B. V. Sreekantan

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B. V. Sreekantan
Born(1925-06-30)June 30, 1925
Sir M. Visvesvaraya Senior Scientist State Award
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Badanaval Venkatasubba Sreekantan (30 June 1925- 27 October 2019) was an Indian high-energy astrophysicist and a former associate of Homi J. Bhabha at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He was also a Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

Known for his studies in the fields of cosmic rays, elementary particles, and high-energy X-ray astronomics, Sreekantan was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India as well as the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences. He was also an associate of Bruno Rossi at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1988.

Biography

University of Mysore.

Sreekantan hailed from a family of temple priests; he was born to Laxmi Devi and Badanaval Venkata Pandit on 30 June 1925, in the small hamlet of

Mysore University.[2] He continued his studies as a research scholar at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, but moved to Mumbai in 1948 to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)[3] when Homi J. Bhabha invited him for advanced research in cosmic ray physics.[4] His research at TIFR earned him a PhD from the University of Mumbai in 1954.[5]

Sreekantan resided in

Bengaluru.[6] He married Ratna, a classical musician, in 1953; she died in 2006.[1][2]

Sreekantan died 27 October 2019 at his home in Bangalore.[7]

Career and legacy

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai

Sreekantan stayed at TIFR for 39 years, and before his retirement from TIFR service in 1987, he served as the director of the institute from 1975.

Mumbai University awarded him PhD in 1954.[1]

Sreekantan's first stint at the

Astrosat, the first Indian multiwavelength astronomy observatory, which was launched in October 2015.[11]

Sreekantan was known to have furthered the studies of Homi Bhabha and Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi on the lifespan and decay spectrum of muons. He set up his laboratory using war-surplus goods from World War II procured by TIFR as well as from other sources and with the assistance of H. L. N. Murthy, an expert in glass work, who helped him in the development of Geiger counters, he measured the lifespan of the positive muons as 2.24±0.15 microseconds. His findings were published in the Indian journal, Proceedings of Indian Academy of Sciences in 1951.[1]

Cosmic ray air shower created by a 1TeV proton hitting the atmosphere 20 km above the Earth (simulation)

When a joint team of

Grand Unification Theory, to detect the decay of protons in subterranean environment, in the 1970s, the other members of the team included M. G. K. Menon. He assisted Homi Bhabha in the installation of two cloud chambers, Rani and Maharani at the cosmic ray laboratory in Ooty in 1954. Later, a larger cloud chamber, the largest one in India till then, and an air shower array were also set up there, with his assistance.[13] He also designed, together with Subramanian and Ramamurthy, a total absorption spectrometer and an air Cherenkov counter, and the experiments revealed to Sreekantan and his associate, S. C. Tonwar, that increase in energy was an influential factor in the increase of nucleon-anti nucleon production cross section. Their findings have been published in Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) journal in 1979.[14] Along with R. H. Vatcha, he measured charged to neutral (C/N) ratio for high energy hadrons in showers of 1014–1016 eV energy range[note 1] and arrived at the conclusion that copious production of baryons in high energy interactions is inevitable[note 2].[15] These experiments confirmed baryon production in hadron-air nucleus collisions at 1015 eV.[2]

As the director of the TIFR, he was instrumental in the establishment of several research centres such as Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education Mumbai, National Centre for Biological Sciences Bengaluru, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics Pune and TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics, Bengaluru.[1] His contributions are also reported in the expansion of the TIFR Balloon Facility at Hyderabad. It was during his tenure that the Pelletron Accelerator, a joint project of the TIFR and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre was approved.[1] He inspired Govind Swarup to prepare the proposal for the establishment of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at Khodad, Pune.[1] It was under his directorship, TIFR staff was included in the BARC contributory health service scheme. He also initiated a staff pension scheme, the proposal for company quarters for TIFR employees, subsidised housing loans and welfare schemes for lower grade staff.[1]

After his retirement from TIFR, Sreekantan was offered the INSA Srinivasa Ramanujan chair which he held till 1992,[5] when he moved to the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bengaluru, accepting the Radhakrishnan Visiting Professor chair.[9] At NIAS, he was involved in the studies related to the application of physics and mathematical tools in processing biological systems, along with R. L. Kapur, a notable psychiatrist, and continued with the studies after the death of Kapur in 2006.[16]

Sreekantan was associated with several notable scientific personalities such as Homi Bhabha, M. G. K. Menon, Raja Ramanna, S. Naranan, R. L. Kapur, Ramanath Cowsik, V. S. Narasimham, S. V. Damle and G. S. Gokhale.[1] He delivered many keynote addresses at national and international conferences,[17] mentored many scientists in their doctoral research and was the author of over 300 scientific papers.[2][18] He was also credited with the publication of five books, either as the author or editor.[1][19][20][21][22]

His studies have been documented by way of one book, Extensive Air Showers[23] and a number of articles.[24][25][note 3] He wrote a monograph on Cosmic Rays : Current Status and Future Directions for Homi Bhabha Fellowships Council (unknown if finished before his death).[9] He also wrote three books namely, Remembering Einstein: Lectures on Physics and Astrophysics,[26] Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Consciousness and the Self[27] and Nature’s Longest Threads: New Frontiers in Mathematics and Physics of Information in Biology[28] as well as several articles on general science topics for the propagation of science.[note 4]

Positions

The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), established in 1786 by William Petrie,[29] was modernised in 1960 by Vainu Bappu, the renowned Indian astronomer, and Sreekantan became associated with the institute during this time.[30] The institute, functioning under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, was brought under the jurisdiction of the Department of Science and Technology in 1985 with the efforts of Raja Ramanna and Sreekantan, when it was made an autonomous institution.[1] He was a member of the governing council of the institute from 1988 till 2007, a total of 19 years, of which 15 years from 1992, he served as the chairman of the council.[1] It was during his tenancy as the chairman, the institute set up the Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) at Hanle, Ladakh at an altitude of 14000 ft.[31] He is also credited with assisting Ramanath Cowsik with the establishment of a new campus for IIA at Hoskote in Karnataka and in the construction of housing for the staff of the institute.[1]

Sreekantan served as the visiting professor at the

Ayurvedic medicine company[33] founded by his father.[34] Much of his later scientific work involved the study of the phenomenon of consciousness and its relationship with the physical sciences.[35][36]

Awards and honours

Sreekantan was an elected fellow of four major science academies in India; the

Royal Society of London.[4] One more award reached him in 1978, the Homi Bhabha Medal from the Indian National Science Academy.[5]

Four years later, the Indian Physics Association awarded Sreekantan the

Sir M. Visvesvaraya Senior Scientist State Award in 2004.[1]

Selected bibliography

Scientific publications

Books

Articles

General publications

Books

Articles

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Directly quoted from source
  2. ^ Directly quoted from source
  3. ^ Please see Selected bibliography – Scientific publications section
  4. ^ Please see Selected bibliography - General publications section

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q P. C. Agarwal (May 2015). "A versatile and humane scientist" (PDF). Current Science. 108 (9): 1731.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Profile of a Scientist". 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  3. ^ "Indian Astronomical Union profile". Indian Astronomical Union. 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d "Brief Resume – B V Sreekantan" (PDF). National Institute of Advanced Studies. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  5. ^ a b c "Indian Fellow". Indian National Science Academy. 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  6. ^ "NASI Fellows". National Academy of Sciences, India. 2015. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  7. ^ "B V Sreekantan 1925–2019". 10 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Faculty". National Institute of Advanced Studies. 2015. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Prof. B.V. Sreekantan". Cortona India. 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  10. ^ "Homi Bhabha's Legacy". Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. 15 January 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  11. ^ "ISRO to launch Astrosat in 2015". The Hindu. 24 February 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  12. ^ P. C. Agarwal (May 2015). "A versatile and humane scientist 2" (PDF). Current Science. 108 (9): 1733.
  13. ^ Markandeya, Virat (14 April 2017). "Counting muons amid the 'shola' forests". Mint. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  14. ISBN 9783540769415
    .
  15. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/6/7/027
    .
  16. ^ "Past Faculty". NIAS. 2015. Archived from the original on 5 January 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  17. ^ "Is Vacuum Biology the future of Life Sciences?". YouTube. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  18. ISBN 978-0198064497
    .
  19. ISBN 9788132215875
    .
  20. ISBN 978-9814612463. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  21. ISBN 978-81-7986-074-8
    .
  22. OCLC 40516567
    .
  23. ^ "On ResearchGate". 23 November 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  24. ^ "Browse by Fellow". Indian Academy of Sciences. 6 December 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  25. OCLC 501394980
    .
  26. OCLC 866635850.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  27. OCLC 886539946
    .
  28. ^ "Indian Institute of Astrophysics – A Brief History". Indian Institute of Astrophysics. 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  29. ^ "M. K. Vainu Bappu". IIA. 2015. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  30. ^ "Overview". IIA. 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  31. ^ "Present Fellows – IAS". Indian Academy of Sciences. 10 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  32. ^ "Nanjangud tooth powder usage on decline, toothpaste in the offing". Times of India. 24 December 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  33. ^ "Sadvaidyasala". Sadvaidyasala. 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  34. ^ "Physics and Consciousness". NIAS. 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  35. ^ "Prof. B. V. Sreekantan, Governing Council – TERI Prakriti School". teriprakritischool.org. 21 May 2018. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  36. ^ "IAS Fellows". Indian Academy of Sciences. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  37. ^ "INSA Year Book 2016" (PDF). Indian National Science Academy. 9 December 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  38. ^ "NASI Year Book 2015" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 24 November 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  39. ^ "IIA Fellows". Indian Institute of Astrophysics. 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  40. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 19 May 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2018. Alt URL
  41. ^ "Karnataka Rajyothsava 1998" (PDF). Government of Karnataka. 19 May 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  42. OCLC 610404778
    .

Further reading

External links
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