Amiya Bikash Chowdhury obtained his PhD degree (1955) from the University of Calcutta. His areas of specialization were parasitology & tropical medicine, immunology & epidemiology, and environmental health. He was Director, Professor and Chairman, Department of Parasitology, School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata; Principal Investigator, Collaborative Research Programme with John Hopkins University, USA; and Chairman, Centre for Study of Man and Environment.

Academic and Research Achievements: Chowdhury investigated host-parasite relationship, immune response in parasitic infections, their modalities, modulations and impact on clinical expression and drug action. He did pioneering studies on microchemical constituents of parasities and their functional significance and studied population biology and transmission dynamics of parasitic infections. He identified factors regulating natural abundance of parasitic pathogens and arrested the development of human hookworms as adaptation to unfavourable external environment.

Other Contributions: Chowdhury was a Member of Editorial Boards of several journals like Acta Trop, Journal of Indian Medical Association, Indian Journal of Medical Research, Indian Journal of Parasitology, Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology and Indian Journal of Communicable Diseases and contributed to the volume Drugs of Choice-Current Therapy. He was Consultant, WHO; Member, Governing Body & Scientific Advisory Body, ICMR; Member, Armed Forced Medical Research Council; Scientific Working Group, Steering Committee & Expert Advisory Panel (parasitic diseases), WHO; International Committee on Tropical Diseases and Malaria; UNEP Team of Experts; International Commission on Trichinellosis; International Panel on Health Policy in Developing Countries. Chowdhury has made a significant contribution to the development of Medical Parasitology as a distinct discipline in India, facilitating specialized training of personnel to be utilized in the National Control Programmes against parasitic diseases. He contributed to the foundation of the Centre for Study of Man and Environment. He was Member of INSA Council (1994-96).

Awards and Honours: Chowdhury was honoured with several lectureships that include: Achanta Lakshmipati Oration; Warmer Oration; Sir Nil Ratan Sirkar Memorial Oration; Col. Calvert Memorial Oration; Dr Santilal Seth Oration; Major Gen Sahib Singh Sokhey Memorial Oration; Professor BP Pandey Memorial Oration; Goswami Memorial Oration; and Tapan Memorial Oration. He was a Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences (India); Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (UK); Indian Society for Parasitology; and West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology. He was President, Medical and Veterinary Science section of Indian Science Congress (1967); President, First Asian Congress of Parasitology (1978); Vice-President, International Congress of Parasitology and Malaria (1968); Vice-President, World Federation of Parasitology (1978-83).