Prof. Chowdhury is a leading expert in the field of short pulse lasers and laser damage, nonlinear optics, ultra-intense and high energy density laser matter interaction, and laser generated extreme materials. He led the design and construction of the 400 TW SCARLET laser system at the OSU High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) Laboratory, which was completed in 2012 [Laser focus world cover June 2012]. Along with development of SCARLET, he concentrated on research on intense laser accelerated multi-MeV particles from liquid targets in kHz repetition rate. In 2012, he established a new AFOSR funded laboratory devoted to studying femtoseconed laser matter interaction near material damage threshold, which has concentrated on how laser damage mechanisms evolve from traditional near IR to mid IR wavelengths.  His ongoing experimental efforts on various few cycle pulse and multi-pulse effects already show traditional models like Two Temperature Model (TTM) developed for near IR laser solid interaction may not be adequate, and new wavelength scaled paradigm may be necessary to explain intense laser solid interaction at longer wavelengths. He is well-known for his work on laser damage testing and modeling of high damage threshold optics used in high power ultrashort pulse lasers. He is also currently exploring strong optical nonlinearity and laser damage of van der Waals 2D MTP (metal thio-phosphate) materials, and how these nonlinearities vary with temperature.