CONCURRENT UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS

• Associated Faculty, PRISM

Honors, Awards, DISTINCTIONS

• Schmidt Science Fellow (2020)
• Simons Prize for the most outstanding dissertation, Columbia University APAM (2020)

Research interests

Dr. Mandal’s research involves understanding and controlling nano-to-macro scale radiative heat flows in both natural environments and artificial surfaces, with characterizing and mitigating ambient heat in a warming world as a guiding theme. On the scientific front, his work lies at the intersection of optics and materials science, and involves the creation of photonic and plasmonic metamaterials and designs with novel optical properties. On the Civil and Environmental Engineering front, he designs scalable materials that radiatively thermoregulate and make human environments more sustainable and climate resilient. Dr. Mandal’s other research interests include optical component design for infrared heat detection and characterization, water harvesting using passive cooling technologies, modelling large-scale impact of radiative cooling designs for geoengineering, and optical/radiative phenomena in the natural world.