IIT-Bombay Professor Rinti Banerjee will be remembered for her tireless COVID Research

Who is Rinti Banerjee? An eminent professor and researcher at the Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), Banerjee passed away on July 8 due to post COVID-19 complications. The senior faculty member of the Institute was a significant member of the team involved in multiple coronavirus-related research and innovation.

On July 8, the department of biosciences and bio-engineering, IIT Bombay, announced the news of her passing. The department praised Banerjee as an "outstanding researcher and teacher", who is survived by her husband and a son.

It is with deep sadness we announce that our colleague Prof. Rinti Banerjee passed away this morning. Rinti was an outstanding researcher and teacher, who also served as Head of our department. This is an unimaginable loss. We send our deepest condolences to her husband and son. pic.twitter.com/9ucpPW5K76

— Biosciences & Bioengineering, IIT Bombay (@BsbeIitb) July 8, 2021

Banerjee was reportedly hospitalised for almost six weeks with COVID-19 complications.

Who is Rinti Banerjee?

50-year-old Banerjee worked in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at the institute. She had completed her MBBS at BJ Medical College, Pune and her PhD in biomedical engineering at IIT Bombay. She had also completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Banerjee was known for doing a lot of research on the pandemic and had filed for multiple patents for the solutions designed, according to a report by the Times of India.

She was spearheading three research projects on COVID-19. She was a brilliant scientist and a good human being, professor Soumyo Mukherji from her department, who knew her from the time she was a PhD student, said to Times of India. Last year, her team, comprising a PhD and three post-doctoral research fellows, developed a wash-resistant biodegradable coating for textiles used for environment-friendly masks and PPE suits. This coating, known as the Duraprot technology, could make virus or bacteria inactive.

Apart from her brilliant research on the ongoing pandemic, Banerjee was an expert in biomaterials, nanomedicine and drug delivery and has published over 100 papers in international journals. She also taught Introduction to Bionanotechnology, Biomaterials, Advanced Biomaterials, Physiology for Engineers at IIT-Bombay. She joined the institute as an assistant professor in 2001.

Feature Image Credit: IANS