Professor Biswas, while not the oldest member of the UF faculty, has lead an interesting life. He grew up, both physically and educationally, in India. He has done research both in India and in the United States. He has noted some differences in working in India and in the United States. While at the Indian Institute of Science, he noted that the physics community was really close knit. Everybody knew each other, and it was not uncommon for the physics building to still be full at 3 or 4 in the morning. While doing research at the University of Maryland and here, he noticed that the physics community is much larger, but not as close. Additionally, he noticed that things get done quicker here, which he credits to American professionalism.

Professor Biswas earned both his Masters and PhD at the Indian Institute of Science. While there, he did a lot of research with low temperature manganites. At low temperatures, manganites exhibit very strong ferromagnetic properties. The ferromagnetism of these manganites tends to be stronger than most ferromagnets.

These manganites also have one direction of electron spin. As a result, these manganites could potentially be used to replace the magnets in a computer hard drive reader, for a much faster reading, and much clearer signal. Currently, Professor Biswas is performing research in both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic properties of manganites. While doing research at the University of Maryland, he found the first direct evidence that manganites can be both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic. Now, he is trying to find perturbations that convert manganites from one state to the other. One use of this would be in magnetic Liquid Crystal Displays. If you are interested in his research, you can find information on the Biswas group page at http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~amlan/researchintro.html.

If you are interested in working on this research, then talk to professor Biswas, or one of the students already working on the project. Professor Biswas prefers students who have completed advanced lab I. However, research isn't all that professors ever do, and Professor Biswas is no different. While at UF, he has taught Mechanics I and II, and currently teaches Physics I. One of his favorite parts of teaching these courses is the demonstrations that are possible. When he was still taking classes, his favorites were radiative processes in astrophysics, and general relativity.

Being an Assistant Professor is hard, and takes a lot of time and effort. However, physics has been a hobby and a love of Professor Biswas' from a young age. His advice to anybody thinking about a career in physics teaching, “It looks hard, but if you are interested, that interest will carry you through.” He still has time play on a soccer league, and work out, as well as watch the television show 'Heroes'.