Asis Datta | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2 February 1944 West Bengal, India |
| Occupation(s) | Molecular biologist Geneticist |
| Years active | Since 1964 |
| Spouse | Kasturi Datta |
| Awards | Padma Shri Padma Bhushan Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Om Prakash Bhasin Award TWAS Prize Goyal Prize Guha Memorial Award G. D. Birla Award Dr. Nitya Anand Endowment Award FICCI Award Ranbaxy Award D. M. Bose Gold Medal Indira Priyadarshini Award R. D. Birla Award Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Centenary Award SBC Lifetime Achievement Award P. C. Mahalanobis Memorial Award Asutosh Mookerjee Medal ISC Lifetime Achievement Award BRS Lifetime achievement Award Priyadarshini Gold Medal G. M. Modi Science Award |
Asis Datta is an Indianbiochemist,molecular biologist andgenetic engineer, known for his research ongenetically modified foods and food nutritional security.[1][2] He was the founding Director of the National Institute of Plant Genome Research and is credited with the discovery of genes that assist in extended preservation of fruits and vegetables.[1][2] He is a recipient of theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the highest Indian award and in the Science category,[3] and was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of thePadma Shri, by theGovernment of India, in 1999.[4] In 2008, he was included again in theRepublic Day Honours list for the third highest civilian honour of thePadma Bhushan.[4]
Datta, born on 2 February 1944,[5] secured a PhD fromCalcutta University for his doctoral work done atBose Institute. He later followed it up by obtaining the degree ofDoctor of Science (DSc) fromCalcutta University.[1] His doctoral work atBose Institute was facilitated by a fellowship from the Government of India from 1964 to 1968. After this he moved to New York as a research associate at thePublic Health Research Institute to continue research till 1971.[6] His next move was to theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, as assistant virologist, where he spent three years.[7] Returning to India in 1975, he joinedJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at itsSchool of Life Sciences and rose to the rank of a professor in 1978. He held several positions at JNU such as that of the dean from 1983 to 1985 and that of the rector from 1993 to 1996,[6] eventually becoming the vice chancellor of the university in 1996 and holding the post till 2002. During this period, he also served as visiting scientist atRoche Institute of Molecular Biology for two academic years, 1976–77 and 1980–81.[6] In 2002, when the National Centre for Plant Genome Research was upgraded as an autonomous institution under a new name,National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Datta was appointed as its founder director.[1] He worked at the institute till his superannuation in 2008.[7] At the end of his official career, he was recognized as the emeritus professor by theJawaharlal Nehru University[7] and as the distinguished emeritus scientist and professor emeritus by the National Institute of Plant Genome Research.[8]
Datta has been associated with several central and state government and government-aided autonomous bodies in various positions. He chaired theRecruitment Assessment Board of theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) from 2003 to 2006 and has held the chair of the Integrated Long Term Programme (ILTP) of theDepartment of Science and Technology.[6] He was the chairman of Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of theNational Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases,Kolkata from 2005 to 2007 and has been holding the chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of theVector Control Research Centre,Puducherry from 2007 till date.[7] He has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of thePrime Minister of India and was involved in theTenth Five–Year Plan of India as a member of the Steering Committee on Science and Technology of thePlanning Commission. He was also a member of the Steering Committee of Biotechnology of the states ofMaharashtra,Odisha,Madhya Pradesh andWest Bengal.[7]
Datta was the president of the Society of Biological Chemists in 2000 and theIndian Science Congress from 2003–2004 term.[7] He sat in the governing body of theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research and the steering committee of the National Bioresource Board. He was associated with theIndian National Science Academy as its council member (2002–2004) and vice president, and theNational Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) as its president (2009–2011).[6] He served the Governing Bodies of theIndian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) (2007–2010) and theIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 2007–2010, and has chaired the Biomedical Board of the latter.[7] He has been a member of the Science and Technology Forum, Japan, the Review Committee of ICMR, the ICAR Society and the Board of Governors of theICFAI University, Dehradun and theIndian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.[7] He sits in the general bodies ofNational Institute of Technology, Silchar and theAcademy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Chennai. He is also aPresident's nominee atUniversity of Delhi,Central University of Hyderabad,Northeastern University.[7]
Besides his academic contributions as a teacher, Datta is reported to have contributed in developing theJawaharlal Nehru University by establishing schools and centres of excellence within the university.[1] He is also credited with pioneering researches in the field ofmolecular biology. His researches onCandida albicans, a pathogenic variety offungus which causescandidiasis, an infection to humans, have assisted in designing a drug to combat the disease.[1][9] The team led by him have carried out biological researches which have applications in the fields of agriculture, medicine, science and industry; discovery of genes which helps in extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and development of genetically modified food are two such applications.[6][9] His team was successful in receiving US patents, the first time an Indian firm receiving US patent for genes.[1] His researches on thestructure-function-application of eukaryotic genes paved way for the creation of theNational Institute of Plant Genome Research, the first institute in India for genetic research.[1] He has published several articles, documenting his researches, in peer reviewed journals andGoogle Scholar has listed 226 of them, with anh-index of 20 and i10-index of 35 (since 2010).[10] He holds 7 Indian patents, 5 US patents and 5 patents of other countries for his research findings.[6] He has also mentored over 45 research scholars in their doctoral research.[1]
Datta is an elected Fellow of all the three major Indian science academies,Indian National Science Academy (1988),National Academy of Sciences, India (1991)[11] andIndian Academy of Sciences (1992)[12]The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) also elected him as their Fellow in 1998.[12]University of Burdwan conferred the degree of Doctor of Science (honoris causa) on him in 2002, andBidhan Chandra Agricultural University,Vidyasagar University andPandit Ravi Shankar Shukla University also awarded DSc to him in 2004, 2008 and 2017.[1]
While working as a Professor at JNU, Datta was awardedShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian science award, by theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research, in 1980.[3] Towards the end of 1980s and in early 90s, he received three awards, namely,Guha Memorial Award (1988), the inauguralG. D. Birla Award for Science and Technology (1991) andDr. Nitya Anand Endowment Award of theIndian National Science Academy (1993).[1] TheFederation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry awarded him their annual honour for research and development in Life Sciences in 1994 and he received theOm Prakash Bhasin Award in 1995.[13] TheTWAS Prize ofthe World Academy of Sciences reached him in 1996,[9] the same year as he received three more awards,Goyal Prize,Ranbaxy Award in Medical Sciences andD. M Bose Gold Medal of the Indian Science News Association.[6]
The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of thePadma Shri in 1999; they would honour him again in 2008 with thePadma Bhushan.[4] He received theR. D Birla Award for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2001,Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Centenary Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research of theIndian Council of Medical Research in 2003 and the Lifetime Achievement of the Society of Biological Chemists in 2005.[6] He was again honoured the same year by theWest Bengal Government withP. C. Mahalanobis Memorial award. TheIndian Science Congress awarded him theAsutosh Mookerjee Medal, the same year and followed it up with the Lifetime Achievement award in 2006.[7] The year 2011 also brought him three awards, namely, Lifetime Achievement award of the Biotech Research Society,Priyadarshini Gold Medal andG. M. Modi Science Award.[6] He has also delivered several award orations; Sir Amulya Rattan Oration, Bashambar Nath Chopra Lecture and Sir Edward Melbary Oration are a few among them.[7]
Authority control databases: Academics |
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