Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and Member GB, NCSM (1982-90).
An eminent cosmic ray physicist, radio astronomer, and a key member of the project to detect neutrinos - mysterious, charge-less, massless subatomic particles - in the experiments that were conducted by TIFR scientists some 3 Kilometres below the surface of the earth in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Karnataka, and a student cum associate of Dr Homi Jahangir Bhabha, a Padma Bhushan awardee and a recipient of the Rajyotsava Prashasti by the Government of Karnataka, nonagenarian, Badanaval Venkatasubba Sreekantan, left for his heavenly abode on the night of the auspicious Deepavali day - Sunday, 27th October 2019 - in Malleswaram, Bangalore. He was 94 years old.
Sreekantan was among the preeminent scientists of India who made profound contributions to the fundamental research in the field of science while working with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for nearly four decades, including his tenure as its Director for more than a decade. There will be scores of eulogies and tributes penned down by many of his associates, students and admirers, which will touch upon his outstanding scientific contributions. However, I am not sure if any of the tributes to BV Sreekantan will mention his association with our centre - Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). Among his innumerable achievements, Sreekantan’s contribution to the establishment of our centre and his association with the apex science centre/museum body in India, the NCSM, may find a miss in the eulogies that will be written and therefore, I feel it an honour to place on records that Dr Sreekantan was very closely associated with the Nehru Science Centre during its formative years. He held the all-important position of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of our centre for a record two terms (8 Years) from December 1982 to January 1990. During this period, he also served as a member of the Governing Body, NCSM.
The foundational values that were cemented by stalwarts like BV Sreekantan in the formative years of NCSM have resulted in the current respected position that NCSM commands in society particularly in the Ministry of Culture, which almost always depends on NCSM for execution of most of their time committed projects independent of whether such projects pertained to scientific topics or not. It was during the tenure of Dr. BV Sreekantan that one of the pioneers of modern architecture in India, Achyut Kanvinde, was selected and appointed as the architect for the design of the Nehru Science Centre building. The magnificent, castle-like, building that now stands majestically tall in the midst of 12 acres of green ambience in Worli today, owes its genesis, among others, to Dr Sreekantan. It was also during the tenure of Dr Sreekantan that the Nehru Science Centre was inaugurated - on the 11th of November 1985 - by the then Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, in the presence of Narasimha Rao, Dr. Sreekantan, Dr Saroj Ghose, R M Chakraborty and other distinguished dignitaries. It was during the Chairmanship of Sreekantan that the first ever satellite centre of NCSM - the District Science Centre - came up in Dharampur, Gujrat in 1984.
Sreekantan was born on 30th June 1925 into a priestly family to B V Pandit and Laxmi Devi in Nanjangud, a small town, known for centuries-old Srikanteshwara Temple (also called Nanjundeshwara Temple) in the erstwhile princely state of Mysore. Sreekantan was the fifth child among eight brothers and three sisters. B.V. Pandit, father of Sreekantan - a famed Ayurvedic doctor who is credited to be the originator of the famous herbal tooth powder from this town - named his illustrious son - Sreekantan - in reverence to the lord Srikanteshwara. B V Pandit deviated from his family profession of temple priesthood to pursue his Ayurvedic studies and completed his degree and became a ‘Vaidya’ - an Ayurvedic doctor. Apart from Ayurveda, Sreekantan’s father was also proficient in Sanskrit and Vedas. While pursuing his Ayurvedic practice, he developed a special dental powder ‘Nanjangud Tooth Powder’, which continues to remain popular even today. He also produced several other Ayurvedic products like Kasturi pills for stomach ailments and other Ayurvedic preparations, which continue to be popular even today. All this helped the Pandit family flourish in their business, which helped in developing a creative ambience at home. Sreekantan grew up in this creative ambience and was blessed with an intellectually stimulating atmosphere at home. His father had a huge collection of books on diverse subjects including religion, literature, philosophy, liberal arts, mythology, science etc. This atmosphere, very early in life, helped Sreekantan develop a keen interest in reading and writing. It also opened up a new vista to the world of knowledge.
Sreekantan developed an immense interest in science from the early days. He completed his formal high school in Nanjangud and obtained a two-year intermediate degree from Mysore. Influenced by his elder brother, he migrated towards physics and obtained his BSc Physics (Hons.) degree in 1946 and his post-graduation, MSc (Physics) in 1947, with a specialisation in wireless, from Central College, Bangalore. Sreekantan was taught by some of the best and most dedicated teachers in Physics at this college, which he reminisced about during one of his recent interviews. It was during this period that the Central College invited a number of scientists and experts from the Tata Institute and abroad to speak to the students. Homi Bhabha, who was then studying at the Tata Institute, delivered a lecture at the college and his lecture had a great impact on Sreekantan. Immediately after his MSc, Sreekantan joined the Communication Engineering Department of the Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore, as a research scholar. C V Raman was then with the Tata Institute and was facing stiff opposition for ‘patronising’ the Physics department at the cost of others. Frustrated with his humiliation, Sir Raman had almost certainly decided to quit the institute and start his own institute - the Raman Research Institute. Homi Jahangir Bhabha was one of the scientists who had worked with Raman at the Tata Institute and post his theoretical studies on cosmic rays in Cambridge, Bhabha had decided to introduce cosmic rays research at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which he founded with support from his family. Young Sreekantan had heard about the new institute, TIFR, and knowing fully well that the Physics department in the Tata Institute was going through a bad patch, decided to join Bhabha’s team in TIFR in Mumbai.
Sreekantan had attempted to meet Bhabha in Bangalore during one of Bhabha’s visits to the city but had not succeeded. However, he managed to get another opportunity to prove himself when he was called for an interview for a Research Studentship at TIFR, Mumbai. It was on the 6th of August 1948 that Sreekantan was asked to present himself before the selection committee of TIFR in the premises of Kenilworth - the building where TIFR and its founder were born – for the post of Research Studentship. In his application for the post, Sreekantan mentioned ‘Theoretical/ Experimental Physics’ as an area of his interest. He was therefore first examined for his knowledge of physics by a committee that was chaired by Bhabha, which he cleared successfully. Since theoretical physics demanded a fair amount of knowledge in mathematics, Sreekantan was asked to appear before a second committee that consisted of Bhabha, D. D. Kosambi and Levy. He was asked questions on matrices by Levy while Kosambi asked some questions in statistics. After the success of his second interview, Sreekantan was called to Bhabha’s room for the final discussion and it was here that Sreekantan was offered the job and he decided to follow Bhabha’s advice to join the Cosmic Ray department in TIFR.
Sreekantan joined TIFR on 12 August 1948. Thus began his long and eventful four-plus decades of journey in the world of scientific research in TIFR. Sreekantan was one of the first students of TIFR to carry out research in experimental cosmic ray physics. In his long scientific research career, Sreekantan, in the words of PC Agarwal - who wrote an excellent article on Sreekantan in the Living Legends of Indian Science section of Current Science - ‘went on to become that rare scientist whose work ranged from experiments a few kilometres deep underground in a mine - the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) - on cosmic ray particles and proton decay to altitudes up to several hundred kilometres with balloon and rocket-borne detectors to study X-ray emissions from neutron stars and black holes’, a rare feat indeed. Sreekantan had a remarkably successful career at TIFR culminating in his elevation as its Director in January 1975. Sreekantan served as the Director of TIFR for twelve long years (1975 -87) until reaching superannuation in 1987. He steered TIFR with distinction and left behind a rich legacy of cosmic ray physics and astrophysics, new research programmes and the creation of autonomous TIFR Centres, which are located away from the TIFR campus in Colaba namely; Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE, Mumbai), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS Bengaluru), National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA Pune) and TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics (Bengaluru). His simplicity, sense of objectivity and fairness in the treatment of colleagues and other staff, generosity and accessibility to all, firmness when required and decisiveness won him appreciation from every quarter.
During his 39 long years of service at the TIFR, Sreekantan put India on the world map of high-energy physics.
With strong support from Bhabha and MGK Menon, Sreekantan nurtured and built an internationally recognized research group in TIFR, which studied the characteristics of high energy cosmic rays using a variety of detectors at ground level, mountain altitude as well as in deep underground mines. Sreekantan and other scientists’ early experiments in deep Kolar Gold Field (KGF) mines ultimately led to studies of energetic muons at a depth of up to 2760 metres. Failure to detect any cosmic ray-produced muons at this depth suggested the possibility
of detecting interactions of neutrinos in deep rocks in the mines. This ultimately led to the detection of a cosmic ray-produced neutrino event, which was the first of its kind and this finding was published in 1965. This finding paved the way for the TIFR group to undertake the well-known experiment to search for Proton Decay in the decade 1980–90 in the KGF mines. But most unfortunately that was not to be. The experiment by TIFR researchers - Sreekantan and others – on neutrinos warranted funding to the tune of 50 Crores of Rupees, which unfortunately was not forthcoming from the government. As a result, the project had to be shelved and the research in KGF had to be called off in 1990 and the mines of KGF were permanently closed. Had the Government been more indulgent and considered sanctioning the requisite budget, the course of the Nobel Prize in 2002 may have chartered a different story with an Indian name in it. The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2002 was divided, one half jointly to Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos" the very works which Sreekantan and others were wanting to carry out in the KGF, before the two Nobel laureates.
It is however heartening to note that there is a continuation of these efforts now and India has joined the global scientific community in commencing the India-Based Neutrinos Observatory project (INO). In December 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the India-based Neutrino Observatory project, to be built at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. This is a milestone in the frontiers of science research programme which was initiated by Sreekantan at TIFR. INO is the latest in a series of neutrino detectors, neutrino factories and experiments being set up worldwide to promote research in particle physics. The INO project will be coming up at Pottipuram village, in Theni district, near the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. Neutrinos are the smallest particles that form the universe and their study can open new vistas in science.
Sreekantan was conferred with many awards and recognitions, which include among others; Padma Bhushan (1988), the CV Raman Award for Physical Sciences (1977) by UGC, the Homi Bhabha Medal for Physical Sciences (1978) by INSA, the R.D. Birla Memorial Award of Indian Physics Association in 1982 and the Ramanujan award of Indian Science Congress (1989). He was decorated with the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Senior Scientist State Award (2004) and the Rajyotsava Award by the Karnataka Government (1998). He was a UGC National Lecturer in 1978 and received the PMS Blackett Memorial Lecture Award of INSA– Royal Society in 1978. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru (1965); Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (1976); National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad (1989) and Maharashtra Academy of Science. He was President of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and President, of the Physics Section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He served as Vice-Chairman of the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission (1987-93), and a Member of the Atomic Energy Commission (1985-86). He was an Editorial Fellow of the project ‘History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture’ and served as the Chairman of the Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values of Bharti Vidya Bhavan at Bengaluru until his last.
Sreekantan has mentored many scientists in their doctoral research and is the author of over 300 scientific papers. He is also credited with the publication of five books either as the author or editor.
Sreekantan served as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two terms, the first from 1954 to 1955 and subsequently from 1965 to 1967. He was associated with the University of Tokyo as their JSPS visiting professor in 1977 and taught at the University of California at their Irvine and San Diego campuses during 1993-94. He has served as the president of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and the physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He has served as the president of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and the physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He held the post of vice chairman of the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission from 1987 to 1993, sat as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission during 1985-86 and has held the chair of the Research Council of National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. He is a former editorial fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture and chairs the Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. He also served as the chairman of the board of directors of Sadvaidyasala, an Ayurvedic medicine company founded by his father.
Sreekanthan remained academically active until his last and was the visiting professor of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bangalore. I join the nation in general and the scientific community in particular in paying homage to this great son of India and pray for his noble soul to rest in eternal peace.
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