Dipankar Das Sarma obtained the MSc (Physics) (1977) from IIT Kanpur and PhD (1982) from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He was a Research Associate in IISc (1982-83), and Guest Scientist at Kernforschungsanlage, Germany (1984-86). He worked as Lecturer (1986-89), Assistant Professor (1989-93), Associate Professor (1993-99) and Professor (1999- ), all at IISc. He was Visiting Professor, University of Tokyo (2001-02) and the Istituto di Struttura della Materia, CNR, Rome and Trieste (2002). He is a Member of the Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, IISc. He was MLS Chair Professor of Physics and Chairman, Centre for Advanced Materials, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) for sometime. He is also Honorary Professor of JNCASR, Bangalore, Adjunct Professor at TIFR, Mumbai, Adjunct Professor at IISER, Kolkata, and Senior Associate at SNBNCBS, Kolkata.

Academic and Research Achievements: Das Sarma has worked extensively on physics and chemistry of materials with special emphasis on nanomaterials and strongly correlated materials. He has made significant contributions in the fields of electron spectroscopy, materials synthesis, and in understanding their electronic, magnetic, dielectric and optical properties combining a variety of experimental techniques with theoretical investigations. Recently, he has established the Centre for Advanced Materials at IACS where a large number of faculty members interact on various aspects of research on advanced materials. The idea is to combine the expertise in physics, chemistry and biology available with these faculty members from different departments to explore new possibilities of synthesising and investigating advanced materials, which may belong to hard or soft condensed matter, to molecular or supra-molecular matter, to nano, self-assembled, biology-inspired, polymeric, or biological materials. He has more than 330 scientific publications to his credit, and has so far trained more than 15 PhD students.

Other Contributions: Professor Das Sarma has been actively involved in industry-academia interactions in many capacities. He is serving as Chairman, Proposal Review Committee, Elettra Synchrotron Centre, Italy and the Scientific Advisory Committee of UGC-DAE Centre for Scientific Research; and Member, Governing Body and Governing Council of UGC-DAE Centre for Scientific Research, Council of the Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, and Academic Program Advisory Committee of the SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata. He is Coordinator of the DST's Coordination Group for India's collaboration with International Synchrotron Facilities.

Awards and Honours: Das Sarma was conferred the Young Scientist Medal by INSA (1983), Biennial Javed Husain Prize by Unesco (1989), Medal by Materials Research Society of India (1990), SS Bhatnagar Award (1994), Homi Bhabha Fellow (1991-93), Sir CV Raman Award for Physical Sciences (2004), Hari Om Ashram Trust Award by UGC, GD Birla Award for Scientific Research (2005), Alumni Award for Excellence in Research for Science by IISc (2005), FICCI Award for Innovative R&D (2006-07), TWAS Physics Prize (2006), Dr Jagdish Shankar Memorial Lecture Award by INSA (2006), Professor RP Mitra Memorial Lecture Award (2006), AV Rama Rao Foundation Lecture Prize (2006), JC Bose National Fellow (2006-11), and KR Rao Memorial Lecture Award by INSA (2008). He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (2007), the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (2007), National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (2000) and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1993).