Abani Patra

The University of Buffalo reported March 22 that a team led by Indian American Abani Patra has invented a pump to be used in a device that may help revolutionize the decontamination and purification of water, juices, and other liquids.Patra is an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He earned his B.E . (1987) in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, followed by an M.S.(1990) from the University orf Mssouri-Rolla and a Ph.D.(1995) in Computational & Applied Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.Working closely with Synergena, Inc., the team led by Abani Patra, has designed a screw pump that could dramatically improve a method of decontamination that uses photonics to eradicate -- within minutes -- dangerous bacteria, viruses and other contaminants, such as E. coli, salmonella and anthrax.