Dilip K. Chakrabarti is Emeritus Professor of South Asian Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology at Cambridge University. He is the first person to hold professorship in the field of ancient Indian history at that university. Before joining Cambridge, he held tenured appointments in Calcutta (1965-1977), Delhi (1977-90) and Visva Bharati (1980-81) Universities. He also held visiting fellowships, scholarships, teaching appointments and received grants in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Tehran, New York, Paris, Jahangir Nagar (Bangladesh) and Armidale (Australia). He has archaeologically surveyed the Kangra Valley, the whole of the Chhotanagpur plateau, the whole of the Ganga-Yamuna plain and Haryana-Punjab between 1980 and 2008, and has also worked out in the field the archaeology of the routes which linked the Ganga plain with the Deccan and the ancient routes of the Deccan and the southern Peninsula. It is doubtful if anybody after Alexander Cunningham in the 19th century has so far been more familiar with India's archaeological landscape than him. He has authored (co-authored in two cases) 29 books and edited/co-edited about a dozen more. He is the editor of the VIF series on the History of Ancient India. He was honoured with Padma Shri in 2019 for his distinguished contribution in the field of Indian history and archaeology. He received V.S.Wakankar Rashtriya Samman of Madhya Pradesh government, Gurudev Ranade award of the Indian Archaeological Society, S.N. Chakrabarti medal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Senerath Paranavitana award of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He also received D.Litt. (Honoris causa) of M.J.P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly.