Arnab was born and raised in West Bengal, which is west of Bangladesh. From a very young age he showed great promise in the sciences, often drawing jablonski diagrams with the crayons in kindergarten. Rumor has it that by 4th grade he was so good at photochemistry that he could cook an entire lamb biryani with only a single 400nm light source. Despite his gifts, he initially had dreams of being a professional cricket player, but after not making his high school cricket team, he decided to return to his roots and lock in with photochemistry. So, he took his talents to south beach, Kolkata, and completed his bachelors and masters in 5 years, where he worked on crystalline luminescent materials with Professor Pradipta Purkayastha. In 2023, he came to UCSB to chase higher peaks, and settled on the highest peak he could find. Making liquid crystal elastomers in the Read de Alaniz lab. When he’s not doing lifesaving materials chemistry work he spends his time driving around California getting his photochemistry fix through the lens of his Sony alpha 7 mkIV.
This was written by Carlos, the dead beetle on Waseems desk, and Anwesha Guha