Prof. Srikumar Banerjee : Scientist and Administrator Par Excellence - A Tribute.

This morning I woke up to a tragic message that was posted by Dr Jayaraman, Retired Nuclear Scientist BARC, in the National Centre for Science Communicators WhatsApp group. He posted the news of the sudden demise of Dr Sreekumar Banerjee, former Chairman Department of Atomic Energy and Secretary Atomic Energy Commission, Government of India. Dr Banerjee was an outstanding material science scientist and an equally outstanding administrator with an unparalleled simplicity, who headed the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and so also the Department of Atomic Energy. He was a pillar of strength for the NCSC, more particularly because he had majorly supported the Nehru Science Centre and NCSC in organising two recent mega conferences - a conference on recent trends in Nuclear Energy to commemorate the 80th birth anniversary of Dr R Chidambaram and another mega conference - Centenary Tribute conference to the father of space programs in India - Dr Vikram Sarabhai. These two conferences were organised jointly by the NCSC with the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and the later one day conference was successfully organised at our Centre - Nehru Science Centre in 2019. Dr Sreekumar Banerjee, not only helped us with the financial support for the conference but he also delivered an outstanding lecture on the occasion. 

Just before this conference, the Nehru Science Centre was the venue for the mega opening of the Vigyan Samagam Exhibition, which was jointly organised by the DAE, DST and NCSM. Dr Banerjee was among several distinguished dignitaries who were present for the inaugural function of this extraordinary exhibition, which show cased seven frontiers of science and technology mega science projects in which India is a partner and most of these projects are supported and funded by DAE, of which Dr Sreekumar Banerjee was the head

The death of Dr Srikumar Banerjee, in a way is a travesty of justice. Dr Banerjee and his wife were affected by the Covid pandemic and were both admitted to the hospital in March this year. Just last month, my friend Pallav Bagla had conducted an interview with Dr Srikumar Banerjee and his wife on their experience of Covid and how they recovered from the Covid infection, which had forced them to be admitted in the hospital. Dr Banerji spoke in his inimitable style and credited the medical doctors and all other health workers at the hospital for his recovery and his interview was so motivational to most people who were so afraid of the Covid pandemic and so also it’s fear and the unending worries of fatalities. His personal experience of how, helped by Indian health workers, one can win over Covid was truly inspirational particularly in times of dime a dozen fear mongering information that has flooded the social media. Dr Banerjee and his wife had completely recovered from Covid and suddenly this news of his untimely death came as a shock to most people. Dr Banerjee suffered a massive heart attack early this morning at 3 AM on 23rd May, 2021, at the Fortis Hospital, where he was admitted. Unfortunately, he could not survive the heart attack and this news spread thick and fast and reached us around 7 AM.

The Nehru science Centre has been very fortunate to have hosted the lectures and interactions of most of the top notch nuclear scientists of the country including Dr Banerjee, particularly in the recent past. I am reminded of at least three recent programs at our Centre where Dr Banerjee not only supported our Centre but also delivered lectures and interacted with students. As recently as October 2019, Dr Banerjee was a pillar of strength and support for the Nehru science Centre and the NCSC who joined hands to organise the centenary conference in memory of Vikram Sarabhai. Such a massive conference and that too involving the best of scientists and administrators of the country and so also the famed daughter of Dr Sarabhai - Mallika Sarabhai, could never have been made possible without the patronage, mentoring and financial support of Dr Srikumar Banerjee, for whom we remain eternally grateful. 

Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, was born on April 25, 1946 and a precocious student that he was, Prof Banerjee joined the prestigious IIT Kharagpur for his BTech in Metallurgical Engineering, which he completed in 1967. In the same year he was selected for the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, which he joined in August 1967, as a Scientific Officer in the Metallurgy Division. Dr Banerjee subsequently completed his PhD from IIT, Kharagpur. Dr Banerjee has made significant contribution to phase transformation and structure-property correlations in titanium, zirconium and shape-memory alloys. His contributions to devitrification in zirconium base glasses have been highly creative. His work on irradiation-induced order-disorder transformation and phase separation in nickel-molybdenum alloys is considered to be highly original at BARC. Dr Banerjee went onto hold several important positions of research at the BARC with which he continued to be associated until his last. He became Head, Metallurgy Division, and the Associate Director, Materials Group. Dr Banerjee was recognised for his contributions and made the Director, BARC in 2004. During his tenure as the Director of BARC, he established an internationally recognized research group on Phase Transformation at BARC. As Director, BARC, he organised research in Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Design of Innovative Reactors, Applications of Radiation and Isotope Technology in Agriculture, Health Care, and Food Preservation and Industry. Dr Banerjee went on to become the Chairman, DAE and Secretary to the Atomic Energy Commission, Government of India. He was involved in both the nuclear programs of the DAE in 1974 and 1998. He was also a very passionate teacher, who has taught Physical Metallurgy, Materials Characterization and Mechanical Behaviour of Materials in the BARC Training School, and has supervised 10 scientists for the Ph D degree. 

His interest in education resulted in the development of the CBS, a DAE and Mumbai University joint project, which was founded among others by Prof Shrikumar Banerjee, Prof SM Chitre and others. Prof Banerjee has also held visiting positions at University of Sussex, Brighton, UK (1978-79), Max-Planck Institut for Metallforschung-Institute fur Physik, Stuttgart, Germany (1979-80), and University of Cincinnati, USA (1992), The Ohio State University, and Forschungszentrum, Juelich, Germany. True to his outstanding contributions, Dr Banerjee has won several coveted awards and recognitions and some of the important awards and recognition that he was won include ; INSA Young Scientist Medal (1976); National Metallurgists' Day award (1981); SS Bhatnagar Prize in Engg. Sciences (1989); Materials Research Society of India (MRSI) Medal (1990); GD Birla Gold Medal of the Indian Institute of Metals (1997); INSA Prize for Materials Science (2001); MRSI Superconductivity and Materials Science Prize (2003); Indian Nuclear Society Award (2003); MRSI Distinguished Materials Scientist of the Year Award (2008); Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT, Kharagpur (2005), and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by the Burdwan University (2005). Dr Banerjee was also conferred with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India in the year 2005. He has also been recognised globally and some such recognitions which he received include Acta Metallurgica Outstanding Paper Award (1984) and Humboldt Research Prize (2004). 

Dr Banerjee is a Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Banglaore, National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (MASc) and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).

Last year the Covid Pandemic also took away another great Nuclear Scientist, Dr Sekhar Basu, who succumbed to the Covid Pandemic in September 2020 and now we have lost Dr Sreekumar Banerjee. In his demise India has lost a great son who along with his colleague scientists at BARC and DAE have helped the nation to pride itself in technological excellence including the nuclear deterrence that we now posses that has made the world to look at us in equal measures with those of the developed nations. 

I join the grieving scientific community in expressing our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of Dr Banerjee and praying for his noble soul to rest in eternal peace in the heavenly abode, which will now be home to Prof. Banerjee.

Om Shanti.