Amitabha Ghosh, Chairman, BOG NITTTR Bhopal

Amitabha Ghosh was born on 3rd December, 1941 at village Barhra of Birbhum district, West Bengal.

After completing his I Sc from Suri Vidyasagar College (under Calcutta University) in 1958 he received his Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering degrees from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, (Calcutta University) in 1962 and 1964, respectively. He joined the Mechanical Engineering Department of this college as a Lecturer in 1965 May and continued his doctoral research finally receiving the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Calcutta University in 1969. He joined IIT Kanpur in January 1971 as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and became Professor in 1975 June. From 1977 to 1978 he spent at the Technical University Aachen with Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship. From 1997 to 2002 he served IIT Kharagpur as the Director and subsequently returned to Kanpur where he continued till 2006 till his retirement. Currently he is a Senior Scientist of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He is also currently appointed as Honorary Distinguished Professor at IIT Kanpur and Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur.

ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS: Prof. Ghosh started his research activities at BE College and guided a number of Masters’ students in the areas of Manufacturing Science and Mechanism & Machine Dynamics. He, along with his students, discovered a new tribological effect when magnetic fields are imposed on ferromagnetic bodies. He also discovered the means of enhancing vibration damping through introduced stress concentration. At IIT Kanpur he guided a large number of Masters’ and 18 PhD students. He, along with, his students was the first to discover the phenomenon of chaos in mechanical systems and conducted the first experiments on mechanical chaos in 1978. He 2 proposed a new theory of inertial induction leading to a number of profound cosmological and astrophysical consequences. Beside developing some new manufacturing processes utilizing the electrochemical discharge phenomenon and some new stationary and mobile robotic systems for the DAE, Ghosh also developed an innovative regenerative brake mechanism and stable drive system for cycle rickshaws. He also invented a number of new drive systems and mechanisms. He has published over 120 research papers and written five books; the text books by him have made a lasting impression on the way the subjects are taught in India and abroad.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS: He served IIT Kanpur as the Head of Mechanical Engineering and also as the Principal Coordinator of the Quality Improve Programme of the MHRD. He initiated the first academic programme in Robotics in India in 1984 and the first Centre for Robotics was set up at IIT Kanpur with him as the founder Head. At IIT Kharagpur he started the first Master’s programme in Medical Science and Technology for MBBS doctors in India, the Centre for Theoretical Studies and the School of Information Technology. He was the Indian Coordinator for the DST‐JSPS programme on Advanced Manufacturing from 1998 to 2005. During the last four years he has been coordinating a major Indo‐US Centre, funded by the Indo‐US Science & Technology Forum, for collaborative research in advanced and futuristic manufacturing involving IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Northwestern University and University of California, Irvine. The Centre activities have already led to the development of a number of cutting edge technologies. As the Chairman of the Research Council of Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur he has helped the Institute in transforming itself into an advanced research centre in a number of emerging areas. He is also the Chairman of the DST FIST programme for Engineering Sciences and was the Chairman of the CSIR Engineering Science programme.

AWARDS: Prof. Ghosh received the Calcutta University Gold Medal for standing First Class First in both the Bachelors’ and Masters’ examinations. He also received the Calcutta University A H Pandya endowment Gold Medal for standing first among the students of all the branches of engineering. He was the first to receive Distinguished Teacher Award of IIT Kanpur, National Design and Research Award by the Institution of Engineers (India), Engineering Personality Award by the Institution of Engineers (India), and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Manufacturing Design & Technology Research Conference. He has been conferred with Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India), Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian National Science 3 Academy, New Delhi and the National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad. He was also made an Honorary Life Fellow of the Association of Mechanisms and Machines.

OTHER INTERESTS: Professor Ghosh writes articles and science fiction stories for Bengali magazines like ‘Desh’, ‘Anandamela’ etc. His two novels have been published by Dey’s Publishers and Sahityam, Calcutta. His other interests includes sketching , drawing portraits and classical Indian music. He occasionally plays pakhawaz.