Anirvan Ghosh was born in Bloomington, Indiana and grew up in Kanpur, India. He returned to the U.S. to study physics at the California Institute of Technology. He did his graduate work in Neurobiology at Stanford and his postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School before taking a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 2003, he moved to the University of California, San Diego as the Stephen Kuffler Professor in the Neurobiology Section. From 2011 to 2106 Anirvan was at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel as the Global Head of Neuroscience Discovery and now works at Biogen in Boston, where he is senior vice president for research and early development. He has a deep interest in the arts and society and has been a supporter of theatre and conservation efforts. Anirvan is the science consultant for Happyville the Musical. Anirvan comes from a family of scientists and writers. His grandfather was the eminent Indian writer, Buddhedeva Bose.