PERSONAL NEWS Mihir Chowdhury (1937–2017) Professor Mihir Chowdhury, one of the at Pennsylvania State University (with Presidency College in 1971 (during the pioneers in modern physical chemistry in L. Goodman, 1961–62) and at Chicago turbulent Naxalite period). Many of us India, passed away on 28 March 2017. (with D. S. McClure, 1962–64), USA. still recall his courses on thermodynam- He is widely respected for introducing There he developed a strong interest in ics, quantum chemistry, group theory and lasers and many state-of-the-art tech- high-resolution spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy. His classes used to niques in physical chemistry research in be long (2 h instead of the scheduled 1 h) India. He along with M. V. George, J. P. and still the students thronged in large Mittal, V. Krishnan, late P. Natarajan numbers. He always encouraged excel- and V. Ramamurthy ushered in modern lence. I remember in a college examina- photochemistry in India. tion, he deducted 10 marks because I Born in Dhaka (Bangladesh) on 15 picked up an easy question. July 1937, he was the youngest child of In 1976, Chowdhury moved back to Jogendra Kumar Chowdhury and Indira. IACS as the Professor and Head of the He had three sisters and one brother. His Department of Physical Chemistry. elder brother, Subir Chowdhury is a pio- Within a decade, he transformed it as one neer in operations research in India and of the leading centres of physical chem- his eldest sister Amita Datta was a pro- istry in India with five fellows of the fessor of economics at the Presidency Indian Academy of Sciences and four College, Kolkata. His father was a Head Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award winners. of the Department of Chemistry and Chowdhury himself became a fellow of Dean of Science at the Dhaka University. Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), Chowdhury’s early childhood at the Bengaluru in 1977 and of the Indian Na- Dhaka University campus with renowned tional Science Academy (INSA), New professors like J. C. Ghosh (chemistry), After returning to India in 1964, Delhi in 1980, and received the Bhatna- S. N. Bose (physics) and others had a Chowdhury joined the Department of gar Award in 1977. deep influence on him. In his early life, Magnetism (now Department of Solid Since 1976, he started working in he often thought of joining J. C. Ghosh’s State Physics), Indian Association for the three different areas. First, he started group for a Ph D. However, by the time Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata working with a hand-made toy nitrogen he finished his M Sc, J. C. Ghosh was as a CSIR pool-officer. The then Head of laser on chemical dynamics (excited state too busy with administration. the Department, late A. K. Bose, pro- geometry change, proton transfer, non- After independence and the partition vided grants to set up a world-class labo- radiative transitions in lanthanides) and of Bengal, Chowdhury came to Kolkata ratory for high-resolution crystal two-photon spectroscopy of double- with his family and studied at the Scot- spectroscopic studies on organic and in- molecules and lanthanide crystal. Sec- tish Church Collegiate School (Matricu- organic molecules at liquid hydrogen ond, since 1980, he started working on lation 1951), Presidency College (I Sc temperature. Perhaps, Chowdhury’s most the effect of small magnetic field on 1953 and B Sc 1955) and Science Col- famous work in this period was excited exciplex emission. Third, in the late lege (M Sc 1957). Throughout his life, he state geometry change (photo-isomeri- eighties, he set up a supersonic jet facil- was a brilliant student (8th in I Sc). In zation) of benzil. This work attracted ity for high-resolution laser spectroscopy 1957, he joined Sadhan Basu’s labora- wide attention because of the contempo- in gas phase. tory at Calcutta University and obtained rary work on photo-isomerization of stil- Unfortunately, he suffered a haemor- his Ph D in 1960. In Basu’s laboratory, bene and its implication in vision (retinyl rhage in the eye in 1997 and later devel- he worked with professors Animesh polyenes). He established a pulsed high oped Parkinson’s disease. After official Chakravorty, late A. K. Chandra and magnetic field set-up for studying the retirement in 2002, he continued as a others. Zeeman effect and magneto-optical rota- senior scientist of INSA till 2006. Be- Around that time, Basu was revolu- tory dispersion. Using optical absorption cause of failing health, he stopped com- tionizing physical chemistry in India. He and circular dichroism, he made signifi- ing to the laboratory after 2006. introduced teaching and research of cant contributions to forbidden transi- Chowdhury will be remembered for quantum chemistry and spectroscopy and tions in lanthanides. his deep and scholarly approach to re- made forays into DNA, enzyme and In 1966, Chowdhury moved to Presi- search and teaching, and for enthusing a polymers. The topic of Chowdhury’s dency College as a full professor (later large number of students. He detested Ph D thesis was charge-transfer (CT) Head) in the Department of Chemistry quick and dirty works which may be spectroscopy, which was started by R. S. and continued to carry out his research at fashionable and may help to get a large Mulliken (Nobel Laureate) only a few IACS. He was a legendary teacher, at number of publications. Sometimes, his years ago. His early publications are still both undergraduate and postgraduate meticulousness delayed his publications. considered as landmark papers in CT levels. He inspired several generations of Many of us tried to combine the scholar- spectroscopy (e.g. polarization of CT students through his teaching. I first saw ship of Chowdhury with the adventurous band). He carried out postdoctoral work him as a thermodynamics teacher at spirit of Basu. CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 112, NO. 8, 25 APRIL 2017 1765 PERSONAL NEWS Among Chowdhury’s nearly 30 Ph D of INSA (2002), J. C. Ghosh Memorial was pleasing to find his love for litera- students, seven are fellows of IASc – Lecture of Indian Chemical Society ture, movies and theatre and his wry three are theoreticians and four are ex- (1997), Morris Travers Memorial Lec- sense of humour. perimentalists. This illustrates the vast- ture of IISc Bangalore (1998), Baba Kar- He was a good badminton player and ness of his research interest. Three of his tar Singh Memorial Lecture of Panjab would easily defeat students, half his students received the Bhatnagar Award University (1999), UGC National Lec- age. In the laboratory, he used to work and four are fellows of INSA. Many of turer (1980), Lifetime Achievement much harder than the students. He hardly his students and grand-students are now Award of ISRAPS and R. P. Mitra Me- ate anything during long office hours. professors at premier institutions in India morial Lecture of Delhi University Because of his presence in the labora- (IITs, major Universities, IISERs, etc.). (1988). As a member of many important tory, we often had to work long hours Many famous researchers in India were committees, he played a seminal role in without any food or tea break. The prize his undergraduate and/or postgraduate nurturing younger scientists in India of this torture (!) used to be snacks and students. through research grants and awards. coffee, at his expense, at the nearby Chowdhury received numerous awards The hallmark of Chowdhury’s charac- Jadavpur Coffee House, afterwards. and accolades. These include Gold ter was politeness and kindness. He Mihir Chowdhury is survived by his Medal of the Chemical Research Society never lost temper or control of words wife, one son, and one daughter. of India (2006), Eminent Teacher Award though he had a strong view on many is- of Calcutta University (2006), Mizu- sues and was most often, quite uncom- KANKAN BHATTACHARYYA shima–Raman Lecture of India–Japan promising. Even when he disagreed, Council (2003), honoris causa degrees of there was no loss of dignity on either Department of Chemistry, the Vidyasagar University (2007) and side. He never liked hollow praise. The Indian Institute of Science Education Presidency University (2013), K. Ran- highest appreciation one could extract and Research, gadhama Rao Memorial Lecture of INSA from him was ‘not bad’. If one could Bhopal 462 066, India (1989), Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture crack his apparent unemotional shield, it e-mail: [email protected] Durga Prasad Roy (1941–2017) It was a terrible shock with which then joined TIFR as Reader in 1976 and lates resonance contributions in the scat- friends, collaborators and colleagues re- retired as Senior Professor in 2006. He tering to these terms. Roy predicted and ceived the news of the sad demise of worked at the Homi Bhabha Centre of presented evidences for exotic mesons, Durga Prasad Roy recently. DP, as he Science Education (HBCSE), TIFR, as a called baryonium those days, but now was popularly known, passed away on 17 DAE Raja Ramanna Fellow (until 2011), termed tetra-quark, as well as exotic March 2017 in Cuttack, Odisha after a and then continued working at HBCSE baryons, now called the penta-quark brief illness. Roy was active in every as an INSA Senior Scientist. states. These robust predictions continue sense of the word till he breathed his last, to attract the attention of experimental- having posted a review on the arXiv in ists as well as lattice quantum chromo- August 2016, participated in conferences dynamics (QCD) experts. Along with his actively even in 2017 and being physically collaborators, Roy suggested to look for fit to climb hills during the recent INSA a hard isolated lepton and jets as a signa- meeting.