Basu was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. He is the eldest son of painter
Atul Bose. He received his B.Sc. in
geology from Calcutta's Presidency College (now
Presidency University, Kolkata) and M.Sc. from the
Calcutta University. He worked as a geologist for the
Geological Survey of India for about ten years. A
Fulbright program grant enabled him to move to the USA. He got his Ph.D. in 1975 from
Indiana University Bloomington and was a post-doctoral researcher at
Harvard University and
NASA. He has been teaching at Indiana University since 1979 where he is an emeritus professor in Indiana University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. He is married to Ilora Basu and is the father of musician Joy Basu. ==Career==