We study self-assembling synthetic peptide based soft materials (gels, vesicles, soluble aggregates) for various applications including the  delivery of drugs and other biologically important molecules, waste water management, semiconducting photo-switching materials, potential antibacterial agents, self-healing materials  and other purposes. We also study new organic-inorganic functional nanohybrids, carbon based nanomaterials, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, white-light emitting materials and fluorescent noble metal nanoclusters for sensing, bioimaging, and other applications.