Nirmal Kumar Dutta

Nirmal Kumar Dutta (1913–1982) was an Indian pharmacologist, medical academic and the director of Haffkine Institute, Mumbai. He was known for his contributions to the studies on cholera and was an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India and the Indian National Science Academy. 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 for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 1965.

Biography

N. K. Dutta, born on 1 December 1913 in the Indian state of West Bengal, did his graduate studies in medicine at Calcutta Medical College of the University of Calcutta and after earning an MBBS, moved to Oxford University for his higher studies from where he secured a DPhil in 1949. and he used the classical biotype, Inaba serotype, V. cholerae strain 569B for the first time, which is being followed today. He also developed a methodology for the evaluation of vaccines and antiserum and was known to have proposed therapeutic protocols for treating cholera. He documented his researches by way of several medical papers published in peer-reviewed journals and his work has been cited by a number of authors and researchers.

Dutta was associated with the World Health Organization, serving as a member of their Experts' Panel in Bacterial Diseases and Cholera. In between, the Indian National Science Academy elected him as a fellow in 1963; INSA would honor him again with the Shree Dhanwantari Prize in 1981. He was also a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and the National Academy of Medical Sciences.

Selected bibliography