symposium, Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, U.S.A., 2011.
    • Awarded second prize for oral presentation, Graduate Students’ Association Symposium, Singapore, 2006.
    • Awarded certificate of merit for poster presentation, Graduate Students’ Association Symposium, Singapore, 2004.
    • Awarded a research scholarship by the National University of Singapore for pursuing PhD, 2003.
    • Awarded Cert. of Merit/National Scholarship for outstanding result in “A-level”, 1999.
  • List of Publications in Peer-Reviewed Journals:
    • Amrita Pal, Karina Y.H. Gin, Angela Y.C. Lin, Martin Reinhard, “Impacts of Emerging Organic Contaminants on Freshwater Resources: Review of Recent Occurrences, Sources, Fate and Effects”, Science of The Total Environment, Vol. 408, 2010.
    • Amrita Pal, Simo O. Pehkonen, Liya E. Yu and Madhumita B. Ray, “Photocatalytic Inactivation of Airborne Bacteria in a Continuous-Flow Reactor”, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 47, 2008.
    • Amrita Pal, Simo O. Pehkonen, Liya E. Yu and Madhumita B. Ray, “Photocatalytic Inactivation of Gram-positive and Gram-negative Bacteria using Fluorescent Light”, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, A: Chemistry, Vol. 186, 2007.
    • Amrita Pal, Xu Min, Liya E. Yu, Simo O. Pehkonen, and Madhumita B. Ray, “Photocatalytic Inactivation of Bioaerosols by TiO2 Coated Membrane”, International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering, Vol. 3, 2005.
    • Xu Yonglan, Luo Fei, Amrita Pal, Karina Yew-Hoong Gin, and Martin Reinhard, “Occurrence of Emerging Organic Contaminants in a Tropical Urban Catchment in Singapore”, accepted for publication by Chemosphere, 2011.
  • Conference Proceedings (*Oral presentation):
    • Amrita Pal, Yun Han, Tao Chen, Simon G. Podkolzin, Svetlana Sukhishvili, Henry Du, “Investigation of BPE adsorption on metallic and oxidized silver nanoparticles with Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations”, Spring Symposium, Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, U.S.A., 2011.
    • Tao Chen, Jih-Mirn Jehng, Amrita Pal, Israel E. Wachs, Simon G. Podkolzin, “Identification of oxygen species active in ethylene epoxidation on silver catalysts with Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations”, Accelrys North American User Group Meeting, NJ, U.S.A., 2011.
    • Jie Gao, Amrita Pal, Bert Weckhuysen, Simon Podkolzin, “Reaction mechanism studies of cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysts with infrared spectroscopy and DFT calculations”, Spring Symposium, The Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, U.S.A., 2010.
    • *Amrita Pal, Simo O. Pehkonen, Liya E. Yu and Madhumita B. Ray, “TiO2 Mediated Inactivation of Bioaerosols”, 1st International Congress on Green Process Engineering, Toulouse, France, 2007.
  • Skills:
    • Operating Systems/Applications: Windows XP/2000, MS Office Suite, SigmaPlot, DFT – Materials Studio.
    • Languages: Fortran, C/C++.
  • Personal Strengths and Extra-Curricular Activities:
    • Organized and performed in various cultural programmes by Indian societies.
    • Awarded merit certificates in inter-school social awareness camps in 1994 and 1995.
    • Awarded Senior Diploma in Indian Classical Music.
    • Passion for reading, painting and singing.