Dr. Soumitra Shankar Datta is a senior consultant psychiatrist working in the Department of Palliative Care and Psycho-oncology of Tata Medical Centre. After MBBS, he obtained DPM, MD and DNB degrees in psychiatry from Christian Medical College, Vellore. He was awarded the Florence Nichol Prize and Rose Chacko Medal for being the best out-going student for the DPM and MD courses in CMC,Vellore. Subsequently he joined the department of psychiatry in CMC, Vellore as a lecturer and consultant. On moving to United Kingdom after obtaining MRCPsych, Dr. Datta trained as a child psychiatrist. Dr. Datta has a Certificate of Completion of Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from UK (CCT). Prior to joining TMC, he worked as a substantive consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist in Kings College Hospital, London and The Maudsley Hospital, London. During his clinical career he has trained doctors and other professionals and was an examiner for undergraduate and post graduate medical students of University of Manchester and Guy's Hospital, London. He was awarded Donald Cohen Fellowship by the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Allied Professionals in 2008. In 2014, Dr. Datta was awarded the UCL International Teaching Excellence Bursary by the University College London to develop Communication skills training for oncology clinicians.

Dr. Datta leads the psycho-oncology service in Tata Medical Center that provides psychological support for newly diagnosed patients with cancer, treats psychiatric comorbidties as depression, procedural anxiety and other conditions in cancer patients and their family members and offers training to staff on psycho-oncology. The department offers comprehensive assessment and neuropsychological testing for patients with brain tumours. Dr. Datta is a visiting researcher for the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London and also for Institute of Women Studies in University College London. Dr. Datta is the Principal Investigator for several research projects in the area of depression/body image in cancer, doctor patient relationships in oncology and has developed a communication skills course for oncology clinicians. He runs a one year psycho-oncology fellowship programme in TMC.