Meet Our Faculty: Dr. Buddhadeb Mallik

buddhadeb mallikMeet Dr. Buddhadeb Mallik

Assistant Professor, School of Professional and Technical Studies, Department of Science and Engineering   

Faculty member since 2019
301-934-7806
bmallik@csmd.edu

Courses Taught

  • CHE-1050 Introductory Chemistry (lecture and lab)
  • CHE-1200 General Chemistry I (lecture and lab)
  • CHE-1210 General Chemistry II (lecture and lab)
  • CHE-1350 General Chemistry for Engineers

About 

I started my career as a chemist and scientist in studying diverse biochemical systems to facilitate the development of drugs and vaccines. After earning my doctorate in chemistry, I continued my postdoctoral research at different places such as Academia Sinica in Taiwan, City College of the City University of New York, University of California at Riverside, and Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in California. Later, I worked as a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) before moving into teaching. I have authored 22 peer-reviewed research papers published in high-ranking journals in the field and four book chapters.  

I’ve also had the opportunity to mentor undergraduate and high school students in their research projects that resulted in peer-reviewed journal publications. 

Educational Background 

I earned my degrees at some of India’s premier institutions for high-quality teaching and research in the field of science and technology. I received my bachelor’s in chemistry from Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (affiliated with the University of Calcutta); my master’s in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur; and my Ph.D. in chemistry from IIT Bombay. 

Q&A

Teaching chemistry requires innovative approaches that must be attractive, effective, and enjoyable to students. Depending on the mode of teaching, the topics I am teaching, and the duration of the course, I modify the style but try to retain the expected rigor and outcome as much as possible.  

The use of multimedia technology creates a better visual impact of atomic and molecular models and is easier to grasp for students who may not have much—if any—background in chemistry. To substantiate theoretical understanding, I often select some videos that visibly help students to appreciate chemistry as a subject.  

In other situations, I bring real chemicals and accessories into the classroom, teach the topic, and demonstrate how the principal works. I often try to find a close parallel between specific molecular-level chemistry and the phenomena that occur in our day-to-day life. 

I encourage students to engage in group study outside the class. I’ve found that explaining the subject to someone else lets a student improve their own understanding.  

It’s been my experience that, when a student seems to be having difficulties in a class, it’s usually for one of two reasons. They either have a hard time understanding the subject, or they’re going through some sort of personal problem. I like to repeatedly remind the class of my availability during my designated office hours and encourage them to take full advantage. It’s been fascinating to see how, given the opportunity, students with these problems open up and afterward are motivated to face the challenges more actively. 

I devote most of my spare time to studying Vedic literature. Vedic literature is comprised of a huge collection of pre-historic (around 3000 B.C.) Sanskrit texts that provide a wide range of wisdom for human society. I am always glad to share what I know of these gems of wisdom. I have also a strong passion for gardening. 

One thing that has struck me about CSM is its unique location. It’s secluded, spacious, quiet, surrounded by greenery, and absolutely clean. It’s so beautiful it could be mistaken for a resort.  

It is a tight-knit community. Staff and faculty across the campus are like the members of a family. They truly make you feel like they have your best interests at heart. The class sizes are usually small, which makes the environment comfortable for the instructor to know the students individually. This also helps the students spread their ideas and information easier. Students come from all walks of life. They take their studies extremely seriously, but I’ve never seen any of the kind of arrogance that I’ve come across in other colleges. Overall, I am always surrounded by diverse, uniquely genuine, and compassionate individuals who make you feel that you are welcomed and safe. That’s not easy to find elsewhere.  

Teaching is a joyful profession and is most successful as a collaboration among students, faculty, and staff. I always try my best to maintain a friendly classroom environment, characterized by mutual respect, cooperation, and flexibility. 

My passion for chemistry as a subject is evident in my education, my research, and my total involvement while teaching. Both my students and my fellow professors truly appreciate that passion. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy countless instances when my students spontaneously expressed their favorable opinions of my teaching style. 

In teaching, my single goal is that the students learn the subject. Chemistry is not an easy subject to master. It is expected that students need help beyond what they can do on their own, so I make myself available via office hours, emails, phone calls, and video calls. 

Buddhadeb Mallik
Teaching is a joyful profession and is most successful as a collaboration among students, faculty, and staff. I always try my best to maintain a friendly classroom environment, characterized by mutual respect, cooperation, and flexibility.
Dr. Buddhadeb Mallik
Assistant Professor
School of Professional and Technical Studies, Department of Science and Engineering


Notable Conferences or Publications

I pursued research in many different areas before moving into teaching. Most of my research works aimed to develop small-molecule and peptide drugs and vaccines. 

  1. Mallik B. and Datta S. N. (1994). Semiempirical quantum chemical treatment of the standard reduction potential of quinone and plastoquinone in water. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 52, 629-649.
  2. Datta S. N. and Mallik B. (1995). Determination of the acid dissociation constants of p-benzohydroquinone by the INDO method. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 53, 37-47.
  3. Datta S. N. and Mallik B. (1997). Theoretical investigation of the rates of electron transfer processes QI- + QII -> QI + QII- and QI- + QII- -> QI + QII2- in photosynthesis. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 61, 865-879. 
  4. Datta S. N. and Mallik B. (1997). Is there any difference in the plastoquinone-protein link for QI (QA) and QII (QB)? An INDO study. J. Phys. Chem. 101, 5191-5195.
  5. Mallik B., Masunov A. and Lazaridis T. (2002). Distance and exposure dependent effective dielectric function. J. Comp. Chem. 23, 1090-1099. 
  6. Mallik B., Katragadda B., Spruce L. A., Carafides C., Tsokos C. G., Morikis D. and Lambris J. D. (2005). Design and NMR characterization of active analogs of compstatin with non-natural amino acids J. Med. Chem. 48, 274-286. 
  7. Mallik B. and Morikis D. (2005). Development of a quasi-dynamic pharmacophore model for anti-complement peptide analogs J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127, 10967-10976.
  8. Mallik B. and Morikis D. (2006). Application of molecular dynamics simulations in immunology: A useful computational method in aiding vaccine design, Current Proteomics 3, 259-270.
  9. Mallik, B., Zhang, L., Koide, S., and Morikis, D. (2008). pH-dependence of stability of the tenth human fibronectin type III domain: a computational study Biotechnology Progress 24, 48-55.
  10. Chakravarti B., Oseguera M.*, Dalal N.*, Fathy P.*, Mallik B., Raval A. and Chakravarti Deb N. (2008). Proteomic profiling of aging in the mouse heart: Altered expression of mitochondrial proteins, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 474, 22-31.
  11. Mallik B., Chakravarti B. and Chakravarti Deb N. (2008). Overview of chromatography, Current Protocols: Essential Laboratory Techniques, UNIT 6.1, pp. 6.1.1-6.1.21, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey.
  12. Mallik B. and Morikis D. (2005). Quasi-dynamic pharmacophore modeling of anti-complement peptide analogs using first principles. Biophys. J. 88, 334a. Division of Structure-based Drug Design Abstracts, Abstract 1631, Biophysical Society, 49th Annual Meeting, February 12-16, Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California, USA.
  13. Mallik B., Lambris J. D. and Morikis D. (2004). Rational design of a potent inhibitor for unregulated complement activation using molecular dynamics simulations and nuclear magnetic resonance data. ACS Division of Computers in Chemistry Abstracts, Abstract 82, American Chemical Society 227th National Meeting, March 28-April 1, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim CA, USA. The work is presented at the meeting.
  14. NIH-sponsored workshop “Modeling proteins and nucleic acids with AMBER, VMD, and the MMTSB toolset”, conducted by Biomedical Initiative of Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center at Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, June 9-12, 2005. Instructors: Prof. David A. Case, Dr. Ross Walker, and Dr. Mike Crowley of The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.

 

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Last updated: 10-27-22

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