Partha Pratim Chakrabarti completed his BTech (1985) and PhD (1989) from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, working on Heuristic Search Theory and Algorithms, in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He joined the Department of Computer Science and Engineering as a faculty member (1988) and is currently Professor as well as Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC) at IIT, Kharagpur. He is also the Head of Advanced Technology Development Centre.

Academic and Research Achievements: Professor Chakrabarti graduated as a President of India Gold Medal winner and was among the first IIt CSE graduates to do a PhD in India. Subsequently in his research work, he was among the first from India to publish in the highest rated AI journals. He solved some longstanding open search problems in the areas of cyclic and/or graphs, multi-criteria optimization, logic integration and search learning. He then applied the methods developed by him in several practical applications including optimization, planning, computer vision and finally in the area of CAD for VLSI. He has used AI methods for VLSI synthesis and for reasoning about the behaviour of circuits, including formal verification, timing and power, CAD databases, etc. His work has been incorporated in industry level tools of major companies and his methods are also being used for other applications including automotive systems and web protocols. He has mentored a large number of students including 23 PhDs. He has taught a large number of courses covering the gamut of computer science, with special emphasis on algorithms, AI and CAD for VLSI design. His research work is now referred in standard text books.

Other Contributions: Chakrabarti set up a state-of-the-art Advanced VLSI Design Laboratory at IIT Kharagpur making it an international centre. He then developed the AVLSI Consortium to include a large set of companies to support this unique initiative. Recently, he has set up the GM-IIT Kharagpur Collaborative Research Laboratory on ECS. As Dean of SRIC in IIT Kharagpur, he helped develop a large number of Advanced Laboratories in niche areas.

Awards and Honours: Professor Chakrabarti has received a number of awards. Prominent among these are the President of India Gold Medal (1985), INSA Medal for Young Scientist (1991), Anil K Bose Memorial Medal (1995); INAE Young Engineer's Award (1997), Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1997-98) and SS Bhatnagar Prize (2000). He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian National Academy of Engineering and the West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology. He received the first INAE Visweswarya Chair Professorship.