Akhil Ranjan Chakravarty obtained his BSc (1973) and MSc (1975) degrees from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur (Kolkata) to obtain his PhD degree (1982) from the Calcutta University under the supervision of Animesh Chakravorty. During 1982-85, he worked as a post-doctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of FA Cotton in Texas A&M University, College Station. Chakravarty joined the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (1985) as a faculty. He also served as the Chairman of the Department (2002-05). He was awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for the period 1994-95. He has been a Visiting Professor at Nagoya University, Japan.

Academic and Research Achievements: Chakravarty worked on diruthenium complexes having metal-metal multiple bonds. At IISc. He has started a coordination chemistry laboratory and initiated his research on coordination chemistry and organo-metallic chemistry of chiral complexes. He developed the chemistry of tribridged diruthenium complexes that make a vital link between the chemistry of complexes of basic acetate structure and multiple bonded diruthenium complexes. Subsequently, he started work on high-nuclearity transition metal clusters showing novel structural and magnetic properties. For last ten years, his work focused on the area of synthetic metal-based DNA cleaving agents. He has pioneered in developing the chemistry of 3d-metal-based compounds that are efficient photocleaver of DNA in red light. Such compounds are of potential use in the chemistry of photodynamic therapy of cancer. Chakravarty has published 160 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and guided over 20 PhD students.

Other Contributions: Chakravarty set up a laboratory on metal-based drugs to develop the chemistry of transition metal-based photo-nucleolytic agents. He served as the Editorial Board Member of the Indian Journal of Chemistry (Section A) and the Journal of Chemical Science.

Awards and Honours: For his graduate and post graduate performances, Professor Chakravarty received four Gold Medals from the University of Burdwan. He was awarded the SS Bhatnagar Prize of CSIR (1998), CRSI Silver Medal (2007), and the JC Bose Fellowship of DST (2008). He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1995).