Srikumar Banerjee (25 April 1946 – 23 May 2021) was an Indian
metallurgical engineer. He retired as the chairman of the
Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) and the secretary of
Department of Atomic Energy
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) (IAST: ''Paramāṇu Ūrjā Vibhāga'') is a department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 by a Presidential Order. DAE has been engaged in the development of nucl ...
(DAE) on 30 April 2012. Prior to his stint as DAE chairman, he was the director of
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) from 30 April 2004 to 19 May 2010. He had also served as a DAE Homi Bhabha Chair Professor at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. He was known as a great physical metallurgist.
Banerjee died during the early morning of 23 May 2021, from a heart attack at his residence in Navi Mumbai. He had recovered from COVID-19 in previous month.
Education
In 1967, Banerjee obtained a
B.Tech degree with honours in metallurgical engineering from the
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Thereafter, he underwent training at the Training School of BARC. He joined the erstwhile
Metallurgy
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 sc ...
Division of BARC in 1968 and spent his entire scientific career in this establishment. On the basis of the work carried out by him in the first few years of his career in BARC, he was awarded the
Ph.D. degree in
metallurgical engineering by IIT, Kharagpur, in 1974.
Banerjee held visiting positions overseas which include the
University of Sussex, Brighton, England,
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
,
University of Cincinnati and the
Ohio State University, USA (as Visiting Faculty).
Honors and recognition
Banerjee was awarded the
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Engineering Science (1989) and
Government of India’s civilian award,
Padma Shri, in 2005.
In 2010, the
University of Calcutta awarded him an
honorary Doctor of Science degree.
Banerjee was a Fellow of
Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore,
National Academy of Sciences, India, Allahabad, and the
Indian National Academy of Engineering.
Banerjee was DAE Homi Bhabha Chair Professor, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. He was appointed the Chairman, Board of Governors of
IIT Kharagpur from 21 March 2014, for a period of three years.
References
External links
Honoris Causa of IIT KharagpurDr. Srikumar Banerjee takes over as AEC chairmanDr Srikumar Banerjee appointed as CUK ChancellorBARC publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Srikumar
1946 births
2021 deaths
Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering
Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Science
IIT Kharagpur alumni
Indian metallurgists
Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India
Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences
20th-century Indian engineers
Fellows of the Indian National Academy of Engineering
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India