Sethunathasarma Krishnaswami

Sethunathasarma Krishnaswami (21 May 1945 – 20 July 2015), popularly known as Swami, was an Indian geochemist and an honorary scientist at the geosciences division of the Physical Research Laboratory. He was known for his studies on low temperature geochemistry and was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, The World Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, American Geophysical Union, Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemistry. 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 Earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary Sciences in 1984.

Biography

Krishnaswami, born on 21 May 1945 in Thiruvananthapuram, in the south Indian state of Kerala, did his graduate studies in science at the University College, Thiruvananthapuram of the University of Kerala and on completion of the degree in 1963, he joined Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Training School for a short term training. Subsequently, he joined the geophysics group of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research as a research associate in 1964 where he stayed till 1972. His researches are known to have established the accretion rate and growth history of ocean-floor ferromanganese nodules which he estimated by radionuclide method and the work assisted in the determination of the history of sedimentation in Indian lakes and coastal regions. He applied these methods in estimating the weathering and erosion in the Himalaya and Deccan Traps and for assessing their influence on global change. He served as the vice president of International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (2003–07) and Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research of the International Council for Science (1994–96), as the treasurer of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and as a member of the council of the Indian National Science Academy (2002–04). and Krishnan Medal of the Indian Geophysical Union in 1981. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1984. He was an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies; the Indian Academy of Sciences elected him as a fellow in 1986, followed by Indian National Science Academy in 1989 and the National Academy of Sciences, India in 1992. He became a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences with his election in 2000. He was also a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemistry (2003).

Selected bibliography Books

Articles

Tripathy, Gyana R.; Singh, Sunil K.; Krishnaswami, S. (2011). "Sr and Nd isotopes as tracers of chemical and physical erosion". In: Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry (Ed: M. Baskaran), Advances in Isotope Geochemistry, 521-552, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-10637-8_26.