Sudipta Sengupta is a professor in

structural geology Structural geology is the study of the three-dimensional distribution of rock units with respect to their deformational histories. The primary goal of structural geology is to use measurements of present-day rock geometries to uncover informati ...

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...

, India, and a trained

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

. She is one of the first Indian women (along with Aditi Pant) to set foot on Antarctica. She is also popularly known in India for her book ''Antarctica'' in Bengali and numerous articles and television interviews on geosciences. She has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals of structural geology. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded her the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for her contributions to Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences in 1991.

Early life

Sengupta was the youngest daughter of three, born to Jyoti Ranjan Sengupta and Pushpa Sengupta in Calcutta, India. Her father was a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

and their family spent a lot of time in both India and Nepal. She says she "comes from the land of Durga. We worship Durga and as a child, I believed that she lived in Kailash. Now, I know that Durga lives in us, in all women."

Early career

Sudipta Sengupta graduated from

with top honors in both the B.Sc. and M.Sc. examinations. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from Jadavpur University in 1972 under the supervision of Dr. Subir Kumar Ghosh. She worked as a geologist in the Geological Survey of India between 1970 and 1973. In 1973, she received the prestigious scholarship of the

Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the international exhibition of 1851, officially called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. The Great Exhibition was held ...

from U.K. and carried out post-doctoral research work for the next three years at the

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1977 she joined the Institute of Geology of

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, Sweden as a docent for six months and thereafter carried out research as a visiting scientist in connection with the International Geodynamics Project which was supervised by Professor

Hans Ramberg Hans Ramberg (15 March 1917 – 7 June 1998) was a Norwegian- Swedish geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes t ...

. On her return to India in 1979, she joined the Geological Survey of India as a Senior Geologist. In 1982, she joined Jadavpur University as a lecturer and retired as a Professor.Sengupta, Sudipta. ''Antarctica''. Ananda Publisher, 1989, Sengupta recounts that "for the first 15 years of my life, there were hardly any women in the class - in most of the years none." She talks about the fact that the university wasn't prepared to accommodate women during field-trips. Conditions didn't improve until 1996, Sengupta says "In our times, it was terrible. We stayed in dharamshalas and sometimes huts." Sengupta also talks about the fact that in some ways it was better in her days. She went on her PhD studied alone and traveled to remote places with "bad roads and no communication, but never felt unsafe" but that these days she "wouldn't dare to send a girl alone for field work."

Mountaineering

Sudipta Sengupta is an expert mountaineer and was trained in Advanced Mountaineering by

Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay (; ''tendzin norgyé''; perhaps 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two people known to reach the su ...

in the

Himalayan Mountaineering Institute The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI Darjeeling) was established in Darjeeling, India on 4 November 1954 to encourage mountaineering as an organized sport in India. The first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund ...

. Tenzing Norgay was one of the first two men to scale Mt Everest in 1953. She has participated in numerous mountaineering expeditions in India and Europe, including an unnamed virgin peak in the Lahaul Region, which they later named Mount Lalona. Sengupta remembers that her field work taught her much. She says "people are the same everywhere. They are basically good and helpful" even if "to seen an Indian girl moving around with a hammer was very new for them."

Antarctic expedition and research

In 1983, Sudipta Sengupta was selected as a member of the Third Indian Expedition to Antarctica and conducted pioneering geological studies in the Schirmacher Hills of East Antarctica. Sudipta and Dr. Aditi Pant, a Marine Biologist were the first women scientist from India to take part in Antarctic Expedition. In 1989 she visited Antarctica for the second time as a member of the

Ninth Indian Expedition to Antarctica In music, a ninth is a compound interval consisting of an octave plus a second. Like the second, the interval of a ninth is classified as a dissonance in common practice tonality. Since a ninth is an octave larger than a second, it ...

. Her work in the Schirmacher Hills is of fundamental importance as it became the basis of further research in that area. In the major part of her research in structural geology, Professor Sudipta Sengupta has combined geological field studies with laboratory experiments and theoretical analyses. Apart from doing structural field studies in varied terrain, including the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

structures of Peninsular India, the

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, the Scandinavian

Caledonides The Caledonian orogeny was a mountain-building era recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles, the Scandinavian Mountains, Svalbard, eastern Greenland and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that o ...

and East Antarctica. She talks about her experience in Antarctica and says that the Geology prejudices extended to that land as well. She says "Antarctica was also a male bastion, women scientists weren't allowed there before 1956." She remembers men joking that a woman couldn't go without a beauty parlor in Antarctica. In 1982 she applied to join an Indian Expedition to Antarctica but her application was rejected because she was a woman. She was later taken on expeditions in 1982 and 1989. On both expeditions, she traveled on ships taking a month to get there. Once they were on land, the crew had to work during blizzards and a Sun that never set. In the days that she went to Antarctica, India only had one base station — Dakshin Gangotri, which now is not in function and is fully submerged in ice. The Maitri station was already up and running by then in Schirmacher Oasis in East Antarctica and is still an active research base.

Publications and awards

Professor Sengupta has published numerous papers in Indian as well as international journals. She has edited a book with contributions by renowned structural geologists and also authored a book on her travels and work in Antarctica which has become a best seller in West Bengal. She was awarded the Bhatnagar Award for excellence in science by the Government of India. She is a Fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Acade ...

. Professor Sengupta also received the

National Mineral Award National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

and the

Antarctica Award Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

from the Government of India, along with numerous other awards like the Profession and Career Award of the Lady Study Group. Professor Sengupta was part of a forum titled 'Women in Science and Technology' at the India Internation Centre in New Delhi. It was acknowledged that Sengupta was a geologist during the 80s, a time when women were discouraged from taking part in any field work. Sengupta was a guest speaker during the event and began by quoting Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

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