Asis Datta was born on 2 February 1944, secured a doctoral degree (PhD) from Calcutta University and followed it up by obtaining the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) from the same institution. Receiving a fellowship from the Government of India, he joined Bose Institute, Kolkata in 1964 and pursued his researches there till 1968 when he moved to New York as a Research Associate at the Public Health Research Institute to continue research till 1971.His next move was to the University of California, Los Angeles as assistant virologist where he spent three years. Returning to India in 1975, he joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at its School 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, 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 at Roche Institute of Molecular Biology for two academic years, 1976–77 and 1980–81. 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. He worked at the institute till his superannuation in 2008. At the end of his official career, he was recognized as the Emeritus Professor by the Jawaharlal Nehru University and as the Distinguished Emeritus Scientist and Professor Emeritus by the National Institute of Plant Genome Research.

Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology