|
Interview with Mitrajit
Dutta By: Karrie Sue Hawbaker, editor I recently spoke to Dr. Mitrajit Dutta, assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire and a 2000 graduate of the University of Maryland Department of Physics. He talked to me about his journey from Maryland Physics to his current position as assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New Hampshire, sharing information about his current research, the lessons he's learned, advice to our student physicists and more. Professor Dutta began his higher education career at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanbur, where he studied physics in a program that led him directly to a masters of science degree. It was then that he came to Maryland to earn a doctoral degree. Demonstrating an interest in the field of nonlinear dynamics and chaos, Dutta seized the opportunity to study under two of the field's heavyweights, Professor Edward Ott and Professor James Yorke (who is widely credited for naming the field of Chaos). By the Spring of 2000, he had explored several ideas in chaos theory and presented a dissertation on a collection of five different problems dealing with synchronization, shadowing and border collision.
By the time he earned his Ph.D., Dutta knew that that he wanted a career dedicated to research and he recognized that the fields of academia and federal government research offer some of the best opportunities for research physicists. The fact that he is not a U.S. citizen precluded him from working for a government laboratory, so he chose to explore the world of academia. Like so many new graduates, he applied for several postdoctoral positions at universities across the U.S. However, Dr. Ott, confident in his student's abilities, advised Dutta to also apply for some faculty positions. So, when a friend told him that the University of New Hampshire was conducting a search for an assistant professor, he applied. Fortunately, he was soon offered a position in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New Hampshire, which he accepted. Since then, he and his UNH colleagues have
been exploring several topics that are either extensions of or related
to his thesis, including: Though Dutta is principally interested in research rather than teaching, he has also been quite successful enlightening both undergraduate and graduate students on the principles of mathematics and physics, especially in the area of chaos. In the last four years, he has repeatedly received positive feedback from his students. He partly attributes his success in this area to the experience he gained as a teaching assistant here at Maryland Physics and the Department's teaching assistant orientation program. Dutta was a TA for both undergraduate courses and for graduate classes in advanced statistical mechanics and chaotic dynamics. While he didn't always find life as a TA one hundred percent rewarding, he feels that he learned several important lessons from the experience. He learned to quickly read where the students were academically and to adjust his teaching accordingly. He learned a careful balance of teaching material that was demanding enough that it did not bore the students, but not so demanding that its difficulty only led them to frustration. And he learned valuable communication or "people" skills. In fact, he noticed a dramatic improvement in these skills after merely one semester. He also found that, as someone coming to the University from another culture, working as a teaching assistant gave him interactions with people that helped him learn about the American perspective. Professor Dutta's career in academia has taught him several important lessons, including: ·
Patience. Patience is important in everything from research
to teaching -- and especially when you are teaching undergraduates the
day after a football game! Professor Dutta also offers some advice to our Maryland Physics students. ·
Don't be
afraid to try something new or off the beaten path. One needs to be
resourceful and creative in this field. As someone still in the early stages of his career, Dutta has set many goals for himself. On the short term, he is working toward becoming a tenured professor. However, on the longer term, his ultimate goal is to do good science. The University of Maryland Department of Physics is very proud of Professor Dutta for his accomplishments and wishes him the best of success in his future endeavors! _____________________________________________________
|
