File:Sandip Kumar Chakrabarti - Kolkata 2011-09-24 5704.JPG

English: Sandip Kumar Chakrabarti was born on 15th November, 1958 at Malda, West Bengal (India) and is the fourth son of Sri Bijoy Bhusan Chakrabarti and Renuka Chakrabarti. His mother Renuka Chakrabarti is the the granddaughter of the sister of Aghornath Chattopadhyay, father of Ms. Sarojini Naidu a freedom fighter and first governor of UP after independence. He is married to Dr. Sonali Chakrabarti, daughter of Prof. J.N. Chakrabarti, a Physicist. After finishing his Bachelor of Science from R.K.M. College Narendrapur in Physics Honours in 1979 (and becoming topper of Calcutta University) he went to IIT, Kanpur to complete his M. Sc. Degree in Physics in 1981. He joined the Physics Dept. of the University of Chicago in 1981 to complete PhD work. Within a year he completed a paper with Robert Geroch and X.B. Liang on a Theorem on "Time like Curves of limited acceleration in General Relativity". Prof. S. Chandrasekhar then asked him to solve the Dirac Equation in Kerr black hole geometry. In 1984 this work was also got published in Proc. R. Soc. Subsequently, he concentrated on black hole astrophysics, received his Ph.D. in 1985 and went to Caltech as a R.C. Tolman Fellow. Major work in this period includes nucleosynthesis around black holes with Prof. W.D. Arnett. After a brief period at ICTP, Trieste where he completed a few definitive work on the formation of shocks in transonic/advective flows around black holes he joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai in November 1988 where he worked till 1996 before joining S.N. Bose National Centre where he is a Senior Professor now (2008). He was at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre (1994-1995) as a Senior Associate selected by National Research Council. He had been a member of the Executive Committee of Commission-28 (Galaxies) of International Astronomical Union (IAU, 1994-2000). He is a life-member of the IAU and a member of the American Astronomical Society.