Alok Kumar Kanungo

Dr. Alok Kumar Kanungo, a faculty at IIT Gandhinagar, was born in Odisha and grew up in close contact with many tribal communities of eastern and north-eastern India. His early childhood experiences led him to eventually focus on archaeological and ethnographic studies of tribal and ancient technology. For the last two decades, Dr. Kanungo has travelled and documented the rich heritage of the Nagas of north-east India, and the Bondos and Juangs of Odisha both in the field and in museums across Europe and United Kingdom. He has worked in many areas where it is difficult to say where anthropology or history stops and archaeology begins. He has studied and published extensively on the subject of glass and glass bead production, and written or edited nine books and about five dozens research articles. He has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including Humboldt, Fulbright and Homi Bhabha Fellowships. He has lectured at many universities and research institutes in Taiwan, England, USA, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Italy, France, Turkey, Malaysia and Germany, besides India.