A Speck of Coaldust

Rohit Manchanda is an Indian author and professor of biosciences and bioengineering at IIT Bombay, where he researches computational neurophysiology. He spent his childhood in the coalfields of Jharkhand, earned a BSc (Hons) and PhD from the University of Oxford, and joined IIT Bombay in 1991. His notable works include the novels A Speck of Coal Dust (originally In the Light of the Black Sun, 1996; Betty Trask Award winner) and The Enclave (2024), as well as Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory, a history of IIT Bombay (2008). Read more →