Professor Bhattacharjee earned a B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1983 and his Ph.D. from Washington State University, Pullman, USA in 1988, and is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at San Diego State University.
Prof. Bhattacharjee has been actively involved in research on microgravity combustion and radiation heat transfer. Several of his experiments on flame spread over solid fuels have been conducted aboard NASA's Sounding Rockets, Space Shuttles and Russia's Mir Space Station. Other research interests include fire detection, infra-red pyrometry and knowledge-based distributed intelligence. Recently Prof. Bhattacharjee and his collaborators from Gifu University, Japan, have been conducting collaborative research on flame dynamics in a microgravity environment. Author of numerous journal papers and conference articles, Professor Bhattacharjee has received the Best Paper Award from JSME in 2000.
Recipient of Faculty Friend Award, Outstanding Faculty Award, and Distinguished Faculty Award, Prof. Bhattacharjee offers thermal science related classes at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Developing object-oriented software tools for thermal engineers is a hobby of Dr. Bhattacharjee that led to the development of TEST, The Expert System for Thermodynamics, regularly accessed by a large number of students, professionals and educators from around the world. His first book, "TEST-A Visual Tour" was published by Prentice Hall in 2003.
Professor Bhattacharjee is married and has three children, Robi, Sarah and Neil.