Tapas Manna was born in Midnapur, West Bengal. He obtained his B. Sc. degree in Chemistry from R. K. Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal and M. Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Calcultta University. He carried out doctoral research at Bose Institute, Kolkata and worked with Prof. Bhabatarak Bhattacharyya on structure-function aspects of microtubule proteins. For his research excellence during Ph. D., he was awarded with Sir Nil Ratan Sircar Prize from Bose Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. from Jadavpur University , Kolkata in 2004. In 2003, he went to University of California for postdoctoral training and worked with Prof. Leslie Wilson (2003-2006) on microtubule regulation and cancer. Subsequently, he worked with Prof. Stephen Doxsey (2006-2008) at University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester , USA on cell cycle regulation and centrosome function in mammalian cell.