IISER Kolkata integrated PhD student dies by suicide in laboratory

NEW DELHI: An integrated PhD student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, Subhadip Roy, died by suicide on April 4 in the laboratory at the institute. IISER Kolkata announced the news through Twitter and said, “IISER Kolkata deeply regrets the tragic demise of Subhadip Roy, an integrated PhD student of the Department of Physical Sciences (DPS).”

“We would like to share a statement prepared by DPS which represents the views of the institute,” IISER Kolkata said in the tweet.

IISER Kolkata deeply regrets the tragic demise of Mr. Subhadip Roy, an Integrated PhD student of the Dept of Physical Sciences (DPS). We would like to share a statement prepared by DPS which represents the views of the institute.@Abhadra7 @ayanban7 @ydnad0 pic.twitter.com/AcgO0nN1Wc

— IISER Kolkata (@iiserkol) April 9, 2022

According to the institute’s statement, “Roy was discovered in an unresponsive state in a laboratory at IISER Kolkata premises on April 4, 2022 and was later declared dead, in what is being suspected as a case of suicide.”

Roy joined IISER Kolkata in the year 2014 as an Integrated PhD student after completing his BSc degree. He was currently a senior research fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He had three first or lead author publications with his supervisor, Professor Chiranjib Mitra, in reputed journals and three conference proceedings. He was also involved in the development of a state-of-the-art laboratory for quantum information processing and India’s first ESR setup, the institute’s statement informed.

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Roy was planning to submit his thesis in summer. Apart from pandemic-impact and lab closures for over two years, no red flag was reported to the research programme committee at IISER Kolkata, it said. The Department too didn’t receive any issues or problems regarding research by the student or supervisor or any of Roy’s close friends, the institute said.

Dismissing allegations on involvement of the supervisor in the suicide case, IISER Kolkata said that professor Mitra has done his post-doctoral research from Cambride University; is an expert of the subject; and has a track record of publications in international journals. Not only has he supervised five PhD students, one of his students is an assistant professor at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar. “There has been no record of any charges of abuse or harassment against him from any student,” it said.

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The institute further informed that it has formed an internal committee to look into the matter which is also being investigated by relevant authorities.

“We are in mourning for the passing of a member of our community, who by all apparent markers was doing quite well in academics and was actively engaged with the larger community,” said IISER Kolkata requesting “that unsubstantiated misinformation and rumors should not be entertained.”

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