Naba Kumar Mondal earned his BSc (Hons) in Physics and MSc (Physics) from Burdwan University. He joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai (1977) and worked with MGK Menon and VS Narasimham on the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) proton decay experiment and obtained his PhD degree (1983) from Bombay University. He worked at Argonne National Laboratory, USA (1985-86) for the development of the second-generation proton decay experiment at Sudan Mines, Minnesota and on the CDF experiment at Fermi Lab, USA (1986-87). In 1988, he returned to TIFR and continued his work on various accelerator-based as well as non-accelerator based particle physics experiments. Currently he is involved in the CMS experiment at CERN, Geneva, and was the Technical Coordinator for the CMS Outer Hadron Calorimeter project. He was instrumental in the design of this subdetector and led the Indian team during its R&D phase.

Academic and Research Achievements: Mondal was associated with the pioneering Kolar Gold Field (KGF) proton decay experiment from its inception. He took a leading role in the design, construction as well as in the analysis of the data. In 1991, his group joined the international collaboration experiment called DZERO at Tevatron Collider at Fermi lab. He was responsible for the design and fabrication of a large number of scintillator counters using wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibres to detect muons for this experiment. He played a leading role in the analysis of the data collected by the DZERO detector and was involved in the important discovery of top quark, which was the only missing quark of the standard model of particle physics. He also used the DZERO data to put strong constrains on the masses of SUSY particles and extra-dimension parameters. Mondal also looked for substructure inside quarks and leptons. He has published over 230 research papers and edited several books. Dr Mondal has supervised 7 students for their PhD degree.

Other Contributions: Mondal had served in various capacities in the DZERO and CMS International Collaboration Experiments. He is a member of the DZERO Institutional Board and CMS Collaboration Board. He is  a member of the International Neutrino Factory Steering Committee, OECD Astroparticle Physics International Forum and spokesperson of the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Collaboration. Mondal is also leading a team of physicists and engineers from several research institutes of India with a motivation to set up a full fledged underground laboratory in India for carrying out front ranking experiment in the field of neutrino physics.  

Awards and Honours: In recognition of his contribution towards DZERO experiment, American Physical Society invited him to present the Esther Hoffman Beller Endowment Lecture (2001). Professor Mondal is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and Academy of Sciences Of the Developing World, Trieste, Italy. He has been awarded J.C.Bose Fellowship by DST, Govt. of India.