Somenath is a single-molecule biophysicist interested in the inner world of microbes. His research involved understanding how bacterial cells cope with changing environments. He was using time-lapse imaging, single-molecule counting, and genetics to quantitatively study the stress-response dynamics in bacteria. He combines the mathematical theories developed by the Paulsson lab to examine which models and explanations are consistent with the data.

Background: He did his graduate research in Prof. James C. Weisshaar's lab in the Department of Chemistry in University of Wisconsin Madison. During his PhD, he used Superresolution imaging and single-molecule tracking to study the spatio-temporal organization of transcription and translation machinery in live bacteria cells. He was honored to receive the 2013 K. V. Reddy Award for outstanding achievement as a graduate student.