Skip to main content
Please wait...

Professor

Anirban Sain

Phone: +91-22-25767553

Research Interests

Soft matter and Bio-physics:

  • Dynamic processes in the Cell (cell division, sporulation, endo- and exocytosis).
  • Membrane mechanics (tubulation, colloidal membrane).
  • Statistical physics of biopolymers, nematic liquid crystals.

Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics:

  • Grain dynamics in driven polycrystals (pressure, shear): MD & Phase field simulations.

Education Qualification

  • Integrated MSc: IIT Kanpur (1988–93)
  • PhD: IISc Bangalore (1993–98)
  • Post-Doc: Simon Fraser University, Canada (1999–2000)
  • Industry: Hindustan Lever Research, Mumbai (2001)
  • Post-Doc: University of Waterloo, Canada (2001–2002)
  • Post-Doc: McGill University, Canada (2002–2003)

Faculty at IIT Bombay, Physics (Dec 2003 – present)

Current PhD Students

Former PhD Students

Selected Publications

Workshop on the Physics of Active&Living Matter.pdfWorkshop on Active and living matter (28-29th Oct, 2024)Workshop on the Physics of Active&Living Matter.pdfPublication: topic wise  CV

  1. 2025

    Confinement-induced intermittent motion of a camphor-infused paper disk, 

    P. Dey , A. Chotalia , A. Sain , A. Nandi , and P. Parmananda, 

    PRE, 112, 065423 (2025)

  2. 2025

    Actin driven morphogenesis in hydra, 

    Sabyasachi Mukherjee and A.Sain, 

    under review  (2025)

  3. 2025

    Thermodynamic Control of Nanoparticle Fabrication via Confined Dewetting, 

    A.Rahman, Vijit Ganguly, S.Majumder, S.Chatterjee, A.Bajpai1, A.Sain, and A.Rahman, 

    Small Methods, 2500245 (2025), DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202500245, highlighted in physics.org (https://phys.org/news/2025-08-confined-dewetting-yields-uniform-metal.html)

  4. 2024

    Chiral flows in the separating wall during cell division,  

    Vijit Ganguly, Mainak Chatterjee & Anirban Sain, 

    J. Chem. Phys., 161, 074110 (2024).

  5. 2024

    Directing the Formation of Tunable Superlattice Crystalline Phases from Anisotropic Nanoparticles, 

    S. Khawas, S. Bhattacharjee, S. Mukherjee, A. Sain and S. Srivastava, 

    Colloids and Surfaces A, 690, 133762 (2024).

  6. 2023

    A human curvature sensitive septin octamer complex drives membrane deformation with a specific mesh-like organization, 

    K. Nakazawa, G.Kumar, B.Chauvin, Aurelie Di Cicco, L.Pellegrino, M. Trichet, B. Hajj, J.Cabral, A. Sain, S.Mangenot and A. Bertin, 

    J. Cell Sci 136, jcs260813 (2023).

  7. 2022

    Temperature-dependent Self assembly of biofilaments during red blood cell sickling, 

    A. Behera, O. Sharma, D. Paul, and A. Sain, 

    J. Chem. Phys.157, 014105 (2022).

  8. 2022

    Dynamic surface patterns on cells, 

    Mainak Chatterjee and A. Sain. 

    J. Chem. Phys, 156, 084117 (2022).

  9. 2022

    Dynamics and stability of the contractile actomyosin ring in the cell, 

    M. Chatterjee, A. Chatterjee, A. Nandi, and A. Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 068102 (2022).

  10. 2021

    Deformation of membrane vesicles due to chiral surface proteins, 

    A, Behera, G. Kumar, Sk. Ashif Akram, and A. Sain, 

    Soft Matter, 17, 7953 (2021).

  11. 2021

    Cytoplasmic streaming in C. elegans: Forces that drive oogenesis, 

    Vidya V. Menon, M.M. Inamdar and A.Sain, 

    Euro. Phys. Lett. 135, 24003 (2021).

  12. 2020

    Chiral molecules on curved Colloidal membrane, 

    Sk. Ashif Akram, A. Behera, P. Sharma and A. Sain,  

    Soft Matter, 16, 10310 (2020).

  13. 2020

    Poiseuille flow of soft polycrystals in 2D rough channels, 

    Tanmoy Sarkar, P. Chaudhuri and A. Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 158003 (2020).

  14. 2020

    Non-Gaussian subdiffusion of single-molecule tracers in a hydrated polymer network, 

    R.K.Singh, J. Mahato, A. Chowdhury, A. Sain, and A. Nandi, 

    J. Chem. Phys. 152, 024903 (2020).

  15. 2020

    Confined filaments in soft vesicles - case of sickle red blood cells,  

    Arabinda Behera, G. Kumar and A. Sain, 

    Soft Matter, 16, 421 (2020).

  16. 2019

    Tubulation pattern of membrane vesicles coated with bio-filaments, 

    G. Kumar, N. Ramakrishnan, and A. Sain, 

    PRE. 99, 022414 (2019).

  17. 2017

    Grain size distribution in sheared polycrystals, 

    T. Sarkar, Santidan Biswas, P. Chaudhuri and A. Sain, 

    PRM. 1, 070601 (R) (2017).

  18. 2017

    Asymmetric flows in the intercellular membrane during cytokinesis. 

    V.V. Menon,  S.S. Soumya, A. Agarwal, S.R. Naganathan, M.M. Inamdar and A. Sain, 

    Biophys. Jl. , 113, 2787 (2017).

  19. 2017

    Curvature Instability of Chiral Colloidal Membranes on Crystallization,  

    Lachit Saikia, Tanmoy Sarkar,  Meera Thomas, V. A. Raghunathan,  Anirban Sain,  and Prerna Sharma, 

    Nat. Commun8, 1160 (2017).

  20. 2016

    Shape transitions during clathrin induced endocytosis, 

    Gaurav Kumar and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. E. 94, 062404 (2016).

  21. 2015

    Dynamic force balances and cell shape changes during cytokinesis, 

    Anirban Sain, Mandar M. Inamdar and Frank Julicher 

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 048102 (2015).

  22. 2013

    How helix-coil transition influences translocation of a single stranded DNA and kinetics of its fluctuation inside the channel,

    Kulveer Singh and Anirban Sain, 

    Euro. Phys. Lett. 104, 18007 (2013) (Editors Choice).

  23. 2013

    Micromechanics of emergent patterns in plastic flows, 

    Santidan Biswas, Martin Grant, Indradev Samajdar, Arunanshu Haldar and Anirban Sain, 

    Sci. Rep. 3, 2728 (2013).

  24. 2013

    Plasticization of Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) Thin Films under Ambient Humidity: Insight from Single-Molecule Tracer Diffusion Dynamics, 

    S. Bhattacharya, D.K. Sharma, S. Saurabh, S. De, A. Sain, A. Nandi and A. Chowdhury, 

    J. Phys. Chem. B 117, 7771 (2013).

  25. 2012

    Stretching force dependent transitions in single stranded DNA, 

    Kulveer Singh, Surya Kanta Ghosh, Sanjay Kumar and Anirban Sain, 

    Euro. Phys. Lett., 100, 68004 (2012).

  26. 2012

    From chemosensing in bacteria to practical biosensors,

    Surya K. Ghosh, Tapanendu Kundu and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. E., 86,051910 (2012).

  27. 2012

    Stuttering Min oscillations within Escherichia coli bacteria: a stochastic polymerization model, 

    Supratim Sengupta, Julien Derr, Anirban Sain and Andrew D Rutenberg, 

    Phys. Biol., 9, (2012) 056003, (2012).

  28. 2012

    High electron mobility through the edge states in random networks of c-axis oriented wedge- shaped GaN nanowalls grown by molecular beam epitaxy, 

    H. P. Bhasker, S. Dhar, A. Sain, M. Kesaria, and S. M. Shivaprasad, 

    Appl. Phys. Lett, 101, 132109 (2012).

  29. 2011

    Force generation in bacteria without nucleotide-dependent bending of cytoskeletal filaments. 

    Biplab Ghosh and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. E., 83, 051924 (2011).

  30. 2011

    Coarsening in polycrystalline material using Quaternions. 

    Santidan Biswas, Indradev Samajdar, Arunansu Haldar and Anirban Sain, 

    J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 23,072202 (2011) (Fast track comm.) (included in IOP SELECT).

  31. 2010

    Effect of hydrodynamic interaction on polymeric tethers.

    Suman G. Das, Dimitri Pescia, Mithun Biswas and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. E 82, 041910 (2010). (selected for the October 15, 2010 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research); highlighted by Nature-India.

  32. 2009

    Effect of Intrinsic Curvature on Semiflexible Polymers.

    Surya K. Ghosh, Kulveer Singh and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys.Rev.E 80, 051904 (2009). (selected for the Nov 15th, 2009 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research).

  33. 2009

    Predicting the coherence resonance curve using a semianalytic treatment. 

    Santidan Biswas, Dibyendu Das, Punit Parmananda and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys.Rev.E 80, 046220 (2009).

  34. 2009

    Self-organization of the MinE protein ring in subcellular Min oscillations. 

    Julien Derr, Jason T. Hopper, Anirban Sain, and Andrew D. Rutenberg, 

    Phys.Rev.E 80, 011922 (2009). (selected for the Aug 1st, 2009 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research)

  35. 2008

    Origin of contractile force during cell division of bacteria. 

    Biplab Ghosh and Anirban Sain, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett., 101, 178101 (2008); highlighted by Nature-India . (selected for the Nov 1st, 2008 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research)

  36. 2008

    Effect of hydrodynamic interaction on partially stretched polymers.

    Anirban Sain, 

    Phys.Rev.E, 77, 061603 (2008). (selected for the July 1st, 2008 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research).

  37. 2006

    Microscopic strain distribution profile in a 1-D chain during rupture - a many body Kramers calculation. 

    Anirban Sain, Cristiano Dias, and Martin Grant, 

    Phys.Rev.E, 74, 046111 (2006). (selected for the Nov 1st, 2006 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research).

  38. 2006

    Review of Resistance to Hydriding in Zirconium - An Emerging Possibility 

    K.V. Mani Krishna, A. Sain, I. Samajdar, G.K. Dey, D. Srivastava, S. Neogi, R. Tiwari and S. Banerjee, Acta Materialia, '

    54, 4665(2006).

  39. 2006

    Effect of base stacking interaction in heterogeneous single stranded DNA. 

    Anirban Sain, Bae-Yeun Ha, and Jeff.Z.Y. Chen, 

    Physica-A, 369,679, (2006).

  40. 2005

    Phase ordering kinetics of a binary fluid mixture in the inertia dominated regime.

    Anirban Sain, and Martin Grant, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett., 95, 255702 (2005).

  41. 2004

    Chain persistency in single stranded DNA - effect of stacking interactions. 

    Anirban Sain, Bae-Yeun Ha, Heng-Kwong Tsao and Jeff.Z.Y. Chen , 

    Phys. Rev. E, 69, 061913, (2004).

  42. 2004

    The Influence of tether dynamics on forced Kramers escape from a kinetic trap. 

    Anirban Sain and Michael Wortis, 

    Phys. Rev. E, 70, 031102, (2004). (selected for the September 15, 2004 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research).

  43. 2004

    Langevin equation for the motion of a Brownian particle in an ideal gas environment, 

    Rangan Lahiri, Arvind and Anirban Sain, Pramana: 

    J. Phys., 62, 1015 (2004).

  44. 2003

    Counterion distribution and charge-fluctuation-interactions between like-charged fluid membranes, 

    Anirban Sain and Bae-Yeun Ha, 

    Physica A 320, 67 (2003).

  45. 1999

    Multiscaling in the Randomly Forced and Conventional Navier-Stokes Equations, 

    Anirban Sain and Rahul Pandit, 

    Physica A 270, 190 (1999).

  46. 1999

    Large momentum expansions in fluid turbulence, 

    J. K. Bhattacharjee and Anirban Sain, 

    Physica A 270, 165 (1999).

  47. 1999

    Extended self-similarity and dissipation range dynamics of three-dimensional turbulence, 

    Anirban Sain and J. K. Bhattacharjee, 

    Phys. Rev. E 60, 571 (1999).

  48. 1998

    Multiscaling in randomly stirred fluid model for turbulence, 

    Anirban Sain, Manu and Rahul Pandit, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 4377 (1998).

  49. 1998

    Multiscaling in models of Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, 

    Abhik Basu, Anirban Sain, Sujan K.Dhar and Rahul Pandit, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2687 (1998).

  50. 1997

    Inertial and dissipation range assymptotics in fluid turbulence, 

    Sujan Dhar, Anirban Sain and Rahul Pandit, 

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2964 (1997).

  51. 1997

    Some recent advances in the theory of homogeneous and isotropic fluid turbulence, 

    Sujan K.Dhar, Anirban Sain, Ashwin Pande, and Rahul Pandit, Pramana

    J. Phys. (Special issue on Nonlinearity and Chaos in Physical Sciences), 48, 325 (1997).

  52. 1994

    Scaling of resistance in the 2-dimensional Anderson Tight Binding model of disordered systems-2, 

    Anirban Sain and Abhijit Mookerjee, Mod. 

    Phys. Lett. B 8 195(1994).

File Uploads

PDF icon Vacancy for PhD & Postdoc positions

PDF icon Publication: topic wise

PDF icon Research Problems

PDF icon CV