NISER

• Postdoc, Monash University, Australia, 2018-2022
• Ph.D., Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, 2013-2018
• M.Sc., Applied Geology, Jadavpur University, India, 2009-2011
• B.Sc. (hons), Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, India, 2006-2009

• Petrology
• Numerical geodynamics
• Diffusion kinetics and Thermodynamics
• Early Earth evolution

• MSA Award, Mineralogical Society of America, USA, 2025.
• Associate, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru, India, 2024.
• Affiliate Researcher, Monash University, Australia, 2022-present
• Dr. Heinrich Kost Prize (for best PhD thesis in Natural Sci. & Engg.), Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, 2018
• German Academic Exchange Service (D.A.A.D) PhD Fellowship, 2013
• P. N. Bose Memorial Medal, Jadavpur University, India, 2011
• University Gold Medal, Jadavpur University, India, 2011
• University Gold Medal, Jadavpur University, India, 2009

Peer-reviewed articles (^†student):

• Chowdhury, P., Cawood, P. A., and Mulder, J. M., 2025. Subaerial emergence of continents on Archean Earth. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 53, 443-478. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-093345 
• Gunawardana, P. M.^†, Chowdhury, P., Morra, G., and Cawood, P. A., 2024. Correlating mantle cooling with tectonic transitions on early Earth. Geology, 52(4), 230-234. https://doi.org/10.1130/G51874.1 
• Jiao, S., Brown, M., Mitchell, R. N., Chowdhury, P., Clark, C., Chen, L., Chen, Y., Korhonen, F., Huang, G., and Guo, J. Mechanisms to generate ultrahigh temperature metamorphism. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 4, 298-318. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00403-2
• Cawood, P. A., Chowdhury, P., Mulder, J. M., Hawkesworth, C., Capitanio, F.A., Gunawardana, P.M. and Nebel, O., 2022. Secular evolution of continents and the Earth system. Reviews of Geophysics, 60(4), e2022RG000789. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022RG000789
• Chaudhari, A., Brugger, J., Ram, R., Chowdhury, P., Etschmann, B., Guaguliardo, P., Xia, F., Pring, A., Gervinskas, G., Liu, A. and Frierdich, A., 2022. Synchronous solid-state diffusion, dissolution-reprecipitation, and recrystallization leading to isotopic resetting: insights from chalcopyrite replacement by copper sulfides. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 331, 48-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.06.005
• Chowdhury, P., Mulder, J. A., Cawood, P.A., Bhattacharjee, S., Roy, S., Wainwright, A., Nebel, O and Mukherjee, S, 2021. Magmatic thickening of crust in non-plate tectonic settings initiated the subaerial rise of continents 3.3-3.2 billion years ago. PNAS, 118 (46), e2105746118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105746118
• Chowdhury, P., Chakraborty, S. and Gerya, T.V., 2021. Time will tell: Secular change in metamorphic timescales and the tectonic implications. Gondwana Research, 93, 291-310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2021.02.003
• Bhattacharjee, S.^†, Mulder, J.A., Roy, S.^†, Chowdhury, P., Cawood, P.A. and Nebel, O., 2021. Unravelling depositional setting, age and provenance of the Simlipal volcano-sedimentary complex, Singhbhum craton: Evidence for Hadean crust and Mesoarchean marginal marine sedimentation. Precambrian Research, 354, 106038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2020.106038
• Gunawardana, P.M.^†, Morra, G., Chowdhury, P. and Cawood, P.A., 2020. Calibrating the Yield Strength of Archean Lithosphere Based on the Volume of Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite Crust. Frontiers in Earth Science, 8, 548724. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.548724
• Chowdhury, P., Chakraborty, S., Gerya, T.V., Cawood, P.A. and Capitanio, F.A., 2020. Peel-back controlled lithospheric convergence explains the secular transitions in Archean metamorphism and magmatism. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 538, 116224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116224
• McCoy-West, A.J., Chowdhury, P., Burton, K.W., Sossi, P., Nowell, G.M., Fitton, J.G., Kerr, A.C., Cawood, P.A. and Williams, H.M, 2019. Extensive crustal extraction in Earth's early history inferred from molybdenum isotopes. Nature Geoscience, 12, 946-951. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0451-2
• Capitanio, F.A., Nebel, O., Cawood, P.A., Weinberg, R.F. and Chowdhury, P, 2019. Reconciling thermal regimes and tectonics of the early Earth. Geology, 47(10), 923-927. https://doi.org/10.1130/G46239.1
• Chowdhury, P. and Chakraborty, S, 2019. Slow cooling at higher temperatures recorded within high-P mafic granulites from the Southern Granulite Terrain, India: Implications for the presence and style of plate tectonics near the Archean-Proterozoic boundary, Journal of Petrology, 60-3, 441-486. https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology/egz001
• Chowdhury, P., Gerya, T.V. and Chakraborty, S, 2017. Emergence of silicic continents as the lower crust peels off on a hot plate-tectonic Earth. Nature Geoscience, 10, 698-703. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3010
• Chakraborty, S., Mukhopadhyay, D., Chowdhury, P., Rubatto, D., Anczkiewicz, R., Trepmann, C., Gaidies, F., Sorcar, N. and Dasgupta, S, 2017. Channel Flow and localized fault bounded slice tectonics (LFBST): Insights from petrological, structural, geochronological and geospeedometric studies in the Sikkim Himalayas, NE India. Lithos, 282-283, 464-482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2017.01.024
• Mukhopadhyay, D., Chakraborty, S., Trepmann, C., Rubatto, D., Anczkiewicz, R., Gaidies, F., Dasgupta, S. and Chowdhury, P., 2017. The nature and evolution of the Main Central Thrust: Structural, geochronological and petrological constraints from the Sikkim Himalaya, NE India. Lithos, 282-283, 447-463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2017.01.015
• Sengupta. P, Raith, M. M., Kooijman, E., Talukdar, M., Chowdhury, P., Sanyal, S., Mezger, K. and Mukhopadhyay, D, 2015. Provenance, timing of sedimentation and metamorphism of metasedimentary rock suites from the Southern Granulite Terrane, India. In: P. Eriksson & R. Mazumder (eds) Precambrian Basins of India: Stratigraphic and Tectonic Context. Geological Society, London, Memoirs, 43, 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1144/M43.20
• Chowdhury, P., Taukdar, M., Sengupta, P., Sanyal, S. and Mukhopadhyay, D, 2013. Controls of P-T path and element mobility on the formation of corundum pseudomorphs in Palaeoproterozoic high-pressure anorthosite from Sittampundi, Tamil Nadu, India. American Mineralogist, 98, 1725-1737. https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2013.4350

Selected Conference Abstracts (2022 onwards; ^†student):

• Tiyasha B.^†, Chowdhury, P., (2025) Insights into the Thermal Evolution of Archean Orogens. National Seminar on Dynamic Processes of the Earth (DPE 2025), Presidency University, Kolkata.
• Chatterjee, S.^†, Chowdhury, P., (2025) Petrogenesis of Archean S-type granites. National Seminar on Dynamic Processes of the Earth (DPE 2025), Presidency University, Kolkata. 
• Tiyasha. B.^†, Chowdhury, P., (2025) Evidence of delamination-driven orogenesis during Neoarchean. M-Cube Conference, NCESS Thiruvananthapuram.
• Chatterjee, S.^†, Chowdhury, P., (2025) Petrogenesis of Archean S-type granites. M-Cube Conference, NCESS Thiruvananthapuram. 
• Chowdhury, P. (2025) Subaerial emergence of continents on early Earth. M-Cube Conference, NCESS Thiruvananthapuram. 
• Tiyasha. B.^†, Chowdhury, P., (2025) Understanding Archean orogenic styles. Frontiers in Geosciences Research Conference, PRL Ahmedabad.  
• Das S. P.^†, Panda D. K, Chowdhury, P., Patzek, M., Thangjam, G., Rout, S. S., (2024) Thermal history of ci- and cm-like clasts in HEDs: insights from Raman spectroscopy. Annual Meetings of the Meteoritical Society, Brussels.
• Cawood, P.A., Chowdhury, P., (2024) Earth’s early tectonic modes and implications for habitability. EGU General Assembly, Vienna.
• Das, S. P.^†, Chowdhury, P., Panda, D. K., Patzek, M., Rout, S. S., Thangjam, G., (2023) Peak Metamorphic Temperature of CI/CM-type clasts, CM and CV chondrites. 3rd MetMESS, Ahmedabad.

• Chowdhury, P., Cawood, P.A., (2023) Orogenesis on early Earth was controlled by lithospheric peeling. 6^th International Archean Symposium (6ias), Perth.
• Mukherjee, S., Chowdhury, P., (2023) The role of crystal fractionation in K-granites: a modelling perspective. Goldschmidt, Lyon.
• Cawood, P.A., Chowdhury, P., Mulder, J. M., Hawkesworth, C., Capitanio, F.A., Gunawardana, P.M., Nebel, O., (2023) On tectonic modes of early Earth. EGU General Assembly, Vienna.
• Chowdhury, P., Cawood, P.A., Mulder, J A., (2023) When and how did Earth’s earliest continents first emerge above the oceans? EGU General Assembly, Vienna.
• Cawood, P.A., Chowdhury, P., Mulder, J A., (2022) Secular evolution of tectonics and volcano-sedimentology. 21^st International Sedimentology Congress (ISC), Beijing.

My group explores the evolution of Earth’s continents and lithosphere dynamics, and seeks to understand how these processes have shaped the planet’s surface environment, long-term habitability, and endowment of critical metals across deep time. 

Our approach integrates quantitative petrology (thermodynamics and diffusion kinetics) with numerical geodynamic modelling, with the insights from field geology, geochronology, and isotope geochemistry.

We aim to address some of the most enduring and transformative questions in Solid Earth Sciences, including:

• When and how did plate tectonics begin on Earth, and in what ways did early tectonic regimes differ from those of the present day?
• What processes drove the formation of Earth’s first continents?
• How and when did continents begin to rise above the oceans?
• How did tectonics and continental growth shape the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and habitability?
• Which processes lead to the enrichment of critical metals in granitoids and pegmatites?

Ms. Sayani Chatterjee (PhD, 2023- present)

Ms. Tiyasha Basu (PhD, 2022- present)

• EPS101 Environmental and Earth Sciences
• EP601 Introduction to Earth Science
• EP641 Practical course and Field Work
• EP652 Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology

Editorial Board Member, GEOLOGY (2022- present)