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Amitabha Ghosh

This page is about the engineering scientist. For the planetary geologist, see Amitabha Ghosh.

Amitabha Ghosh is a noted Indian researcher, administrator and educator. He currently holds the position of Honorary Scientist, Indian National Science Academy and Honorary Distinguished Professor in the Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, West Bengal. His research led to the discovery of the effect of magnetic fields on wear in ferro-magnetic materials and he was the first to observe chaos in mechanical systems. He founded the first centre for robotics research in India while he was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur, and during his tenure as Director of IIT Kharagpur, was responsible for the "superlative transformation" of that institution. He is an Emeritus Senior Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and a Fellow of The National Academy of Sciences, India, which institution elected him a Senior Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellow in 2012.

Early life and education

Amitabha Ghosh was born on December 3, 1941 in a remote village in the Birbhum district near the Jharkhand border. After completing his preparatory education at the village school, Barhra High School, in 1956 he studied at Suri Vidyasagar College from 1956 to 1958 and received his Intermediate Science degree from University of Calcutta. He then enrolled in Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, now known as the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) Shibpur, and earned his Bachelor and Master degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of Calcutta in 1962 and 1964, respectively. He received three University of Calcutta Gold Medals for posting the highest grades among students of all branches of engineering at the university. He joined the College faculty as a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in May 1965 and continued his doctoral research, receiving the D Phil degree from University of Calcutta in 1969.

Academic career

In a career spanning over half of a century Amitabha Ghosh has made contributions in various fields, including fundamental and applied research, technology development, publication, administration and social development. His major research achievements include the discovery of the effect of the magnetic field on wear, development of methods to enhance damping through introduced stress concentration, analysis of kinetoelastodynamic problems of high speed compliant mechanisms and the discovery of the phenomenon of chaos in mechanical systems. He has also developed an extension of Newtonian mechanics leading to a modification of the laws of motion.

Amitabha Ghosh has advised more than 55 M. Tech. and 19 PhD students and published some 125 research papers. He has authored 10 books on science and engineering; his text books on engineering are studied in India and abroad. He set up the first robotics centre in India in 1986 and initiated robotics education in India in 1983.

In 2001, as Director of IIT Kharagpur, Amitabha Ghosh inaugurated the School of Medical Science and Technology in order to offer post graduate education to MBBS doctors and conduct research, bringing medical sciences into the IIT system for the first time in India. Since 2005, he has regularly organized specialized short courses on Physics and Astronomy for senior school students drawing on funds from science academies, the Indian Department of Science and Technology's INSPIRE program and from IUCAA Pune. He also organizes the Astronomy program for school students at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) telescope near Nainital.

From January 2001 to July 2013 he served as Chairman of the Research Council of the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur. The Centre is the national laboratory for mechanical engineering in India under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He was also Chairman of the Governing Body of the National Institute of Technical Teachers' Training and Research, Bhopal from 2009 to 2014. This facility is a national institute within the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India.

Positions held

• Technical Teacher Trainee, Bengal Engineering College, Jun 1964 to May 1965

• Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, Bengal Engineering College, May 1965 to Dec 1970
• Assistant Professor (Mechanical), IIT Kanpur, Jan 1971 to May 1975
• Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Jun 1975 to April 1997
• Director, IIT Kharagpur, April 1997 to April 2002
• Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, April 2002 to Jun 2006
• Senior Scientist, Indian National Science Academy and Honorary Distinguished Professor, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Dec 2006 to Nov 2011
• Platinum Jubilee Senior Scientist of the National Academy of Sciences of India and Honorary Distinguished Professor, IIEST Shibpur, Jan 2012 – Dec 2016
• Honorary Scientist, Indian National Science Academy and Honorary Distinguished Professor, IIEST Shibpur, Jan 2017 – present

Professional distinctions

The first Centre for Robotics at IIT Kanpur was opened in 1986 supported by a grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. It was renamed the Centre for Mechatronics in 1989. Amitabha Ghosh was the Centre's founding Head from 1986 to 1989, and served as Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur from 1989 to 1992. He has been a member of numerous academic, research and executive councils, and has received several government appointments, such as the Chairmanship of the Engineering Science Committee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and of the Project Appraisal Committee, Robotics and Manufacturing in the Department of Science and Technology, where he also chaired the Engineering Committee for Major Funding to Develop Science and Technology Infrastructure (FIST) in Major Institutions.

International collaborations

Among the international collaborations to which Amitabha Ghosh has contributed, the most important are as follows:

• From 1998 to 2006 he was the Indian Coordinator of the Indo-Japan Science Collaboration Programme in Engineering administered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST, Government of India) and Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS, Government of Japan).
• He was the Indian Coordinator of the Indo-US Joint Centre for Research Excellence in Futuristic Manufacturing & Fabrionics funded by the DST and NSF through the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, from 2006 to 2013. On the Indian side participating institutes were IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, CMERI Durgapur and IIEST Shibpur. On the US side 5 universities were involved: University of Illinois, Urbana - Champaign, University of Illinois, Chicago, University of California, Irvine, University of Missouri, Columbia and North Western University, Chicago.

Awards and honours

• Calcutta University Gold Medal for standing First in the B.E. examination, 1962
• Calcutta University A.H. Pandya Gold Medal for standing First among all branches of engineering of the university in the B.E. examination, 1962
• Calcutta University Gold Medal for standing First in the M.E. examination, 1964
• Mechanical Engineering Design Award, National Design & Research Forum, Institution of Engineers (India), 1998
• Distinguished Teacher Award, IIT. Kanpur 2002
• Engineering Personality Award, 20th Indian Engineering Congress, 2005
• Doctor of Science (h.c.), Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology, Shibpur, 2009
• Prof Jai Krishna Award for Research Excellence, Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi, 2012
• Distinguished Alumnus Award, Bengal Engineering and Science University, 2014
• Institute Fellow of IIT Kanpur, IIT Kanpur, 2015
• Doctor of Science (h.c.), National Institute of Technology, Sikkim, 2017

Fellowships and memberships

Amitabha Ghosh has been a Senior Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 1977, with residencies at RWTH Aachen University in Germany in 1977-8, 1980, 1983, 1990, 1995, 2003, 2008 and 2012. His other fellowships are as follows:

• Fellow, Institution of Engineers (India)
• Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi
• Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore
• Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi
• Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad
• Honorary Life Fellow, Association of Mechanisms & Machines

Scientific publications

Amitabha Ghosh has authored and collaborated in numerous journal articles in the fields of mechanical engineering, robotics and dynamics as well as gravitational physics.

Effect of magnetic field on wear

Ghosh, A. –“Cutting Tool Wear”, D Phil thesis, Calcutta University, 1968

Ghosh, A. – “Effect of magnetization on the wear characteristics of cutting tools”, Journal of Institution of Engineers (I), Mech. Engg., January, 1970

Ghosh, A., Bagchi, P. – “Mechanism of cutting tool wear in the presence of magnetic field”, Indian Journal of Technology, January, 1971

Muju, M. K. and Ghosh, A. – “A model of adhesive wear in the presence of a magnetic field – 1”, Wear, January, 1977

Introduced stress concentration to increase damping

• Mallik, A. K. and Ghosh, A. – “Improvement of damping characteristics of structural members by introduced stress concentration”, Indian Journal of Technology, January, 1973
• Mallik, A. K. and Ghosh, A. – “Improvement of damping characteristics of structural members with high damping elastic inserts”, Journal of Sound and Vibration, March, 1973

Circular plates on elastic foundation

• Chakraborty, A. K. and Ghosh, A. – “Finite Difference Solution of Circular Plates on Elastic Foundation”, International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering, January, 1975

Kinetoelastodynamic analysis

• Nath, P. K. and Ghosh, A. – “Steady state response of mechanisms with elastic links by finite element methods”, International Journal of Mechanism and Machine Theory, December, 1980. https://doi.org/10.1016/0094-114X(80)90004-X
• Nath, P. K. and Ghosh, A. – “Kineto-elasto dynamic analysis of mechanisms by finite element method”, International Journal of Mechanism and Machine Theory, December, 1980. https://doi.org/10.1016/0094-114X(80)90003-8

Study and discovery of chaos in mechanical systems

• Hatwal, H., Mallik, A. K., and Ghosh, A. – “Non-linear vibrations of a harmonically excited auto-parametric system”, Journal of Sound and Vibration, March, 1982
• Hatwal, H., Mallik, A. K., and Ghosh, A. – “Forced non-linear oscillations of an auto-parametric system – Part 1: Periodic response”, Journal of Applied Mechanics (ASME Trans), January, 1983
• Hatwal, H., Mallik, A. K., and Ghosh, A. – “Forced non-linear oscillations of an auto-parametric system – Part 2: Chaotic response”, Journal of Applied Mechanics (ASME Trans), January, 1983

Gravitational physics

• Ghosh, A. – “Velocity dependent inertial induction: An extension of Mach’s principle”, Pramana (Jr. of Physics), November, 1984
• Ghosh, A. – “Velocity–dependent inertial induction and secular retardation of the earth’s rotation”, Pramana (Jr. of Physics), October, 1986
• Ghosh, A. – “Velocity-dependent inertial induction—possible explanation for supergravity shift at solar limb”, Pramana, December, 1986
• Ghosh, A. - "A possible servomechanism for matter distribution yielding flat rotation curves in spiral galaxies", Astrophysics and Space Science, February, 1988
• Ghosh, A. - "Transfer of solar angular momentum by inertial induction", Earth, Moon and Planets, July 1988.
• Ghosh, A. – “Velocity dependent inertial induction: A possible mechanism for cosmological red-shift in a quasi static infinite universe”, Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, December, 1997
• Ghosh, A. and Dey, Ujjal –“Secular retardation of Earth’s and Mars’s rotation: The role of Velocity dependent inertial induction”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Sec A, Physical Sciences, DOI 10. 1007/s 400 10 – 018-0493-7 (2018)

Books

Amitabha Ghosh has also authored and contributed to the following books.

• Ghosh, A. and Mallik, A. K. – Theory of Mechanisms and Machines, Affiliated East West Press, New Delhi, 1st ed., 1976, 2nd ed., 1988, 3rd ed., 1998, (29 printings)
• Ghosh, A. and Mallik, A. K. – Manufacturing Science, Affiliated East West Press, New Delhi, 1st ed., 1985, 2nd ed., 2010, (34 printings)
• Mallik, A. K., Ghosh, A. and Dittrich, G. – Kinematic Analysis and Synthesis of Mechanisms, CRC Press, USA, 1994, Indian Edition, 2015
• Ghosh, A. – Rapid Prototyping, Affiliated East West Press, New Delhi, 1995
• Ghosh, A. – Origin of Inertia: Extended Mach’s Principle and Cosmological Consequences, Apeiron, Montreal, 2000, Affiliated East West Press, New Delhi, 2002
• Ghosh, A. – "Scaling Laws," in Mechanics over Micro and Nano Scales, Suman Chakraborty (ed), Springer Science+Business Media, 2011
• Ghosh, A. – Astronomy, Vol. 1, Pt. 2 of the series "History of Science in India," The National Academy of Sciences, India and Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, March 2015
• Ghosh, A. and Corves, B. – Introduction to Micromechanisms and Microactuators, Springer, 2015
• Ghosh, A. – Introduction to Dynamics. Springer Science+Business Media, May 2018
• Ghosh, A. – Conceptual Evolution of Newtonian and Relativistic Mechanics. Springer, November, 2017
• Ghosh, A. – Descriptive Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Indian Chronology, Springer, (Expected in May 2020)

Literary pursuits

Apart from his scientific publications, Amitabha Ghosh writes stories, essays and novels in Bengali. Two dramas, ‘Galilior Doorbin’ and ‘Pratham Aryabhata’, have been produced on stage.

Further reading

Amitabha Ghosh on Everybodywiki