Amitabha Ghosh is an Indian researcher, administrator and educator. He currently holds the position of Honorary Scientist, Indian National Science Academy and Honorary Distinguished Professor in the Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal. He is an Emeritus Senior Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and a Fellow of The National Academy of Sciences, India, of which he was elected a Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellow in 2012. Ghosh has made contributions in various fields, including fundamental and applied research, technology development, administration and social development.
Early life and education
Amitabha Ghosh was born on December 3, 1941, in the village of Barhra in the Birbhum district near the Jharkhand border. After completing his preparatory education at the Barhra High School, he matriculated at Suri Vidyasagar College in 1956, and received his Intermediate Science degree from University of Calcutta in 1958. He then enrolled in Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, now known as the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) Shibpur, earning bachelor's (1962) and master's (1964) degrees in mechanical engineering from University of Calcutta. He received three University of Calcutta Gold Medals for posting the highest grades in his BE and ME examinations. He subsequently joined the College faculty as a lecturer in mechanical engineering in May 1965 and continued his doctoral research, receiving the D Phil degree from University of Calcutta in 1969. His research at the college resulted in the discovery of a new tribological effect when magnetic fields are imposed on ferromagnetic bodies.
Academic career
In 1971 he joined IIT Kanpur as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and became a professor in 1975. He taught courses in manufacturing science, design and dynamics, and robotics, and his lab developed techniques for improving the life of cutting tools, detected chaos in mechanical systems for the first time (in 1978) and laid the groundwork for the development of micro-welding and micro-fused deposition welding. Fundamental research led to applications in manufacturing operations, as well as practical devices such as improved brakes and traction for rickshaws, lens polishing machines, electrochemical discharge machines and large transmission ratio drives with high power transmission capacity. The first Centre for Robotics at IIT Kanpur was opened in 1986 supported by a grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. It was renamed the Centre for Mechatronics in 1989. Ghosh was the centre's founding Head from 1986 to 1989 as well as the Head of the Engineering Department.
Ghosh was appointed to the position of Director of IIT Kharagpur in 1997 for a five-year term. During his tenure as director, three new research centres were inaugurated, namely the Centre for Theoretical Studies, the Advanced Technology Centre and the Space Technology Centre (later renamed the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell); while a separate biotechnology department was established to administer undergraduate biotechnology courses. He also oversaw the establishment of the School of Medical Science and Technology in order to offer post graduate education to MBBS doctors and conduct medical research, bringing medical sciences into the IIT system for the first time in India, and presided over the creation of the Very Large Scale Integration Lab at IIT Kharagpur.
Since 2005, he has regularly organized specialized short courses on physics and astronomy for senior school students drawing on funds from science academies, the Indian Department of Science and Technology's INSPIRE program and from IUCAA Pune. He was course director of the Science Education Program on Foundations of Physics held at the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur in 2005. and is the founding president of the South Howrah Citizens’ Forum, which organizes science education programs for students and technical training programs for school dropouts.