Prof. Sanjit K Mitra pursed his initial education in India before moving onto US. He did his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Physics in 1953 from Utkal University, Cuttack, India then he completed his M.Sc. (Tech.) degree in Radio Physics and Electronics in 1956 from Calcutta University, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960 and 1962, respectively.

His journey for studies did not stop here he with an inclination to do a Honorary Doctorate of Technology degree he joint  the Tampere University of Technology, Finland in 1987. After compltedion of his Ph.D Mitra from June 1962 to June 1965, was at the Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Then he was with the AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey, from June 1965 to January 1967. He has been on the faculty at the University of California since then, first at the Davis campus and at the Santa Barbara campus since 1977 as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he served as Chairman of the Department from July 1979 to June 1982.

He has served IEEE in various capacities including service as the President of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society in 1986. He is currently a member of the editorial boards of four journals He has the credit of publishing more than 500 papers in signal and image processing, twelve books, and holds five patents.

Sanjit Mitra for his exemplary contribution to the field of Sinaling and Image processing received many awards. Here are some of the awards and felicitations he received.

Apart from receiving may awards he is an Academician of the Academy of Finland. Dr. Mitra is a Fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, and SPIE, and a member of EURASIP and ASEE. In 2000 Sanjit Mitra was elected to the elite US National Academy of Sciences and Engineering in what appears to be a testimony to the bountiful presence of Indian immigrants in American academia and industry.