Dipankar Chatterji (born 20 April 1951) is an Indian molecular biologist and the Honorary Professor at Molecular Biophysics Unit,

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

, a multidisciplinary research institute under the Department of Science and Technology of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

. He is known for his pioneering research on

bacterial transcription Bacterial transcription is the process in which a segment of bacterial DNA is copied into a newly synthesized strand of messenger RNA (mRNA) with use of the enzyme RNA polymerase. The process occurs in three main steps: initiation, elongation, an ...

. He is a recipient of

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

and is an elected fellow of all the major Indian science academies. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

, in 2016, for his contributions to science and engineering.

Biography

Chatterji was born on 20 April 1951 in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

and did his graduate and master's degree at

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University ( abbr. JU) is a public state funded research university with its main campus located at Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established on 25 July in 1906 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into ...

, Kolkata. Subsequently, he completed his doctoral studies under the supervision of S. K. Podder and obtained a doctoral degree (PhD) in molecular biology from the

in 1973, after which he started his career as a faculty member at the School of Life Sciences of

University of Hyderabad The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is a prestigious public central research university located in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Established in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students and 400 faculty, from ...

in 1978. This was followed by a stint at

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

and at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

, for his post-doctoral research, and Chatterji returned to India in 1999 to join the

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (, IAST: ''Kośikīya evam āṇavik jīvavijñāna kendra'') or CCMB is an Indian fundamental biotechnology, life science research establishment located in Hyderabad that operates under the aegis ...

(CCMB), Hyderabad as a research assistant before moving to the Molecular Biophysics Unit of IISc where he became the chair of the Biology and Genetics Unit, a post he held till 2005. Chatterji, who is known to have done research on bacteria such as

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

and

Mycobacterium tuberculosis ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (M. tb), also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, ''M. tuberculosis'' ha ...

as well as the Omega factor with regard to the

mechanism and genome expression, is an adjunct professor of the

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (known as IISERK or IISER KOLKATA) is an public autonomous research institute in science and education field located in Mohanpur near the town of Kalyani in Nadia, West Bengal, Ind ...

(IISER) and holds the Distinguished Research Professorship of the Institute of Life Sciences, Hyderabad. His researches have been documented by way of over 150 articles published in peer-reviewed international journals and he mentors 31 research scholars in his laboratory. Chatterji is a recipient of the IISc Alumnus Award and is the president of the Indian Institute of Science. He has served as a visiting fellow at

National Institute of Genetics The National Institute of Genetics is a Japanese institution founded in 1949. The institute is located in Mishima, Shizuoka. It hosts the DNA Data Bank of Japan The DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) is a biological database that collects DNA seq ...

, Japan and

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

and has served as a council member of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

from 2002 to 2004. Chatterji presided over the council of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2013 to 2015 besides holding the position of its secretary from 2010 to 2012. Chatterji has also been involved as a member in the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences,

Madurai Kamaraj University Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) is a public state university located in Madurai city, in southern Tamil Nadu, India, that was established in 1966. MKU is one of the 15 universities in India with the University with Potential for Excellence sta ...

Awards and honors

Chatterji, a J. C. Bose National Fellow and a Homi Bhabha Fellow, is also an elected Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

(1994),

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) is a North–south research partnerships, merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting more than 1,400 scientists in some 1 ...

(1997) and the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows * Suddhasatwa Bas ...

(1989). He received the

, the highest Indian award in the Science and Technology categories, from the

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...

in 1992. Chatterji is also a recipient of the Millennium Gold Medal (2000) and Ranbaxy Research Award (2001). The Government of India included him in the Republic Day honors list, in 2016, for the civilian award of the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterji, Dipankar Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science 1951 births Indian molecular biologists Scientists from West Bengal Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science Jadavpur University alumni Indian Institute of Science alumni Albert Einstein College of Medicine alumni Stony Brook University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty TWAS fellows Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India Living people 20th-century Indian biologists

Biography

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links