Soumya Sarkar is an Assistant Professor (Lecturer in UK lingo) in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton since December 2024. He has also been serving as the Deputy Director of the newly launched ECS Centre for Neuromorphic Technologies (CeNT) at Southampton. 

Soumya moved to the UK in 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof Manish Chhowalla in the 2D Materials and Devices group at the University of Cambridge, working on metal contacts for 2D spintronic and ferroelectric-based devices. Prior to this, he was a research fellow with Prof Silvija Gradecak at the National University of Singapore (2019-2021), working on defect based light emitters in hexagonal boron nitride.

Soumya obtained his Ph.D. from National University of Singapore (2015-2018, with Prof T Venky Venkatesan), where his research on optical properties of atomically thin semiconductors and oxide thin films was supported by the NGS fellowship for interdisciplinary research.

Soumya received his undergraduate degree in electronics engineering from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, India in 2014.

His research has been recognised through invited seminars and awards received at international conferences (MRS Fall Meeting, USA; ICANS30, UK; ICLED, Singapore). In Cambridge, he was affiliated to Trinity College, where he organised a popular science outreach platform for college postdocs.