Hi you..

I'm an undergrad senior at IISER Bhopal, majoring in physics. Academically, my interests best described as 'scattered' and 'undecided'—although I'm tentatively leaning toward high energy and the theoretical side of things. Some of my other interests include screenwriting, theatre, piano, and badminton. Feel free to look around if you like. And if you want to get in touch, poke me at: soham22@iiserb.ac.in

Skills Timeline Course Lectures
soham ghatak headshot

Skills

I've used a few programming languages in my time—C, C++, Lua, and Python. Python remains my weapon of choice: readable, forgiving, and least likely to crash both my code and my will to live. Late in second year, I also crossed paths with Mathematica. During Winter 2023, I learnt SIMION, a field and particle trajectory simulator that's mostly used to model atomic pathways (and kernel errors). Still, I eventually managed to get it to do my bidding. All in all, these are the few tools I can wield without immediately starting a fire. Tech is hard, especially when all I wanted to do was solve Schrödinger's equation but ended up debugging a segmentation error at 2 AM.
python logo Python
c logo C
c++ logo C++
mathematica logo Mathematica
Matlab logo Matlab
SIMION logo SIMION

the grand laundry list of academia

A semi-coherent catalog of the courses I've credited at IISER Bhopal—each one a tale of survival, and occasional success. You'll also find blurbs about any summer and winter projects, and scattered notes on the rare occasions I did things that weren't assignments, and psets.

Course work

  • PHY302 Mathematical Methods II
  • PHY304 Advanced Quantum Mechanics
  • PHY306 Statistical Mechanics
  • PHY308 Physics Laboratory II
  • PHY314 Introduction to Special Relativity
  • MTH324 Mathematical Methods in Classical Mechanics

Course work

  • PHY301 Mathematical Methods I
  • PHY303 Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
  • PHY305 Classical Mechanics
  • PHY307 Physics Laboratory I
  • PHY309 Thermal Physics
  • PHY311 Basic Electronics
  • IPR500 Law Relating to Intellectual Property and Patents

Experience

Atomic and Molecular Physics Laboratory, IISER Bhopal
  • Continued my noble quest (started in December 2023) of taming ion trajectory models and deciphering momentum correlation maps—armed with nothing but Python and questionable confidence.
  • Simulated the sequential and simultaneous fragmentation of a tri-atomic molecule using Python.

Extracurriculars

  • Co-wrote and co-directed a stage play adapted from the Malayali animated gem 'Kandittund!' by Adithi Krishnadas.
  • Co-wrote and co-directed a pretentious art-house film that proudly (frantically) represented IISERB at the Inter-IISER Cultural Meet (IICM) 2024 in Kolkata.
  • Co-wrote, co-directed, and even starred (hah!) in a Mahabharata stage adaptation for IICM 2024. We did not finish last.

Course work

  • PHY206 Physics Through Computational Thinking
  • PHY208 General Properties of Matter
  • PHY210 General Physics Laboratory III
  • MTH202 Probability and Statistics
  • MTH204 Complex Variables
  • BIO202 Biology IV: Basic Genetics
  • BIO204 Biology VI: Diversity of Life II
  • BIO206 Biology Laboratory II

Experience

Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, ISI Kolkata
  • Wrote a Python code to calculate Neff in a cosmological model involving everyone's favorite cast—the Standard Model of the universe.
  • Wrangled coupled Boltzmann equations for photon and neutrino temperatures in the early Universe—factoring in non-instantaneous neutrino decoupling and QED corrections, because the early Universe didn’t believe in keeping things simple. Used Python’s ODE solvers to integrate the Liouville equation from T = 10 MeV to 10-2 MeV, while questioning my own equilibrium.
  • Finally computed Neff by tracking how much energy the neutrinos were hoarding compared to the photons, then checked how far the result strayed from the vanilla prediction.

Course work

  • PHY201 Waves and Optics
  • PHY209 Electromagnetism
  • PHY205 General Physics Laboratory II
  • MTH201 Multivariable Calculus
  • MTH203 Introduction to Groups and Symmetry
  • BIO201 Biology III: Fundamentals of Molecular Biology
  • BIO203 Biology V: Diversity of Life I
  • BIO205 Biology Laboratory I

Experience

Atomic and Molecular Physics Laboratory, IISER Bhopal
  • Simulated and tracked the chaotic ballet of particles in a COLTRIMS setup (an atomic-scale snooker) using every computational trick in the book—primarily SIMION, with Python and Lua lending moral support.
  • Derived the kinematics the old-fashioned way (pen, paper, pain), then cross-checked them with experiments. Finally, automated the whole process—because manually adjusting ion trajectories is a fast track to madness.

Extracurriculars

Joined the IISERB Photography Club, or whatever they used to call it then.

Course work

  • PHY106 Quantum Physics
  • MTH102 Linear Algebra
  • BIO102 Biology II: Fundamentals of Cell Biology
  • CHM112 Basic Organic Chemistry I
  • EES102 Introduction to Environmental Sciences
  • ECS102 Introduction to Programming
  • CHM114 Chemistry Laboratory I

Extracurriculars

Joined the IISERB Drama Club as a scriptwriter. Would not even look in the general direction of the club for the following two semesters.

Course work

  • PHY101 Mechanics
  • MTH101 Calculus of One Variable
  • BIO101 Biology I: Biomolecules
  • CHM101 General Chemistry
  • EES101 Earth Materials and Processes
  • HSS101 English for Communication
  • PHY103 General Physics Laboratory I
  • BIO103 General Biology Laboratory
  • PT101 Physical Training

a fever dream

Somewhere between existential dread and caffeine-induced slumbers, I decided to make LaTeX notes of our lectures. What began as an earnest attempt at academic heroism quickly spiraled into a tangled mess of equations, typos, and passive-aggressive comments to my future self. What you'll find here is the remains of that noble quest: a ragtag list of notes I managed to finish before reality (and deadlines) caught up. These notes are not blessed by the lecturers, the physics gods, or any entity remotely credible. Any errors, conceptual blunders, or wildly incorrect minus signs are entirely mine—and possibly the voices in my head during exam week. Still, if you're looking for a guide to what was taught (with references and the occasional cry for help), these might just help. Any errors you might find could be directed back to my email ID and I'll be more than happy to do the corrections.

PHY309: Thermal Physics (Snigdha Thakur)

PHY306: Statistical Mechanics (Auditya Sharma)