Dipankar Banerjee (born 15 February 1952) is an Indian physical metallurgist, materials engineer and a former chief controller of R&D at the

Defence Research and Development Organization The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, headqua ...

(DRDO). Known for his studies on

titanium alloys Titanium alloys are alloys that contain a mixture of titanium and other chemical elements. Such alloys have very high tensile strength and toughness (even at extreme temperatures). They are light in weight, have extraordinary corrosion resistance ...

, Banerjee is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies namely

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

and

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows * Suddhasatwa Bas ...

as well as the

Indian National Academy of Engineering The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) was founded in 1987. It consists of India's engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. The academy is registered under the Socie ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 1993. He received the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

from the Government of India in 2005.

Biography

Born on 15 February 1952, Dipankar Banerjee graduated in

metallurgical engineering Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

from the

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a Public university, public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institutes of ...

in 1974. After gaining a master's degree, he pursued his doctoral studies at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

(IISc) to earn a PhD in 1979. His post-doctoral work was at the Aeronautical Research and Development Board of India of the

(DRDO) as a research fellow and after completing the work, he started his career at the

Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is a research laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Located in Defence Research Complex, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad. It is responsible for the development and manufa ...

(DMRL) of DRDO in 1979. He became the director of DMRL in 1996 and held the position until 2003 when he was appointed as the chief controller of research and development of DRDO, overseeing the aeronautical and materials programs of the organization. In 2010, he returned to his alma mater, the IISc, as a professor at the Department of Materials Engineering and heads the ''Processing, Structure and Properties of Materials Laboratory'' (PSPM) as its group leader. During this period, he had several stints on research assignments in the US which included those at the Carnegie Mellon University, the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

and the

General Electric Research Laboratory General Electric Research Laboratory was the first industrial research facility in the United States. Established in 1900, the lab was home to the early technological breakthroughs of General Electric and created a research and development environ ...

. He is a former chair of the research council of the National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science and Technology and the incumbent chair of the research council of Central Glass and Ceramics Research Institute of CSIR and the Gas Turbine Materials (GTMAP) program of the Aeronautics Research and Development Board of DRDO. He is a former president and the incumbent member of the council of the

Indian Institute of Metals Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) was formed in Kolkata in 1946 under the leadership of Dr. Dara P. Antia, who was then Chief Metallurgist of Hindalco Industries, Indian Aluminum Co. The IIM is over 60 years old premier professional Metallurgical ...

and sits in the governing board of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The memberships of the board of governors of

Mishra Dhatu Nigam Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (abbreviated as MIDHANI) is a metals and metal alloys manufacturing facility in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It operates as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the administrative control of the Department of Def ...

and the strategic advisory committee of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America were some of his other past assignments.

Legacy

Banerjee, whose research has been focusing on the structure and properties of

titanium alloy Titanium alloys are alloys that contain a mixture of titanium and other chemical elements. Such alloys have very high tensile strength and toughness (even at extreme temperatures). They are light in weight, have extraordinary corrosion resistance ...

s, is known to have made significant contributions in the field of the physical metallurgy of titanium aluminides and his studies are reported to have assisted in developing alloy systems for high-temperature applications such as those in gas turbine engines. The group led by him employed advanced

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing i ...

techniques to study the physical metallurgy of the alloys and was successful in discovering the Ti2AlNb phase which eventually helped other scientists in developing a new generation of alloys. During his days at DMRL, he contributed to initiating programs like the development of special naval steels for use in aircraft carriers and titanium alloys for aircraft engines. Later, at the research and development division of DRDO, he was instrumental in introducing programs in airborne electronic warfare, unmanned vehicle and airborne early warning systems. His studies have been documented in a number of articles;

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

and

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

, online repositories of scientific articles, have listed 141 and 109 of them respectively.

Awards and honors

Banerjee received the Metallurgist of the Year Award of the

and the Scientist of the Year award of the Defence Research and Development Organization in 1987. The

awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards in 1993. He received the Superconductivity Prize of the Materials Research Society of India in 2001, followed by the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2003. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honor of the

in 2005 and three years later, he received the Technology Leadership Award of the DRDO in 2008. The

selected him for the Professor Jai Krishna Memorial Award in 2011 and he was chosen for the Lifetime Achievement Award of the DRDO in 2014. Banerjee, who has held the J. C. Bose National Fellowship of the Science and Engineering Research Board, was elected by the

as their fellow in 1992. The

followed suit in 1995 with an elected fellowship and the third of the major Indian science academies, the

elected him as a fellow in 2001. In between, he also received the elected fellowship of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 1999.

Selected bibliography

* * *

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Dipankar Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Science 1952 births Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Indian metallurgists Scientists from West Bengal 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the National Academy of Sciences, India Living people Indian materials scientists Fellows of the Indian National Academy of Engineering Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering IIT Madras alumni Indian Institute of Science alumni Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science Fellows of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society