Asok Kumar Mallik received his BE and ME degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur under Calcutta University. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Delhi as a Lecturer (1970) and then moved to IIT Kanpur (1971). He obtained his PhD from IIT Kanpur (1973) and became a Professor in 1982. In 2006, he was made the first S Sampath Chair Professor at IIT Kanpur. As a Commonwealth Scholar, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Southampton (1974-75). As an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, he spent 18 months at TH, Aachen and 6 months at TU, Darmstadt.

Academic and Research Achievements: Mallik has done research in various areas of vibration engineering, including damping of materials and structures; dynamics of periodic structures, nonlinear vibration and vibration control. He also contributed to kinematics of mechanisms and manipulators. He has authored/coauthored nine books, published more than 85 research papers and a few popular articles on mathematics and physics. He has guided 10 PhD and about 60 MTech students.

Other Contributions: Member, General Assembly of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Honorary Life-member, Association of Mechanisms and Machines.

Awards and Honours: Dr Mallik received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of BESUS and the Distinguished Teacher Award of IIT Kanpur and INSA Teacher Award. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad.