Amitabha Ghosh received his Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Calcutta University in 1962, 1964 and 1969, respectively. After serving as a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at his alma mater, Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (now an Institute of National Importance-Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur) from 1965 to 1970, Professor Ghosh joined the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) as an Assistant Professor in January 1971. He served at the Institute as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1975 until his retirement in 2006.

From 1977 to 1978 Professor Ghosh visited the RWTH Aachen as a Senior Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and subsequently visited the RWTH Aachen in the same capacity several times between then and 2012. He served as Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) from 1997 to 2002. His primary areas of research are Manufacturing Science, Robotics, Kinematics and Mechanism Theory and Dynamics of Mechanical Systems. Professor Ghosh has written a number of textbooks that have been highly successful both in India and abroad, and has received many academic awards including a number of Calcutta University Gold Medals, the D.Sc. (h.c.), Distinguished Teacher award from IIT Kanpur and the Award for Excellence in Research by the National Academy of Engineering. He is a fellow of all four national science and engineering academies in India.