Dr. Sarmah is an Associate Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department within the Environmental Engineering Group. Prior to joining The University of Auckland, he was a Senior Research Scientist with Landcare Research, a Crown Research Institute (CRI) in Hamilton, NZ for nearly 10 years. Earlier he worked in the School of Civil Engineering and School of Agronomy of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA as a Visiting Scientist, as a Research Officer at the University of Western Australia, and as a Research Associate at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.
He currently leads multi-disciplinary research projects in a number of topical and environmentally significant areas:
- Production of biochar and characterisation using novel techniques;
- Soil organic matter characterisation to quantify changes in soil C pools as affected by land-use changes,
- Fate and transport behaviour of endocrine disrupting chemicals (i.e single free and conjugated hormones associated with land-application of dairy effluent), veterinary medicines and personal care products in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems;
- Development of novel adsorbents using biochar to remove contaminants from aqueous and soil systems;
- Design, development and testing of wood plastic biochar composite and testing their mechanical, thermal properties
- Development of novel biosensors using waste derived black carbon
- Innovative use of biochar as construction material and application in geotechnical research
Ajit has active collaboration with colleagues from overseas (Tsinghua University, China; NSW Industry & Investment; Khon Kaen University, Thailand; Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Guwahati, India; University of Wuppertal, Germany; University of Trier, Germany; Shantou University, China; Zhejiang University, China; Korea University, Seoul and Hong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong) and within NZ (Landcare Research, Auckland Council, Waikato Regional Council).