Nilay Kundu

Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Office: Old SAC Building - Block-C, Room 103,

Email: nilayhep (at) iitk.ac.in, nilay.tifr (at) gmail.com

Phone: 0512-259-6801 (Office)

Postal address:
Department of Physics,
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur),
Kanpur 208016, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Research:

I am a member of the string theory group at IIT Kanpur (group webpage).

My research interests are in theoretical physics, broadly focusing on aspects of Gravity and Quantum Field Theory.

In recent times, my specific research interests include the following topics:
- Understanding black hole thermodynamics in effective theories of gravity going beyond Einstein’s theory of general relativity,
- Exploring model independent features of inflationary paradigm of early universe cosmology using symmetry principles, and investigate the possible connections with future observations,
- Studying conformal field theory in momentum space.

Publications: My research publications can be found here: inspirehep, Google Scholar, arXiv .

Recent research seminars: Some of my recent research seminars can be accessed online here:

Black hole entropy in Higher derivative theories of Gravity - link
Entropy current and second law in higher derivative theories of gravity - link
Inflationary cosmological correlators from momentum space conformal symmetry (part 1 - link, part 2 - link)
Second law of black-hole thermodynamics in higher derivative theory of gravity - link
Euclidean Path Integral Optimization in CFT's - link

Teaching:

Courses taught at IIT Kanpur:

2024-25, Semester-II:	Introduction to Electrodynamics (for first year B.S./B.Tech. students) (PHY113).
2024-25, Semester-I:	Tutorial (PHY113).
2023-24, Semester-II:	Introduction to Electrodynamics (for first year B.S./B.Tech. students) (PHY113).
2023-24, Semester-I:	Introduction to General Relativity (PHY407).
2022-23, Semester-II:	Advanced Electrodynamics (PHY553).
2022-23, Semester-I:	Introduction to General Relativity (PHY407).
2021-22, Semester-II:	Advanced Electrodynamics (PHY553).
2021-22, Semester-I:	Quantum Field Theory - I (PHY681).
2020-21, Semester-II:	Quantum Field Theory - II (PHY781).
2020-21, Semester-I:	Quantum Field Theory - I (PHY681).
2019-20, Semester-II:	Special Relativity (PHY226B).
2019-20, Semester-I:	Quantum Field Theory - I (PHY681).
2018-19, Semester-II:	Special Relativity (PHY226B).

Courses taught at other places:

Oct 14 - Nov 9, 2019:

Quantum Field Theory-I (tutor) - SERB preparatory school on Theoretical High Energy Physics at Tezpur University.

Mentoring PhD students/postdoc/M.Sc. thesis:

PhD students:

Prateksh Dhivakar - (2019 - 2024) - presently postdoc at University of Victoria, Canada.
Ritwika Ghoshal - ongoing
Shibam Das - ongoing

Postdoc supervision:

Dr. Sabyasachi Maulik - ongoing - funded by IPDF at IIT Kanpur.
Dr. Parthajit Biswas - (2020 - 2022) - funded by a grant of Prof. Arjun Bagchi - presently postdoc at RKMVERI, Kolkata.

MSc thesis supervision:

Ishan Deo - presently pursuing PhD in Purdue University.
Pinak Banerjee - presently pursuing PhD in Virginia Tech.
Shibam Das - presently pursuing PhD in IIT Kanpur.
Prakriti Singh - presently pursuing PhD in Syracuse University..
Nachiket Karve - presently pursuing PhD in Boston University.
Pushkar Soni - presently pursuing PhD in IIT Kanpur.
Malay Garg - ongoing.

Curriculum Vitae:

My detailed CV can be accessed here.

Last updated: April 13, 2025