Sadhan Basu

Sadhan Basu FNA, FASc, FRSC (2 January 1922 – 5 October 1992) was an Indian physical chemist, academic and the Palit Professor of Chemistry at the University of Calcutta from 1964 to 1985. He was known for his elucidation of the Quantum Mechanical Model of Robert S. Mulliken. His article, Degree of Polymerization and Chain Transfer in Methyl Methacrylate, co-authored with Jyotirindra Nath Sen and Santi R. Palit was the first published Indian article on polymer chemistry. He was an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemical Society of France, Indian Chemical Society, 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 1962, for his contributions to chemical sciences.

Biography Basu was born on 2 January 1922 He then conducted research into the properties of shellac at the Indian Lac Research Institute (now the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums) under the supervision of noted chemist Prafulla Kumar Bose (1898-1983), for which he earned a D.Sc. from the Rajabazar Science College, Calcutta University in 1948. One of the pioneers of polymer chemistry in India, his studies were primarily in the fields of charge transfer interactions, ligand field spectra, hydrogen bonding, quantum chemistry and photochemistry. Focusing on the detection and analysis of the charge transfer band of molecular complexes and through experimental assignment of its vibrational structure, he supported the quantum mechanical model of the complexes originally propounded by Robert S. Mulliken, the winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In order to determine the -NH2 group in nylon, he developed a methodology which has since been accepted as a standard industrial procedure. He calculated the transition energies and oscillator strengths of aromatic polyhydrocarbons using the gas model prescribed by Shin'ichirō Tomonaga in 1950. He thus demonstrated that extended catacondensed planar structures could be derived only by using 3-4-6 membered rings and employing the Hartree-Fock and Bogolyubov methods, illustrated that, unlike triplet transitions, the longest wavelength singlet transitions in linear polyenes converge to a limit. He was associated with the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, the Indian Journal of Chemistry and the Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy as their associate editor. He mentored a number of students in their doctoral research.

During 1961-62, Basu was a visiting professor at Indiana University Bloomington and was subsequently (1962–63) a visiting professor in the quantum chemistry group at the University of Uppsala. the chair of which he held until his superannuation and retirement. He also served as the head of the university's chemistry department from 1978 to 1980. He also served the Indian National Science Academy council during 1982-84 as a member. Basu retired from the University of Calcutta in 1985,

Awards and honors The Indian National Science Academy elected Basu as a fellow in 1962 and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1965. A UGC National Professor during 1972–73, he became an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1975. The contributors included Jack Simons, Debashis Mukherjee, Werner Kutzelnigg and George G. Hall among others. The Indian National Science Academy has instituted an annual oration, Professor Sadhan Basu Memorial Lecture in his honor and the University of Kolkata recognizes excellence in research in chemistry each year by an annual award, the Professor Sadhan Basu Memorial Award.