Animesh Chakravorty
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,
FASc (born 30 June 1935) is a
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
Indian
inorganic chemist
Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two discipl ...
. In 1975, he was awarded the
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in chemistry by the
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the l ...
.
Early life and education
The eldest of six children, Chakravorty was born in
Mymensingh
Mymensingh ( bn, ময়মনসিংহ) is the capital of Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh. Located on the bank of Brahmaputra River, about north of the national capital Dhaka, it is a major financial center and educational hub of north ...
to Dr. Jogendra Chandra Chakravorty, a general practitioner and eye specialist, and his wife Tarubala.
From an early age, his father inspired him towards a scientific career. Chakravorty received his early education in the city's Edward School, followed by studies at the Mrityunjoy School. Following the independence and partition of India, his family remained in what had become the
Pakistani province of
East Bengal
ur,
, common_name = East Bengal
, status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan
, p1 = Bengal Presidency
, flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg
, s1 = East ...
until 1949, when they left Mymensingh for
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
.
Chakravorty completed his secondary education at the
Mitra Institution
Mitra Institution (Main) is one of the heritage schools of Kolkata, West Bengal, teaching grades one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education
The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education is the West Bengal state govern ...
and was admitted to the
Scottish Church College
Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in A ...
in 1950, from which he took his Intermediate in Science in 1952, followed by an honours degree in chemistry.
Admitted to the
University College of Science of the
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...
for his master's degree in chemistry, Chakravorty was inspired by new developments in
inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry deals with synthesis and behavior of inorganic and organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subjects of organic chemistry. The distinction between the two disci ...
, including quantum bonding theories and new analytical techniques such as spectroscopy. After completing his master's degree in 1957, he taught undergraduate chemistry at
Maharaja Manindra Chandra College
Maharaja Manindra Chandra College is an undergraduate college in North Kolkata, India, established in 1941, at 20 Ramkanta Bose Street, Kolkata - 700003. It is affiliated under the University of Calcutta.
It shares premises with Maharaja Sris ...
and at
Vidyasagar College. Joining the research group of noted polymer chemist
Sadhan Basu for his doctorate, under Basu's supervision Chakravorty determined the single-crystal spectra of certain complexes of copper, nickel and chromium in polarized visible light and interpreted the spectra in terms of
ligand field theory. Chakravorty and Basu published their findings in three papers in ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' and the ''
Journal of Chemical Physics'' during 1959–60;
the two communications in ''Nature'' concerned tetragonal copper complexes, while the communication in the ''Journal of Chemical Physics'' discussed the spectra of chromium ''tris''-acetylacetone. The papers formed the basis of Chakravorty's dissertation, for which he received his Ph.D. in 1961.
After submitting his dissertation, Chakravorty conducted some independent studies with a fellow classmate, a doctoral candidate in colloid chemistry, resulting in a paper on charge-transfer spectra of gold complexes which was published in the ''Journal of Chemical Physics''.
The gold for the research came from broken ornaments donated by his mother.
Career
Offered postdoctoral fellowships by
Geoffrey Wilkinson at
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
and by Wilkinson's student
F. Albert Cotton
Frank Albert Cotton FRS (April 9, 1930 – February 20, 2007) was an American chemist. He was the W.T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University. He authored over 1600 scientific articles. C ...
at
MIT, Chakravorty joined Cotton's research group in late September 1961, in which he researched solution stability constants and structures of 3D metal complexes of imidazole derivatives. The following year, upon the suggestion of Cotton, he moved to
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
for a second postdoc with Cotton's student
Richard H. Holm
Richard Hadley Holm (September 24, 1933 – February 15, 2021), was an American Inorganic chemistry, inorganic chemist.
Biography
A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Holm received his Bachelor of Science, B.S. from the University of Massachusett ...
; as Holm's only postdoc, he worked on stereo-labile nickel complexes.
In December 1964, he joined the faculty of the
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where he and his research group studied synthetic and stereochemical
problems of new types of complexes, and were soon noted for specializing in redox phenomena and oxidation-state manipulation. Eventually appointed head of chemistry at IIT Kanpur, Chakravorty joined the
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) in Kolkata as head of inorganic chemistry in June 1977.
Over the following three decades, beginning with
Akhil Ranjan Chakravarty
Akhil Ranjan Chakravarty (born 1953) is an Indian organic chemist and a professor at the department of inorganic and physical chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his researches on reactivity and bonding in multicentered ...
, he guided 58 doctoral students, including after his formal retirement from IACS as an emeritus professor in 2000; his last doctoral student submitted his dissertation in 2006.
Chakravorty has published over 300 research papers, 20 review articles and several chapters.
Prizes and honours
*
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology
*
TWAS Prize
This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).
Summary
Agricultural Sciences
Biology
Chemistry
Earth Sciences
Engineering Sciences
Mathematics
Medical Sc ...
*
Honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
, DSc honoris causa,
University of Burdwan
*
Indian National Science Academy Golden Jubilee Research Professorship
References
External links
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chakravorty, Animesh
1935 births
Living people
Scottish Church College alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
University of Calcutta faculty
IIT Kanpur faculty
Texas A&M University faculty
Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Science
Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy
20th-century Indian chemists
Scientists from Kolkata
TWAS laureates
People from Mymensingh