Swapan Kumar Ghosh earned his BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Burdwan, after which he taught in Balurghat College and then joined Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Bombay, first as a Trainee and then as Scientific Officer. He did his PhD (1982) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay under the supervision of BM Deb. He worked with Robert G Parr at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1984-85). Ghosh was till recently head of  the Theoretical Chemistry Section at BARC, Mumbai. He is also senior Professor and former Dean-Academic (BARC), Chemical Sciences at the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, and an adjunct Professor at the University of Mumbai-DAE Centre of Excellence for Basic Sciences, Mumbai.

Academic and Research Contributions: The research work of Dr Ghosh has been in the areas of theoretical chemistry, soft condensed matter physics and computational materials science. He has contributed to the formulation of quantum chemistry in three-dimensional space using single-particle density quantities as basic variables; developed density functional theory (DFT) for time-dependent many-electron systems involving arbitrary electric and magnetic fields, and provided simpler routes to the direct calculation of electron density and response properties. He has generalized the concepts of electronegativity and chemical hardness, providing a new unified formulation for describing both covalent and ionic binding in molecular systems. He developed a thermodynamic picture of the electron cloud strengthening the foundation of several important chemical concepts that lead to better understanding of chemical reactivity. His work on the DFT of macroscopic systems covers the structure of soft matter under confinement at interfaces and pores, solvation forces, and ordering in colloidal suspensions. He has also contributed towards a new mode coupling theory and universal scaling laws for diffusivity in fluid mixtures; dynamics of flexible polymer chains; fluid flow through nanotubes, nucleation phenomena etc. Currently he has been involved in the computational design of materials for hydrogen energy applications involving hydrogen storage as well as generation through water splitting.  His work has provided a single unified framework for theoretical description of many-particle systems (quantum as well as classical) within a single-particle picture, thus broadening the applicability of the density concept to the domain of multiscale materials modelling (microscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic length scales). He has mentored a number of students including several PhDs.

Others Contributions: Ghosh has been the Delegation Leader of the Indian team, at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Athens, Greece (2003) and Kiel, Germany (2004). He has organized  national symposia on 'Theoretical chemistry' and 'Materials modelling at different length scales', and has been a Joint Secretary and Vice President of the Chemical Research Society of India, Bangalore. He has taught at BARC Training School and has been teaching at the UM-DAE-Centre of Excellence in Basic Research.

Awards and Honours: Dr Ghosh has been awarded the AV Rama Rao Prize of Jawarharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore (2002), Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India (2005), TWAS Prize in Chemistry, Jagdish Shankar Memorial Lecture of INSA and J.C. Bose National Fellowship. He has been conferred D.Sc. (Honoris Causa) by Kalyani University. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).