Sayantani Ghosh is a Professor of Physics and the Associate Dean of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Merced. She completed her undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and her obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago in 2003. Following a postdoctoral research position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she joined the Department of Physics at the University of California, Merced in 2006. Her research group focuses on the physics of novel materials and develops techniques and protocols to manipulate their properties for applications in energy storage and information processing devices. Current topics her group is working on include nano-assembled 'smart' materials, nanoplasmonics-based optically triggered sensors and hybrid perovskite opto-electronic devices. She is a recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation and is the Associate Director of the NASA-funded MACES (Merced Nanomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing) research center. She is the founding faculty of UC Merced Women in Science and Engineering (WSTEM@UCM) and as the Associate Graduate Dean at UC Merced, is involved in professional training and development activities at graduate and postdoctoral levels.