Pragya Kushwaha

Contact

Bio

Pragya Kushwaha received her BSc (2015) and MSc (2017) degrees from the University of Allahabad, India, and completed her PhD at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune in 2024. She is an enthusiastic experimentalist with a deep interest in interdisciplinary research. During her PhD, she worked in the field of Soft and Active Matter, investigating the phase behavior of colloidal particles suspended in active bacterial environments. She joined the University at Buffalo as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in May 2025, where she is currently studying the transport properties of nanoparticles in hydrogels under shear deformation.

Research Interests

Pragya’s research interests lie in soft matter physics, active matter, and biological physics. Her work focuses on investigating nanoparticle transport and mechanical responses in hydrogels and other biomimetic materials using microfluidics, advanced optical microscopy, and quantitative image analysis. She is particularly interested in understanding how dynamic mechanical environments regulate transport in complex biological systems.