Amarendra Sengupta was born in Calcutta, India, on 10 January 1933 and qualified MB, BS at the University of Calcutta in 1956. After holding junior appointments at the Christian Medical College in Vellore he came to England in 1958 to obtain further general surgical training in Swindon and Northampton. Subsequently he became surgical registrar in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the London Chest Hospital and Southampton Chest Hospital respectively. He became a Fellow in 1962 having obtained the Fellowship of the Edinburgh College in the previous year. In 1963 he obtained a research fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, where he undertook studies with the basic problems involved with the implantation of the artificial heart. He became chief resident in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the Clinic in 1963 and later at Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland. He obtained the Fellowship Diploma in Surgery of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1967 and certification by the American Boards in general surgery in 1970 and thoracic surgery in 1971. In 1969 Sengupta went into private surgical practice in Rochester, New York, with attending appointments at Rochester General Hospital, St Mary's Hospital, Park Ridge Hospital, Rochester, and became Clinical Associate Professor of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery in the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He died on 6 January 1987, four days before his fifty-fourth birthday.