Bidyendu Mohan Deb did his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from Presidency College, Kolkata and MSc from the University College of Science, Kolkata. After spending a year with Professor SR Palit at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata, he went to the Mathematical Institute, Oxford University, UK as Commonwealth Scholar in Mathematics. There he did a one-year Diploma in Advanced Mathematics, followed by a DPhil in Mathematics with Professor CA Coulson as his Research Supervisor. Returning to India, he joined as CSIR Pool-Officer in IACS, Kolkata, then lecturer in Chemistry at IIT Mumbai, Assistant Professor in Chemistry at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, Assistant Professor and then Professor in Chemistry at IIT Mumbai, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at Panjab University, Chandigarh, Vikram Sarabhai Research Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore and presently Professor at IISER, Kolkata.

Academic and Research Achievements: Professor Deb's research in theoretical chemistry has focused mainly on the manifold aspects of electron density in chemistry, particularly, the direct calculation of static and dynamic electron densities in many-electron systems. His laboratory has developed a number of new concepts and formalisms for this purpose. Principal among these are: the prediction of molecular shapes from the electron-nuclear forces exerted by the electron density in the highest occupied molecular orbital, internal stresses in molecules and their relation to Maxwell's stress tensor for classical electromagnetic fields, chemical binding, time-dependent and excited-state density functional theory, non-relativistic and relativistic quantum fluid dynamics of many-electron systems, combining of cellular automata and Thomas-Fermi-Dirac theory, prediction of new molecules by quantum chemistry, etc. He has published original articles on holistic education in sciences, the art of Satyajit Ray and edited/co-edited the books The Force Concept in Chemistry (Van Nostrand-Reinhold, New York) and The Single-Particle Density in Physics and Chemistry (Academic Press, London). He has mentored twenty three students.

Other Contributions: Professor Deb has organized several workshops, national and international symposia, and designed curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. He served on the Editorial Board of national and international journals and also as Advisory Committee member in national-level committees dealing with science education, research, policy, etc.

Awards and Honours: Professor Deb received the SS Bhatnagar Award (1981), Sir CV Raman Award (1988). Professor Deb was a Guest Scholar, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan (1989) and Honorary Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (1992-2004). His other awards and honours include Professor SR Palit Memorial Award of IACS, Kolkata (1994-95), FICCI Award (1996), Professor Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture Award of INSA (1999), Silver Medal of Chemical Research Society of India (2000), Professor RP Mitra Memorial Lecture Award of Delhi University (2000), AV Rama Rao Foundation Lecture Award, Bangalore (2003) and Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1984); the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) (2003).