Mitra was head of Mathematics of Networks and Systems research division (1986–99), and was vice president of the math and algorithmic science center.
[1] Mitra has served as editor and as part of the editorial board of numerous scientific publications, and was visiting professor at University of California (1984).
In 2003, Mitra was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his "contributions to the modeling, analysis and design of communication networks."
He retired from Bell Labs in 2013 and joined the Columbia University Electrical Engineering department.
His current research interests are in the scientific foundations of policy that impact engineers and engineering systems, especially in models, analyses and syntheses of organizational and individual interactions.