Dr Amitava Sen Gupta received the M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Delhi, India, in 1974 and 1980, respectively. His Ph.D. work involved experimental and theoretical studies of traveling ionospheric disturbances using satellites. In 1979, he joined the Time Standards section of the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. He superannuated from NPL in March 2015 as its Acting Director holding the position of Outstanding Scientist.

Dr Sen Gupta’s research interests during his PhD and in the early years at NPL involved studies of upper atmosphere and VLF radio propagation studies. Subsequently, he was engaged in research on extremely accurate time synchronization using the Indian domestic satellite INSAT. This work has led to the INSAT time broadcast service, which has been widely used in India.

During the eighties Dr. Sen Gupta was associated with the Indian Antarctic research program. He was one of the youngest members of the first Indian Antarctic Expedition in 1981-82, where he performed experiments related to radio propagation and Ozone studies. He was a member again of the second Indian expedition in 1982-83 and finally in 1988-89 he was selected to lead the eighth Indian Antarctic Expedition, in which he and his team members set up the permanent Indian Antarctic Station ‘Maitri’.

In recent years he has been mainly engaged with research on development of atomic frequency standards and a new generation of microwave synthesizers for atomic frequency standards. These ultra precise atomic clocks are known as Cesium fountains. For this work he has spent time extensively in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA and Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany. Presently, his former group at NPL is building one of the most accurate clocks ever, based on a single trapped ion of Ytterbium.

Dr. Sen Gupta is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Fellow of the Institution of Electronic and Telecom Engineers (IETE), India, President of the Metrology Society of India and a Senior Member of the IEEE, USA. He was awarded the prestigious O. P. Bhasin Foundation award for Science and Technology for the year 2002 for outstanding contributions in the field of Electronics and Information Technology.