Dear Sir/Madam,

It is my pleasure to acquaint you with one of my most outstanding students, Soukat Kumar
Das, who is keen to pursue the Doctor of Philosophy in Geotechnical Engg. at your esteemed
institution.

I have known Soukat for the past two years, having served as his supervisor of his M.Tech.
Course in the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Geotechnical Engg Dept. For the past
one year, we have been developing a numerical model of prestressed geogrid reinforced soil
for his M. Tech dissertation. It is on the basis of this extensive experience that I write a letter
of unequivocal support and truly believe Soukat would be an excellent addition to National
University of Singapore for the PhD course.
While a student at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, he has always challenged himself
academically. He is an active participant in class discussions, tutorials and grasps material
quickly and stands among the top three students in the classroom. During his M. Tech course,
Soukat has demonstrated the ability to work independently with great creativity and
enthusiasm and has got the ability to produce impressive results in a wide variety of areas. He
also put in many long hours in the CAD laboratory while simulating the numerical model in
PLAXIS 3D software. The quality of his research work on his thesis project is compelling,
and he has managed to find beautifully simple solutions to very challenging problems.

He has superb written and verbal skills that are a pleasure for any teacher to encounter.
Soukat also excels in extracurricular activities. He has taken conventional training in Indian
classical dance and Tabla and has performed many times in his present and past institutes.
Soukat is an enthusiastic, energetic, and exceptionally well-organized student and I know
from discussions with colleagues and graduate students in my department that we all think he
is a very special student. I have enjoyed getting to know him as a person and find him quite
capable of working entirely on his own in a self-directed manner. I am pleased that Soukat is
planning to enroll in NUS starting this fall. He is also going to be first author on a manuscript
that he has submitted recently for publication. Moreover, he handled the manuscript revisions
quite well which illustrates his high level of motivation. I have no doubt that he has the skills,
focus, and determination to successfully complete a PhD degree in a timely fashion.

Soukat is a rare find. He is well-trained, ambitious, and yet very open-minded and even selfeffacing. I can say without a shadow of doubt that he will be a dedicated research scholar.
Furthermore, I am certain that he would qualify for any means of financial aid that you could
offer him.
I recommend him very highly and without reservation.
Sincerely,
N. K. Samadhiya,
Professor,
Department of civil Engg.
Indian institute of Technology Roorkee,
Roorkee, India-247667.