Maharajapuram Seetharaman Krishnan (24 August 1898 – 24 April 1970) was an Indian

Geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

. He was the first Indian to serve as the Director of the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

Early years

Krishnan was born on 24 August 1898 in

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore,#Pletcher, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian c ...

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. After school education in Tanjore, he continued his studies in St.Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli. He graduated with B.A. Honours in

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

from the Presidency College,

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

, in 1919, undertook post-graduate training and research with ARCS (Associate-ship of Royal College of Science) Scholarship at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

in 1921 and received his Diploma of Imperial College (DIC) in 1923 and in 1924, he was awarded the

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree from London University.

Career

For two years after receiving his honours degree, Dr. Krishnan was employed as Demonstrator in Geology at

Presidency College, Madras Presidency College is an art, commerce, and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. On 16 October 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School before being repurposed as a high school, and then a gra ...

. He was appointed as Assistant Superintendent (

) in the superior service in the

and joined the department in December 1924 where Dr. Krishnan worked alongside Lewis Fermor, C. S. Fox, J. A. Dunn, Alexander M. Heron, H. C. Jones, and J. B. Auden. In 1943, he was promoted as superintending geologist and was posted as director for newly formed Indian Bureau of Mines. He left the post in February, 1951 to become permanent director (The first Indian to occupy it) of

. After four years he was transferred to New Delhi as Mineral Adviser and Ex-Officio Joint Secretary to the Government of India (Ministry of Scientific Research) in August, 1955. In April, 1957 he was transferred to

Indian School of Mines The Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad is a public technical university located in Dhanbad, India. IIT Dhanbad is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in India. Indian Institute of Technology Dha ...

as its first director to organize the expanded courses in mining and newly started course in Applied Geophysics and Petroleum Technology. He worked on stratigraphic mapping in Gangpur, Bonai, Bamra and Keonjar (parts of present Orissa State) and identified the 'Gangpur Series' published in GSI Memoir 71 (1937). He also worked on minerals of economic importance including iron, manganese ores, gypsum, mica, limestone and published his studies in the GSI Memoir 80 (1952). He also worked on the rocks of Girnar and the Osham hills of Saurashtra (now in Gujarat), lateritization of the peculiar

metasedimentary In geology, metasedimentary rock is a type of metamorphic rock. Such a rock was first formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occu ...

rocks called

khondalite Khondalite is a foliated metamorphic rock. In India, it is also called ''Bezwada Gneiss'' and ''Kailasa Gneiss''. It was named after the Khond tribe of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh because well-formed examples of the rock were found in the inha ...

, the mineral resources of former Central Provinces and Berar (now forming parts of Madhya Pradesh), the geology of the Vindhyan formations of northern India, the Deccan traps, the Tertiaries of Tanjore (Tamil Nadu), and made observations on mythical rivers such as the Indobrahm and Saraswathi. He taught geology at the

(1920–21), Forest College, Dehra Dun (1928–30) and the

Presidency College, Calcutta Presidency University, formerly Presidency College, is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. Established in 1817 as the ''Hindoo College'', it was later renamed ''Presidency College'' in 1855 and functioned as a leadi ...

(1933–35). At the suggestion of Cyril S. Fox of the

(GSI) he decided to work on a book on Indian stratigraphy. This resulted in the publication of ''Geology of India and Burma'' in 1943 and the ''Introduction to Geology of India'' in 1944. The first book has gone through 6 editions and has also been translated into Russian. Krishnan served as the Director of Indian Bureau of Mines (New Delhi) from 1948 to 1951, Director of the GSI, Director of

, Dhanbad, during 1957–58, Head of the Geology and Geophysics Department,

Andhra University Andhra University is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. It is graded as an A++ institution by NAAC receiving a score of 3.74 on a scale of 4. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Mah ...

Waltair Visakhapatnam (; formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous metropolitan city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is between the Eastern Ghats and the coast of t ...

from 1958 to 1960, and helped found the

National Geophysical Research Institute The National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) is a geoscientific research organization established in 1961 under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's largest Research and Development organization. It is suppo ...

, Hyderabad, of which he was the director between 1961 and 1963. He received the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

in January 1970 from President S. Radhakrishnan.

References

External links

Geology of India and Burma 1949 (second edition)The Shaping of Indian Science: 1948-1981, pp 768-769

Early years

Career

References

External links

Further reading