Chandrakanta Kumar was born in Shibpur, W.B., India. He received his M. Tech and Ph.D. in Radio Physics and Electronics from the University of Calcutta, India, in the year 2001 and 2012 respectively. He has also completed the Space Studies Program, from International Space University, Strasbourg, France, in 2013. He joined the Communication Systems Group of U R Rao Satellite Centre, Bangalore, India in 2001 as an engineer and at present heads its ‘Electromagnetics Section’. He primarily designs and develops the antenna systems for the Indian space program and related ground stations like ‘Indian deep space network station’ IDSN-32, 11 m diameter satellite tracking antenna, transportable tracking terminals, etc. He has worked on the antenna systems of 20 spacecraft, including Mars Orbiter Mission, and with operating in the frequency range between VHF to Ka-band. He has 130 publications in national and international journals and conferences, including 50 in IEEE journals to his credit. His present research areas are low cross-pol printed antennas, defected ground structures (DGS), phased array antennas, lightweight antennas for spacecraft. Dr. Kumar is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow, WB Academy of Sc.& Tech and Fellow, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), India, and life member of Astronautical Society of India. He is a recipient of ‘Young Scientist Merit Award-2009’ from ISRO, ‘Prof. S. N. Mitra Memorial Award-2011’ and Hari Ramji Toshniwal Award-2018; both from IETE, India. He is also a member of the team that received ‘Team Excellence Award-2008’ of ISRO for his design of Chandrayaan-1 antenna systems. He also received the 2nd Best paper award in InCAP 2019 at Ahmedabad; the second and third best paper Award in iAIM-2017, ‘K U Limaye Memorial Best Paper Awards in ISM-2008, and IRSI 2009; all held in Bangalore. He is an active volunteer of IEEE and at present is vice-chair of the Bangalore Section and Secretary of AP-MTT joint chapter. He is also on the board of reviewers of journals like the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, etc.