Mihir Kanti Chaudhuri

Mihir Kanti Chaudhuri (21 July 1947 – 13 December 2024) was an Indian inorganic chemist and a vice-chancellor of Tezpur University. He is known for his studies on the synthesis of dioxygen complexes and fluorine compounds of metals and non metals and was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1989, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Biography

M. K. Chaudhuri, born on 21 July 1947 in the northeast Indian state of Assam, obtained a master's degree from Kalyani University before securing his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1973. In May 2007, he was appointed the vice chancellor of Tezpur University. On completion of his five-year term, he was reappointed the vice-chancellor in 2012 and held the position until May 2017.

Chaudhuri's researches have been focused on the synthesis of dioxygen complexes and fluorine compounds of metals and non-metals. He has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals and Indian Academy of Sciences have listed 88 of them in their online repository. Under his leadership, Tezpur University have developed into a major centre of learning in India and received the Visitor's Award for the Best University from the President of India in 2016. He has been associated with the Department of Science and Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the University Grants Commission of India as well as the state and union government bodies as an expert committee member and has organized many refresher courses and seminars at the university and outside. He was also a member of the Indo-US Higher Education Dialogue of 2014 and the Inspire program on Mathematics of the Department of Science and Technology.

Chaudhuri died on 13 December 2024, at the age of 77.

Awards and honors The Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as their fellow in 1988 He became an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy in 1991 and received P. Natrajan Endowment Award in 1998. He is also a recipient of the Chemito Award (2002) and S. S. Sandhu Award of Indian Chemical Society (2005).

Selected bibliography