Tapan Kumar Adhya earned his BSc and MSc degrees from Calcutta University, after which he joined Darjeeling Government College, West Bengal as a Lecturer. He joined Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack and worked for his PhD degree (1990) from Calcutta University under the supervision of Dr N Sethunathan. Subsequently he worked with Drs K Ragu and SK Apte (at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai) deciphering the proteomics of HCH degrading Sphingomonas sp.

Academic and Research Achievements: Dr Adhya started his career as Jr Scientist (Microbiology) at Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack (Orissa) and initiated research on microbiology of tropical rice soils as the model ecosystem with special emphasis on plant productivity and environmental aspects. His research on greenhouse gas emission from tropical rice ecosystem indicates that Indian paddy contributes around 4-6 Tg methane per annum, a value which is almost 1/10th of the US-EPA estimate and has now been registered in the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) database. His group also identified flooded paddy as an important source of N2O, another greenhouse gas. He has published over 130 research articles and written several chapters in different books published by leading international publishers. He has guided over 20 MSc and 14 PhD students.

Other Contributions: Dr Adhya has contributed to India's first National Communication (NATCOM) on GHGs as required under Article 12 of the statute of UNFCCC. He participated in the Expert Review of the First Order Draft of the 2006 IPCC inventory guidelines as member of the Elite Panel of Reviewers of WMO/UNEP. He has been the leader of the Team of Excellence on Greenhouse Gas Emission under National Technology Project (NATP) funded by World Bank and has been the collaborator and site leader of the IRRI-UNDP-US-EPA Interregional Research Project on 'Methane Emission from Rice Fields'. He is serving as the Editor of the Indian Journal of Microbiology and Member, Ediorial Board Biology and Fertility of Soils and Agricultural Research Journal, all published by Springer. 

Awards and Honours: Dr Adhya was awarded the DBT National Associateship. He received PK De Memorial Lecture Award by the Kolkata Chapter of the Indian Society of Soil Science (2004) and Professor AK Chandra Memorial Lecture Award of the University of Calcutta (2004). He is also the recepient of Prof. K.S. Bilgrami Memorial Award (2012) and first receipient of ICAR Norman Borlaug Award (2010). He has been a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi since 1997 (Council Member, 2005-07). He is also elected Fellow of the Association of Microbiologists of India (2007) and Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2010).