Dr. Sumit Som, Distinguished Scientist, has been appointed as Director, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) with effect from 14th January, 2020 and before that he was serving as Acting Director, VECC with effect from 1st June 2019.

He is an Electronics & Tele-Communication Engineering graduate from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, under Calcutta University (presently known as, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur). He joined the 31st Batch of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Training School in 1987 and graduated successfully on completion of the one year Orientation Course for Engineering graduates and Science Post-graduates (OCES) in 1988. He then joined Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre as Scientific Officer-C in 1988 and subsequently acquired PhD in Engineering Sciences from Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai. 

He served as an Invited Foreign Researcher at High Energy Accelerator Organization, KEK, Japan, during 1998-1999 and involved with the development of Superconducting Crab cavity for KEK-B factory, an electron-positron collider at KEK. He also worked with RF system of K800 Superconducting Cyclotron at Laboratorio Del Sud (LNS), Instituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Catania, Italy, in 1995. 

Dr. Som has worked in several areas of particle accelerators, especially on RF technology. It includes high power normal conducting RF cavity for cyclotron, high power RF amplifiers, LLRF systems, superconducting RF cavity etc.  

He, as Project Director, Medical Cyclotron Project, lead the group to carry out the installation and commissioning work of 30 MeV Medical Cyclotron System with 5 beam lines and successfully extracted Proton beam with 15 to 30 MeV energy, including the trial production of radioisotopes/Radio-pharmaceuticals (e.g., Fluorine-18, Gallium-67, Gallium-68, Thallium-201 etc.) in collaboration with BRIT, Kolkata. Commercial production and delivery of FDG radiopharmaceutical is continued on regular basis since June, 2020. 

On account of his considerable expertise and acumen in this RF-technology arena, he holds pivotal positions in various technical committees. Several technical achievement awards of DAE, such as, Homi Bhabha Science & Technology Award-2019, Science & Technology Excellence Award-2008, Group Achievement Awards in 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019 have been conferred upon him in recognition of the important contributions to the ongoing programmes of DAE.