Hi, I'm Saumitra Phatak.
Growing up in Mumbai taught me to prize curiosity above all else. An outlook I now apply as a fifth-year Physics Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Jonathan Hood's lab at Purdue University. I engineer optical-tweezer platforms that cool single lithium and cesium atoms to the micro-kelvin regime and probe exotic quantum matter one collision at a time.
If the intersection of fundamental physics and real-world quantum computing excites you too, I'd love to swap ideas - on campus, at conferences, or over a well-timed coffee.
I have summarized my projects and publications, along with some other information like CV, on this website.
Feel free to contact me, for any further details about the mentioned scientific projects.
Quick Links: HoodLab , Google Scholar page, CV, Linkedin page
Outside the lab, I write - personal essays documenting life as an Indian student abroad [Link: Curious Writings], and poetry in Hindi, Marathi, and English [LINK: Siyahi]. I also built a free learning site for practical knowledge that school never taught [LINK: RealWorld Academy] and an interactive quantum computing explorer [LINK: Quantum Explorer].
Research Philosophy
Our team captures individual lithium-6 and cesium-133 atoms in optical tweezers and cools them to a few micro-kelvin above absolute zero — giving us single-particle control that still feels magical after thousands of experimental runs. The Hood group's mission, as I see it, is to turn that control into practical quantum technology by pairing rigorous AMO physics with inventive engineering. In this quest, we don't just want to reach the goal; we want to find an efficient route through innovative cooling and imaging techniques — a necessity, since atoms only communicate in the language of resonances, which is natural for photons.