Abhijnan Rej was educated in the United States with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in mathematics from the University of Connecticut. He carried out his doctoral research in mathematical physics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany working on geometrical aspects of high-energy physics. He has been a Marie-Curie Early Stage Research Fellow of the European Commission at Durham University (UK) and a research scholar of the Clay Mathematics Institute (Cambridge, MA.) He spent the academic year 2008-2009 as an independent researcher with affiliations to several Indian institutes. His nonscientific interests include political philosophy, emerging media and strategic issues. His many academic honors include a Presidential Fellowship from Boston University and the designation of University Scholar from the University of Connecticut.