Leeds alumni rewarded by British Council for strengthening international ties through research

Optical networks professional Dr Mitra, a former Leeds MSc (Eng) student, was awarded by the British Council for his outstanding research contribution to the India-UK collaboration since graduating.

Dr Abhijit Mitra, who is collaborating with BT at IIIT Delhi, India, was among the nominated business professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders who have shown how their education has impacted their successful careers. He won the 2019 Professional Achievement Award for India at the British Council Alumni Awards ceremony.

After he completed his Masters degree at the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Abhijit joined IIT Delhi as a British Telecom Research Fellow to pursue his PhD. He was later rewarded with the DST Inspire Faculty Award at IIIT Delhi by the Government of India for his research contributions. He is collaborating very closely with the British Telecom Optical Research team under the supervision of Professor Andrew Lord, Head of Optics Research, British Telecom. 

Dr Abhijit Mitra won the awarded the British Council (Alumni Awards) Professional Achievement Award for his outstanding research contribution to the India-UK collaboration.

Abhijit was nominated by Andrew for his contribution to the UK’s network design, while also strengthening the collaboration between the UK and India in optical networks. He said:

“My role to design the physical layer of Elastic Optical Networks was incredibly rewarding. I was part of the team which demonstrated the world’s first field trial of a ‘Superchannel’ operating at 1.4 Tbps, in the UK in 2014.

This remarkable achievement played an important role for subsequent and future India-UK collaboration...

“This remarkable achievement played an important role for subsequent and future India-UK collaboration and led to the set-up of the successful BT India Research Centre, which compliments the research work at IIIT Delhi in Elastic Optical Network and Quantum Key Distribution, at IISC Bangalore in 2018.” 

He continued:

“My UK education carried out at the University of Leeds, exposed me to invaluable expertise and knowledge, which I was able to apply in my postgraduate career and beyond.

My UK education carried out at the University of Leeds, exposed me to invaluable expertise and knowledge, which I was able to apply in my postgraduate career and beyond.

"Most importantly, it taught me the importance of diversity and teamwork where individuals from different backgrounds can work together to solve a larger problem.”

Through its Alumni Awards, the British Council celebrates the notable accomplishments of select international alum who have graduated from a UK institution within the past 10 years.

Further information

Abhijit’s research focuses on ‘Elastic Optical Networks’, as well as ‘Visual Light Communication’ and ‘Quantum Key Distribution’.

He is a member of the 5G network security group and the TSDSI standardisation body of India.