Kalipada Biswas
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Kalipada Biswas (3 December 1899 – 29 December 1969) was an Indian
botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
who specialized in the
algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
of the Indian region and worked at the Calcutta Botanical Garden, becoming its first Indian director and heading it from 1937 to 1955.


Early life and education

Biswas was born in Calcutta to Shri and Sarada Prasad Biswas and grew up at Beltala, studying at the Mitra Institution, Bhowanipur where he was a contemporary of
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Syama Prasad Mookerjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian barrister, educationist, politician, activist, social worker, and a minister in the state and national governments. Noted for his opposition to Quit India movement within the ...
. He was among the first group of students at
Bangabasi College Bangabasi College is a Kolkata-based liberal arts, commerce and sciences college. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses of the University of Calcutta. It was founded by Girish Chandra Bose, an educationist, social reformer and agric ...
, which he graduated from in 1920. He studied under S.P. Agharkar, S.N. Bal, S.C. Banerjee and G.C. Bose. Biswas graduated with an M.A. in Botany in 1922 from the University College of Science and Technology in Kolkata. He was recognized for being first in his class with the University Gold Medal.


Career

He became interested in the algae through the influence of Paul Johannes Brühl and began to examine algae from various waterbodies including Salt Lake and Chilka. He was appointed curator of the
herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...
at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Calcutta in 1927. In 1936, he was sent to Europe and worked at the
Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...
and
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...
and in the Natural History Department of the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. There, he studied at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
under Sir
William Wright Smith Sir William Wright Smith (2 February 1875 Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire – 15 December 1956) was a Scottish botanist and horticulturalist. Life He was born at Parkend farm near Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire, the son of James T. Smith, a farmer. He was ...
He received a DSc from the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
in 1937. He returned to India to and was assigned as Director of the
Botanical Survey of India Botanical Survey of India (BSI) is a governmental research institution in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was founded on 13 February 1890 during British Raj in India and now is under the Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest an ...
. He is credited as a leader in reviving and reorganizing the Botanical Survey of India. He was the first Indian to publish original findings on
diatoms A diatom (Neo-Latin ''diatoma'') is any member of a large group comprising several Genus, genera of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of Earth's B ...
and iron bacteria of India. After retiring from the Botanical Garden he became a director of the medical plants scheme of the West Bengal Government in 1954. From 1955 -1956 he was Chairman, Medicinal Plants Committee-member of the Executive Council, Central Indian Medicinal Plants Organization and National Botanic Gardens, Lucknow. He retired in December 1964 but continued to work as an emeritus scientist at the
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...
. He was awarded the Elliot Gold Medal and Prize in 1928 and again in 1936; the Coronation Medal in 1937 for meritorious service in the Royal Botanical Garden and at the Herbarium; the Paul Johannes Briihl Memorial Medal in 1952 for the best research work in Systematic Botany; the Rabindranath Prize in Science in 1951-52 and the Barclay Memorial Medal in 1969. Biswas wrote numerous papers on botany and botanical history. He considered ''Ficus krishnae'' as a mutant variety of ''Ficus bengalensis''. Many of his botanical collections, including from Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur, Orissa, Bihar, Sikkim and South Burma are now housed at the Central National Herbarium in Calcutta.


Personal life

Biswas had a wife, two sons and two daughters. One daughter passed away before Biswas. His sons both went onto academic positions—Sanat Biswas became a Professor at Bengal Engineering College and Dr. Sanjib Kumar Biswas was a geologist at the Oil and Natural Gas Commission. Biswas was a life member of the
Himalayan Club The Himalayan Club is an organization founded in India in 1928 along the lines of the Alpine Club (UK), Alpine Club. The stated mission of the organization was "to encourage and assist Himalayan travel and exploration, and to extend knowledge of ...
for nearly 30 years and died at his residence on 29 December 1969 at the age of 70.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biswas, Kalipada 20th-century Indian botanists 1899 births 1969 deaths Scientists from Kolkata