Anil Kumar earned his BSc (1959) and MSc (1961) degrees from Meerut College (Agra University). He joined Meerut College as a Lecturer in Physics (1961-64) and then Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, for PhD in Physics and worked on NMR spectroscopy (1964-69) under the supervision of Professor BDN Rao. He did post-doctoral work at Georgia Institute of Technology and at the University of North Carolina. He then went to work with Professor RR Ernst at ETH, Zurich, where he did pioneering developments in two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy including the first Fourier MRI method, which is currently used in all medical MRI protocols. He also worked (1979-80) jointly with Professor Ernst and Wuthrich and did the first two-dimensional NOESY experiments on a protein, which opened the possibility of obtaining the three-dimensional structures of proteins in solution by NMR. An Honorary Professor at IISc (2003-08), at the Centre for Biomedical Magnetic Resonance (CBMR), SGPGI Campus, Lucknow, (2007- ), and at IISER, Mohali (2008-10).

Academic and Research Achievements: On returning to India in 1977 Anil Kumar joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to start the first high-field NMR Research Facility established in India. Currently it is the largest NMR Facility in India, with 7 superconducting magnet-based FT-NMR spectrometers, including a 700 MHz spectrometer for biomolecular studies and a 500 MHz spectrometer for study of solids. His area of research includes double resonance techniques in NMR; developments in two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy; study of strongly coupled spins and molecules partially oriented in liquid crystal matrices; relaxation studies; study of cross-correlations in NMR; developments in solid-state NMR; pure NQR studies using two-dimensional techniques; and, most recently, applications of NMR to quantum computing (QC) and quantum information processing (QIP). He has done pioneering work in this field and established an internationally recognized "NMR QC and QIP Group" in Bangalore. Anil Kumar has set up an internationally recognized school in NMR Theory and Practice. He has published over 170 research papers and mentored about 20 PhDs.

Other Contributions: Anil Kumar has served as Chairman Department of Physics, IISc (1994-97); Convener NMR Facility, IISc (1998-2003); President, National Magnetic Resonance Society (2000-03); and as Member of Council of International Society of Magnetic Resonance (2004-10), Council of International Conference on Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems (1984-94), IUPAB Special Commission on NMR in Biology and Medicine (1994-97) and Council of National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (1997-98, 2008-10).

Awards and Honours: Anil Kumar is a recipient of Sir CV Raman Award by UGC (1993); Platinum Jubilee Lecture Award of Indian Science Congress (1994); MSIL Professor at IISc (1994-97); Professor K Rangadhama Rao Memorial Lecture Award by INSA (1996); FICCI Award (1996-97); Alumni Award of IISc (2000); Goyal Prize in Chemistry (2001); DAE-Raja Ramanna Prize Lecture in Physics, JNCASR (2003); Professor JC Ghosh Memorial Award of Indian Chemical Society, Kolkata (2006), Raja Ramanna Fellowship by DAE (2003-08) and Ramanna Fellowship by DST (2008-11). He is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1987), National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (1989), Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) (1997) and International Society of Magnetic Resonance (ISMAR) (2009). Currently he is NASI-Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellow (2012-14).