Chanchal Das Gupta obtained his BSc (Hons) in Physics from Presidency College, Kolkata, MSc (Physics) from University College of Science, Calcutta University, and PhD from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata working on "SOS repair of single stranded DNA bacteriophage ?X-174" under the supervision of Professor Ramendra K Poddar. He did his post-doctoral work at the University of Toronto (1975-77) with Professor A Guha. He was post-doctoral Associate with Charles M Radding at Yale University, USA (1977-82). He was Professor, Department of Biophysics, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Calcutta University.

Academic and Research Achievements: In Toronto, Das Gupta worked on "expression of divergent biotin operon in E coli", while at Yale University, he worked on involvement of RecA protein of E coli in general genetic recombination. His department at Calcutta University worked on "Ribosome mediated protein folding". This phenomenon was conceived and demonstrated in his laboratory with its first publication in 1991. Later, it was followed in the laboratories of Professor Boyd Hardesty in USA; of Professor Radford in UK and of Professor Marc Blondel in France. An entire range of antibiotics inhibiting translation have been found to act highly satisfactorily against microbial infection possible through inhibition of protein folding. This new mechanism can be a target for search for new drugs.

Awards and Honours: Das Gupta is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (1997); and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1998).