Professor Amitava Bhattacharjee is a Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and Head of the Theory Department of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He also serves as Director of the Princeton Center for Heliophysics.

He received his Ph.D. at Princeton University in theoretical plasma physics. He has taught previously at Columbia University (1984-93) in the Department of Applied Physics, at the University of Iowa (1993-2003) in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the University of New Hampshire (2003-12), where he served as Paul Professor of Space Science. He has served as Senior Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics, as Chair of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, and as Founding Chair of the Topical Group in Plasma Astrophysics of the American Physical Society. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association of the Advancement of Science, and the American Geophysical Union.

His present research interests include: magnetic reconnection and current singularity formation, turbulence, and the dynamo effect in laboratory, space, and astrophysical plasmas.