Chanakya University School of Biosciences

Mausumi Goswami

Ph.D., Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Mausumi Goswami

Ph.D., Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
mausumi.g@chanakyauniversity.edu.in
Microwave spectroscopy; Atmospheric and environmental chemistry; Criegee intermediate chemistry; Reaction kinetics and dynamics; Hydrogen bonding and weak interactions; Quantum-chemical calculations; Helium nanodroplets

I am an experimental physical chemist, with a keen interest in understanding the chemistry that happens in the atmosphere. Much of my current work centres on Criegee intermediates (CIs), a group of short-lived carbonyl oxides formed when ozone reacts with alkenes released by vegetation, the oceans and human activity. Over the past decade these reactive species have emerged as important atmospheric oxidants, yet how CIs react with many trace gases is poorly understood, even though these reactions can decide the fate of a pollutant and its lifetime.

My group is especially interested in sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds, which come from marine and industrial sources and feed directly into aerosol formation and climate. We have shown that Criegee chemistry can be a major atmospheric sink for methane sulfonamide, converting it into functionalized hydroperoxides, and that a common atmospheric acid such as formic acid can reshape the way dimethyl disulfide is oxidized. Each of these findings changes how these molecules should be represented in models of atmospheric chemistry.

In my quest to understand atmospheric chemistry and its consequences, I utilize both experiment and theory. In the laboratory I will generate reactive intermediates and identify their products using various spectroscopic and analytical methods, while quantum-chemical calculations and kinetic analysis will let me map reaction pathways, estimate rate coefficients and judge which channels matter under true atmospheric conditions.

My goal is to build an internationally competitive research programme involving high-resolution spectroscopy, reaction dynamics and computation. I will extend our expertise to the chemistry of cold environments such as the interstellar medium. Developing new instrumentation will be a central part of that effort.

Dr. Mausumi Goswami is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Chanakya University. She is an experimental physical chemist with expertise in high-resolution molecular spectroscopy, chemical reaction dynamics, atmospheric chemistry, and interstellar chemistry.

She received her M.Sc. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, where her thesis on the rotational spectroscopy of weakly bound molecular complexes received the Dr. J. C. Ghosh Medal for the best doctoral thesis in Physical Chemistry. She held postdoctoral positions at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, studying radical reactions in crossed molecular beams, and at the University of Virginia in the laboratory of Kevin Lehman, where she worked on high-resolution spectroscopy, helium nanodroplets and instrument development. Before joining Chanakya University, she was a faculty member at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore.

Her group combines spectroscopic, analytical and computational methods to study molecular processes in the atmosphere, with a focus on reactive intermediate chemistry.

  • Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, 2010.
  • M.Sc., Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, 2003.

  1. Ibrahim Syed J, S. Gupta, G. Chowdhury, and M. Goswami*, “Criegee intermediate as a major atmospheric sink for methane sulfonamide: A pathway to functionalized hydroperoxides,” Environ. Sci. Technol., vol. 60, no. 15, pp. 11475–11485, 2026, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5c14460.
  2. G. Babu, A. Das, A. Chakrabarty, G. Chowdhury, and M. Goswami*, “Criegee intermediate-mediated oxidation of dimethyl disulfide: Effect of formic acid and its atmospheric relevance,” J. Phys. Chem. A, vol. 127, pp. 8415–8426, 2023. (Selected for the special collection “Spectroscopy, Structure, and Reactivity of Stabilized Criegee Intermediates,” J. Phys. Chem. A, 2024, eds. A. J. Orr-Ewing and D. L. Osborn)
  3. M. Goswami and E. Arunan*, “Spectroscopic determination of hydrogen bond energies,” in Spectroscopy and Computation of Hydrogen-Bonded Systems, M. J. Wójcik and Y. Ozaki, Eds. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH, 2023, ch. 11.
  4. S. Chakraborty, D. Mallick, M. Goswami, F. P. Guengerich, A. Chakrabarty*, and G. Chowdhury*, “The natural products withaferin A and withanone from the medicinal herb Withania somnifera are covalent inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease,” J. Nat. Prod., vol. 85, pp. 2340–2350, 2022. (Cover page article)
  5. S. Siddiqui, N. Ahmed, M. Goswami, A. Chakrabarty, and G. Chowdhury*, “DNA damage by withanone as a potential cause of liver toxicity observed for herbal products of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha),” Curr. Res. Toxicol., vol. 2, pp. 72–81, 2021.
  6. S. D. Gogoleva, E. V. Kalganova, A. A. Maskevich, A. A. Lugovski, V. A. Kuzmitsky, M. Goswami, O. V. Buganov, S. A. Tikhomirov, and V. I. Stsiapura*, “Neutral derivatives of thioflavin T do not exhibit viscosity-dependent fluorescence,” J. Photochem. Photobiol. A, Chem., vol. 358, pp. 76–91, 2018.
  7. N. Seifert, D. Zaleski, R. Fehnel, M. Goswami, B. H. Pate, K. K. Lehmann*, H. O. Leung, M. D. Marshall, and J. Stanton, “The gas-phase structure of asymmetric, trans-dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4), formed by dimerization of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), from rotational spectroscopy and ab initio quantum chemistry,” J. Chem. Phys., vol. 146, Art. no. 134305, 2017.
  8. M. Goswami*, J. L. Neill, M. T. Muckle, B. H. Pate, and E. Arunan, “Microwave, infrared-microwave double resonance and theoretical studies of C2H4···H2S complex,” J. Chem. Phys., vol. 139, Art. no. 104303, 2013. (Corresponding author)
  9. R. I. Kaiser*, D. S. N. Parker, M. Goswami, F. Zhang, V. V. Kislov, A. M. Mebel, J. Aguilera-Iparraguirre, and W. H. Green, “Crossed beam reaction of phenyl and D5-phenyl radicals with propene and deuterated counterparts—Competing atomic hydrogen and methyl loss pathways,” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 14, p. 720, 2012.
  10. R. I. Kaiser*, M. Goswami, P. Maksyutenko, F. Zhang, Y. S. Kim, A. Landera, and A. M. Mebel, “A crossed molecular beams and ab initio study on the formation of C6H3 radicals. An interface between resonantly stabilized and aromatic radicals,” J. Phys. Chem. A, vol. 115, p. 10251, 2011.
  11. M. Goswami and E. Arunan*, “Microwave spectroscopic and theoretical studies on the phenylacetylene···H2O complex: C–H···O and O–H···π hydrogen bonds as equal partners,” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 13, p. 14153, 2011. (Special thematic issue on “Weak hydrogen bonds—strong effects”)
  12. M. Goswami and E. Arunan*, “Microwave spectrum and structure of C6H5CCH···H2S complex,” J. Mol. Spectrosc., vol. 268, p. 147, 2011. (Philip R. Bunker and A. Robert W. McKellar special issue, Part 2)
  13. M. Goswami and E. Arunan*, “The hydrogen bond: A molecular beam microwave spectroscopist’s view with a universal appeal,” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., vol. 11, p. 8974, 2009. (Inside front cover)
  14. P. K. Mandal, M. Goswami, and E. Arunan, “Pulsed nozzle Fourier transform microwave spectroscopic and ab initio investigations on the weakly bound Ar-(H2S)2 trimer,” J. Indian Inst. Sci., vol. 85, p. 353, 2005. (Invited for the special issue on cold molecules)
  15. E. Arunan*, P. K. Mandal, M. Goswami, and B. Raghavendra, “Rotational spectra of weakly bound complexes containing H2O/H2S: Hydrogen bonding vs van der Waals interaction,” Proc. Indian Natl. Sci. Acad., vol. 71A, p. 377, 2005.
  16. G. Majumdar, M. Goswami, T. K. Sarma, A. Paul, and A. Chattopadhyay*, “Au nanoparticles and polyaniline coated resin beads for simultaneous catalytic oxidation of glucose and colorimetric detection of the product,” Langmuir, vol. 21, p. 1663, 2005.
  17. S. Naik, R. Gopinath, M. Goswami, and B. K. Patel*, “Chemoselective thioacetalization and transthioacetalization of carbonyl compounds catalysed by tetrabutylammonium tribromide (TBATB),” Org. Biomol. Chem., vol. 2, p. 1670, 2004.
  18. M. Goswami, P. K. Mandal, D. J. Ramdass, and E. Arunan*, “Rotational spectra and structure of the floppy C2H4-H2S complex: Bridging hydrogen-bonding and van der Waals interaction,” Chem. Phys. Lett., vol. 393, p. 22, 2004.

* Corresponding author

  • Dr. J.C Ghosh medal for the best thesis in Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, 2009-2010.
  • CSIR and DST international travel grants to deliver an oral presentation at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA (June 2005).
  • Junior Research Fellowship (2003) and Senior Research Fellowship (2005), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. Senior Research Fellowship, 2005 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India.
  • Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 2023-present.
  • Member of American Chemical Society (ACS) since 2023-present.
  • Member of American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 2022-pesent.

  • Expert opinion “Hidden Chemistry Above the Ocean: How Reactive Molecules Shape Climate and Aerosol Formation,” contributed to Science Factors magazine, Rosalind Franklin Council of Scientific Research, 15 September 2026. https://doi.org/10.67831/Sci.Factors.2026.1524

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