Amit Ghosh studied Physics (Hons) in St Xavier's College, Kolkata and earned both his BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Calcutta. After his MSc he joined Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata and worked on the molecular biology of a SS-bacteriphage under the guidance of Professor RK Poddar. Subsequent to his PhD and after a brief stint as a Lecturer in BITS, Pilani, he moved, first to the University of Rochester and then to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in USA. At Rochester, in the Laboratory of Professor Jack Maniloff, he was first to report on the presence of Actin like proteins and absence of a major repair pathway in a microbe. In Madison, he worked with Professor Paul Kaesberg on RNA viruses. His work there led to the discovery of many unique features of the genome structure and the life cycle of such viruses. On returning to India and after a short period as a Pool Officer in SINP, Ghosh joined the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB). In 1990 he moved to the institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, as the Deputy Director. In 1998 he took over as the Director of IMTECH. After superannuation, Ghosh served as Director, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Advanced Research (Puri Foundation for Education in India) at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat.

Academic and Research Achievements: At IICB, Ghosh started working on the basic molecular biology of Vibrio cholerae (the causative agent of the disease cholera) and its viruses. While at IMTECH he expanded the scope of his research on V. cholerae to include molecular epidemiology and vaccine development. He in association with his collaborators at IMTECH, IICB and the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata, developed an oral recombinant vaccine for cholera, the first of its kind to be developed anywhere outside USA , using a novel strategy. His work on the molecular epidemiology provided one of the first clues on how new clones of V. cholerae can possibly emerge. He has published seventy two scientific papers and guided fourteen PhD students.

Other Contributions: As the Director of IMTECH, Dr Ghosh made the institute one of the top research laboratories of CSIR in terms of the quality of its publications and bagged CSIR's New Idea Fund three times in a row. A commercially successful technology was developed and delivered to Industry and the country's first and only International Depository Authority was established under his Directorship. He served as Council Member (2000-06) and Vice-President (2000-02) of National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad.

Awards and Honours: Dr Ghosh is a recipient of 1998 Ranbaxy Award (2000) and CSIR Shield for Process Technology (Team Member) (2002). His other honours include Membership of Sigma-Xi, Scientific Research Society of North America, Science Congress Platinum Jubilee Lecture (2005) and Professor Sibte Hasan Zaidi Orations of ITRC (now, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research), Lucknow. He was elected to the Fellowship of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (1992) and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (2000).