Basu_June2020

Saikat Basu

Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator

Biography

Notable recognition: 2024 National Science Foundation CAREER à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, 2023 National Institutes of Health – Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence – Research Project Leaders à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã.

Dr. Saikat Basu directs the Biomedical and Bioinspired Fluid Dynamics Lab at South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University. With a scholarly background in classical fluid mechanics, our group specializes in developing theoretical and computational fluid dynamics models of transport inside complex biophysical systems. Ongoing federally funded projects are on respiratory physiology and cancerous solid tumors.

To validate the models, we collaborate with our peers in experimental mechanics. The partnerships are often supplemented by our own tabletop experiments performed in 3D-printed anatomic replicas. For translational end goals, we also collaborate extensively with cross-disciplinary groups from medical science, nursing, biology, pharmacology, virology and the relevant industrial sectors (e.g., in drug delivery, personalized health care, medical device design and on modeling of respiratory infection transmission).

Education

  • B.E. in civil engineering | Jadavpur University, India | 2009
  • Ph.D. in engineering mechanics | Virgina Tech (2014)

Academic and Professional Experience

Academic Interests
  • Theoretical and computational fluid dynamics
Academic Responsibilities
  • Engineering Mechanics in Biomedical Applications (ME 446/546, SDSU)
  • Mechanical Design Technologies (ME 212, SDSU)
  • Graduate Seminar (ME 790, SDSU)
  • Skeletal Biomechanics (fall 2018, UNC Chapel Hill)
  • Statics (fall 2017, UNC Chapel Hill)
  • Nonlinear Dynamics (spring 2016, OIST Japan)
  • Statics (spring 2014, Virginia Tech)
  • Fluid Mechanics I, II (summer 2012, Virginia Tech)
Committees and Professional Memberships

Committees

  • Member, National Science Foundation Grant Review Panels, 2020-present
  • Member, National Institutes of Health Grant Review Panels, 2022-present
  • Member, SDSU Graduate Advisory Council, 2025-present
  • Member, SDSU College of Engineering Research Council, 2023-present
  • Member, SDSU Mechanical Engineering Faculty Search Committee, 2022-present
  • Chair, SDSU Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. Qualifying Examinations Committee, 2025-present
  • Faculty adviser, Biomedical Engineering Society Chapter at SDSU, 2022-present
  • Member, SDSU Faculty Senate, 2019-2020
  • Chair, Smithies Nobel Symposium Planning Subcommittee, UNC Chapel Hill, 2017

Professional Memberships

  • American Physical Society
  • Biomedical Engineering Society
  • International Society for Aerosols in Medicine
Work Experience
  • 2025-present, associate professor, tenured, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2019-2025, assistant professor, tenure track, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2016-2018, postdoctoral fellow, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • 2017-2018, adjunct faculty, UNC/North Carolina State University
  • 2014-2016, postdoctoral scholar, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
  • 2009-2014, graduate assistant, Virginia Tech
  • 2008, summer intern: DLR, Braunschweig, Germany

Research and Scholarly Work

Areas of Research

Bridging the ENG-BIO disconnect through discoveries and extensions from classical fluid mechanics and biomathematical modeling, with core contributions in areas of airborne transmission of diseases through respiratory routes and cancer flow physics.

à£à£Ö±²¥Ðãs and Honors
  • 2025, Lohr Outstanding Faculty, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2024, ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering
  • 2024, NSF CAREER à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã
  • 2024, Outstanding Researcher à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2024, Faculty à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã for International Research, Office of International Affairs, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2023, Grantswinship à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2023, Early Career Investigator of the Year, Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, South à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã State University
  • 2018, Fluid Dynamics Research Prize, Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics
  • 2015, Nomination for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation, Virgina Tech
  • 2013, Paul Torgersen Research Excellence à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã
  • 2010, Bechtel Travel Fellowship, Virginia Tech
  • 2009, Pratt Presidential Graduate Fellowship, Virginia Tech
  • 2008, Summer Fellowship, IASc India
  • 2007, Summer Fellowship, JNCASR India
  • 2004, National Merit Scholarship Certificate, India
Grants
  • The Contagion Science: Integration of inhaled transport mechanics principles inside the human upper respiratory tract at multi scales. NSF CAREER à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã, January 2024-December 2028, $540,428.
  • CAREER supplement: The Contagion Science: Integration of inhaled transport mechanics principles inside the human upper respiratory tract at multi scales. NSF Supplemental à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã for Travel (an NSF-European Research Council Mechanism), January 2024-December 2028, $17,058.
  • Computational and theoretical fluid mechanics modeling for transport in dense tumors. NIH COBRE RPL Grant, March 2023, February 2026, $450,000.
  • Sponsored collaboration with Aptar Pharma: Designing targeted carrier solutions for intranasal vaccines. Industry-sponsored project, August 2022 --May 2024, $66,066.
  • Collaborative Research: New Generation of a Bio-inspired Protective Mask Based on Thermal and Vortex Traps. NSF CBET RAPID Grant, May 2020-April 2022, $62,824.
  • Computational tracking of perfusion in solid tumors. NIH COBRE Pilot Grant, April 2021-July 2022, $49,999.
  • Improving topical drug delivery for treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis using CFD, NIH R01 Subcontract from UNC Chapel Hill, April 2019-May 2020, $20,021.
    Development of a digital platform to assess targeted regional drug delivery for airway sites. Haarberg Drug, Disease and Delivery (3D Center) Center Exploratory Grant, April 2023-June 2024, $99,710.
  • "Peak band" vs. "Monotonic decay": exploring particle deposition and penetration in anatomic cavities. Haarberg 3D Center à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã for Undergraduate Research Support, February 2023-June 2023, $3,000.
  • Use of CFD to track respiratory transport in the throat. Scholarly Dissemination à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã from SDSU Office of Academic Affairs, November 2019-May 2020, $500.
  • CFD-based identification of optimal particle sizes for targeted drug delivery at laryngeal granulomas. NIH NCATS Pilot Grant 2KR971701 awarded through UNC-CH, February 2018-May 2019, $2,000.
Publications
  1. M. Yeasin, M.M.H. Akash, A. Malakar, A.A.T. Borojeni, A. Tummala, J. Wu, W.D. Bennett, W.M. Bodnar, J.S. Kimbell, A. Chakravarty, J.R. Port and S. Basu. Decoding the mechanophysiology for inhaled onset of smallpox with model-based implications for mpox spread. medRxiv, doi: 10.1101/2025.06.17.25329814, under review, 2025.
  2. A.B. Merife, A. Poudel, A. Polshchikova, Z.L. Geffert, J. Horton, M.M.H. Akash, A. Pandey, S. Basu, D. Fougnier and P. Soman. 3D osteocyte networks under Pusatile Unidirectional Fluid Flow Stimuli (PUFFS). bioRxiv, doi: 10.1101/2025.04.30.651549, under review, 2025.
  3. S. Basu, L.P. Chamorro, M. Yeasin and M.A. Stremler. Modeling the effect of vorticity on inhaled transport in the upper airway. arXiv: 2406.09708, under review, 2025.
  4. S. Basu. On the mechanics of inhaled bronchial transmission of pathogenic microdroplets generated from the upper respiratory tract, with implications for infection onset. arXiv: 2406.17895, under review, 2025.
  5. M. Singh, S. Basu and D. Samanta. Non-Newtonian fluid droplet impact dynamics on thin liquid films. Physics of Fluids, 37(2), 022139, 2025.
  6. Z. Wu, S. Basu, S. Kim, M. Sorrells, F.J. Beron-Vera and S. Jung. Coherent spore dispersion via drop-leaf interactions. Science Advances, Vol. 10(5), eadj8092, 2024.
  7. M.M.H. Akash, Y. Lao, P.A. Balivada, P. Ato, N.K. Ka, A. Mituniewicz, Z. Silfen, J. Suman, A. Chakravarty, D. Joseph-McCarthy and S. Basu. On a model-based approach to improve intranasal spray targeting for respiratory viral infections. Frontiers in Drug Delivery, Sec. Respiratory Drug Delivery, Vol. 3, 1164671, 2023.
  8. M.M.H. Akash, N. Chakraborty, J. Mohmmad, K. Reindl and S. Basu. Computational multiphase characterization of perfusion trends inside biomimetic reduced-order dense tumors. Experimental and Computational Multiphase Flow, Vol. 5(3), 319-329, 2023.
  9. J. Yuk, M.M.H. Akash, A. Chakraborty, S. Basu, L.P. Chamorro and S. Jung. Morphology of pig nasal structure and modulation of airflow, thermal conditioning and olfactory functionality. Integrative and Comparative Biology, Vol. 63(2), 304-314, 2023.
  10. D.V. Egeren, M. Stoddard, A. Malakar, D. Ghosh, A. Acharya, S. Mainuddin, B. Majumdar, D. Luo, R. Nolan, D. Joseph-McCarthy, L.F. White, N.S. Hochberg, S. Basu and A. Chakravarty. No magic bullet: limiting in-school transmission in the face of variable SARS-CoV-2 viral loads. Frontiers in Public Health, Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention, Vol. 10, 941773, 2022.
  11. S. Basu, U.A. Khwaja, S.A.A. Rizvi, M.A. Sanchez-Gonzalez and G. Ferrer. Evaluation of Patient Experience for a Computationally-Guided Intranasal Spray Protocol to Augment Therapeutic Penetration: Implications for Effective Treatments for COVID-19, Rhinitis and Sinusitis. Medical Research Archives, Vol. 10(4), 2022.
  12. J. Yuk, A. Chakraborty, S. Cheng, C.I. Chung, A. Jorgensen, S. Basu*, L.P. Chamorro* and S. Jung*. On the design of particle filters inspired by à£à£Ö±²¥Ðã noses. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, Vol. 19(188), 20210849 | * all corresponding authors, 2022.
  13. S. Basu, M.M.H. Akash, N.S. Hochberg, B.A. Senior, D. Joseph-McCarthy and A. Chakravarty. From SARS-CoV-2 infection to COVID-19 morbidity: an in silico projection of virion flow rates to the lower airway via nasopharyngeal fluid boluses. Rhinology Online (open-access, peer-reviewed journal from European Rhinologic Society), Vol. 5(5), 10-18, 2022.
  14. S. Basu. Computational characterization of inhaled droplet transport to the nasopharynx. Scientific Reports (open-access, peer-reviewed journal from Nature), Vol. 11(1), 6652, 2021.
  15. M.A. Stremler, S. Basu and E. Masroor. Streamline patterns in 2P vortex street equilibria. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 901 E2, 1-4, 2020.
  16. S. Basu, L.T. Holbrook, K. Kudlaty, O. Fasanmade, J. Wu, A. Burke, B.W. Langworthy, M. Mamdani, Z. Farzal, W.D. Bennett, J.P. Fine, B.A. Senior, A.M. Zanation, C.S. Ebert Jr., A. Kimple, B. Thorp, D.O. Frank-Ito, G.J.M. Garcia and J.S. Kimbell. Numerical evaluation of spray position for improved nasal drug delivery. Scientific Reports (open-access, peer-reviewed journal from Nature), Vol. 10(1), 10568, 2020.
  17. S. Treat, C.S. Ebert Jr., Z. Farzal, S. Basu, A.M. Zanation, B.D. Thorp, J.S. Kimbell, B.A. Senior and A.J. Kimple. Intranasal corticosteroids: patient administration angles and impact of education. Rhinology Online (open-access, peer-reviewed journal from European Rhinologic Society), Vol. 3, 160-166, 2020.
  18. B.M. Brandon, W.H. Stepp, S. Basu, J.S. Kimbell, B.A. Senior, W.W. Shockley and J. Madison Clark. Nasal airflow changes with bioabsorbable implant, butterfly and spreader grafts. The Laryngoscope, Vol. 130(12), E817-E823, 2020.
  19. Z. Farzal, S. Basu, A. Burke, O. Fasanmade, E. Mamuyac, W. Bennett, C.S. Ebert Jr., A. Zanation, B.A. Senior and J.S. Kimbell. Comparative study of simulated nebulized and spray particle deposition in chronic rhinosinusitis patients. International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, Vol. 9(7), 746-758, 2019.
  20. L.F. Tracy, S. Basu, P. Shah, D.O. Frank-Ito, S. Das, A. Zanation and J.S. Kimbell. Impact of endoscopic craniofacial resection on simulated nasal airflow and heat transport. International Forum of Allergy and Rhinology, Vol. 9(8), 900-909, 2019

Working preprints

  1. M.L. Tesch, A. Malakar, S.A.A. Rizvi, M.M.H. Akash, G. Ferrer and S. Basu. Enhancing intranasal therapeutic penetration for treating respiratory illness: A clinical human factor feasibility study. Preprints.org, DOI: 10.20944/preprints202312.1002.v1, uploaded 2023.
  2. S. Basu. Approaching Fermat's Conjecture from the Principle of Mathematical Induction Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics eJournal, SSRN 4023652, uploaded 2022.
  3. S. Das and S. Basu. On a model-based analysis of vortex formations and decay in flows through bio-inspired T-shaped cavities. arXiv, DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2211.06964, uploaded 2022.

Prior to SDSU

  1. J.S. Kimbell, S. Basu, G.J.M. Garcia, D.O. Frank-Ito, F.B. Lazarow, E. Su, D.E. Protsenko, Z. Chen, J. Rhee and B.J. Wong. Upper airway reconstruction using anatomic optical coherence tomography: effects of airway bend on airflow resistance. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, Vol. 51(2), 150-160, 2019.
  2. S. Basu, D.O. Frank-Ito and J.S. Kimbell. On computational fluid dynamics models for sinonasal drug transport: relevance of nozzle subtraction and nasal vestibular dilation. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 34(4), e2946, 2018.
  3. E. Perkins, S. Basu, G.J.M. Garcia, R. Buckmire, R. Shah and J.S. Kimbell. Ideal particle sizes for inhaled steroids targeting vocal granulomas: preliminary study using computational fluid dynamics. Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Vol. 158(3), 511-519, 2018.
  4. B.M. Brandon, G.K. Austin, G. Fleischman, S. Basu, J.S. Kimbell, W.D. Shockley and J. Madison Clark. Comparison of airflow between spreader and butterfly grafts using computational fluid dynamics in cadaveric models. JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, Vol. 20(3), 215-221, 2018.
  5. J.S. Kimbell, S. Basu, Z. Farzal and B.A. Senior. Characterizing nasal delivery in 3D models before and after sinus surgery. Respiratory Drug Delivery, Vol. 1, 181-188, 2018.
  6. S. Basu, A. Yawar, A. Concha and M.M. Bandi. On angled bounce-off impact of a drop impinging on a flowing soap film. Fluid Dynamics Research, Vol. 49(6), 065509, 2017 | à£à£Ö±²¥Ðãed Fluid Dynamics Research Prize 2018.
  7. S. Basu and M.A. Stremler. Exploring the dynamics of 2P wakes with reflective symmetry using point vortices. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 831, 72-100, 2017.
  8. S. Basu and M.A. Stremler. On the motion of two point vortex pairs with wake-inspired glide-reflective symmetry in a periodic strip. Physics of Fluids, Vol. 27(10), 103603, 2015.
  9. M.A. Stremler and S. Basu. On point vortex models of exotic bluff body wakes. Fluid Dynamics Research, Vol. 46(6), 061410, 2014.
  10. M.A. Stremler, A. Salmanzadeh, S. Basu and C.H.K. Williamson. A mathematical model of 2P and 2C vortex wakes. Journal of Fluids and Structures, Vol. 27(5-6), 774-783, 2011.

Working preprint

  1. S.B. Sreenath, J.S. Kimbell, S. Basu, A.J. Coniglio, T.E. Fontenot, B.D. Thorp, C.S. Ebert, B.A. Senior and A.M. Zanation. . arXiv, DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.1811.00649, uploaded 2018

CV

Mailing Address:
Crothers Engineering Hall 216
Mechanical Engineering-Box 2219
University Station
Brookings, SD 57007
Office Location:
Crothers Engineering Hall
Room 216
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