Robin Sengupta

Ram Prasad "Robin" Sengupta (born December 31, 1937) is an Indian-born British neurosurgeon, academic, and founder-chairman of the Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata. Considered a leading figure in the world of neurosurgery, he was dubbed "Neurosurgeon of the Millennium" by the Neurological Society of India in 2000.

Early life and education Ram Prasad Sengupta was born on December 31, 1937 in Chittagong, Bengal Presidency, British India (now in Bangladesh). He was the second son of a poor Bengali family. Owing to poverty, his family was unable to send him to school, and as a child he earned a living by selling fruit in the streets. at 14, he started tutoring a number of children, he worked odd jobs and used his refugee stipend to pay college fees, and graduated from the university in 1961. The same year, he relocated to England, and started working at the Bury General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester. Sengupta obtained a Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons from Edinburgh in 1967, and one from England in 1969. In the early 1970s, he attempted to shift back to India in search of work, even landing a job at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi in 1973. However, dissatisfied with the kind of work he was offered, he retreated to England. Around the same time, he found work at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts under Dr. William H. Sweet, then chief of neurosurgery at the hospital. However, he soon returned to Newcastle to continue working at the NHS, where he eventually became a consultant neurosurgeon. A few years later, in 2009, he established the Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, built with the help of donations from friends, colleagues, patients and Sengupta's own savings.

Sengupta is also a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, an emeritus fellow at Durham University, Durham, and an emeritus professor of neurosurgery at Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, Chennai. He was awarded the "Medal of Honour" by the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) for his impact on neurosurgery in 2017, becoming the first Indian to be bestowed with the award. He has also received, from multiple organisations, a number of lifetime achievement awards.

Personal life Sengupta married Tapati Sengupta in 1961. They had a son, born in 1963, and a daughter, Anita, born in 1965. His son passed away in an accident in 1983.

He divides his time between Kolkata, where he works at the Institute of Neurosciences, and Fenham, Newcastle, where he lives with his family.

Selected publications